Vellery is a vegetable which is also known as mangalore cucumber. It’s called as southekai in kannada. This recipe is very commonly used to make any vegetables curry using coconut, in south Canara district. Follow the same method, for most of the vegetables like Basale leaf ( malabar spinach) , raw banana etc.
You can use the same recipe to prepare curry without vegetables and only legumes like black eyed pea, moong bean , rajma, chick peas etc. Replace the toor dal with any legume and add ground coconut masala and rest of the method remains same.
Preparation time : 5 minutes
Cooking time : 15 minutes
Ingredients :
- Vellery / mangalore cucumber / southekai – 1 medium sized.
- Toor dal – 1/2 cup
- Onion – 1 medium ( 1/4 th for grinding masala – 3/4 th for cooking)
- Tomato – 1 medium
For grinding :
- Fresh grated coconut – 1.5 cup
- Long dry red chilli( byadagi) – 4
- Coriander seeds – 1 teaspoon
- Garlic – 1 clove
- Turmeric powder – 1/2 teaspoon
- Onion – 1/4 th of medium sized
For tadka :
- Oil – 1 tablespoon
- Mustard seeds – 1 teaspoon
- Curry leaves – few
- Dry red chilli – 1, broken into halves
- Garlic – 3 cloves, slightly crushed
Method :
- Peel off the vellery, remove the seeds, wash and cut into big cubes.
- In a cooker or kadai , add toor dal, 1 cup water and cook till 3/4 th done.
- Meanwhile add all ingredients mentioned under for grinding, and grind to a smooth paste adding little by little water. Keep aside.
- To the partially cooked dal, add 3/4 th onion, tomato, vellery cubes, salt and cook for 6 – 7 minutes ( or 1 whistle on high heat) .
- Then add the ground coconut masala and mix gently. Check the consistency and add water if needed. Simmer the flame, let it boil well for 4- 5 minutes. Then switch off the flame.
- Prepare the tadka and add to the vellery curry.
- Serve hot with steamed rice/ boiled rice or steamed rice dumplings.
Have a look at our Veg curry recipe collection too.
B2D Plate 