Simple Coconut Chutney recipe

Coconut chutney is a quintessential South Indian coconut condiment served with idli, dosa and vada as a dipping sauce. Coconut chutney prepares with coconut, green chillies, garlic, ginger, coriander leaves, mustard seeds, curry leaves and roasted chana dal. By blending grated or shredded coconut, green chillies,roasted chana dal(Bengal gram dal), garlic, ginger, and coriander leaves with a tadka(tempering in oil) of mustard seeds, dry red chillies, curry leaves and hing get this coconut chutney ready. Even Non South Indian people can easily make it at home just following my simple step by step guide.

Like Bangaloreans or other south indians, I am also completely mad about this south indian coconut chutney. Veg pulao to all south Indian rice bath recipes( lemon rice, tomato rice bath, kara bath or chowchow bath etc) how do Bangalore’s most Udupi style cafes serve with this chutney, I love that. I strongly felt that love, when I visited Hyderabad last time, fed up with everywhere having their peanut chutney served with idli, dosa, vada or rich bath.

A Bengali is making South Indian coconut chutney, surprising, right? But after spending 16 years in Bangalore, such South Indian delicacies are common in my kitchen, along with my other Bengali delicacies. However, having a half Bangalorean (my son) at my home, made this job easy for me. As per his wish, always have to make this coconut chutney is my top priority if I prepare idli dosa vada or any type of rice bath. 

Though making this coconut chutney is not very time-consuming. Yet a bit easy to prepare if you already have freshly grated coconut. Or you have someone (meaning a house help) who can grate it for you. I am the first one who generally grates the coconut in my free time and stores it in the fridge. Then I make the chutney within 2-3 days(of grating the coconut). Do not plan to store the grated coconut in the fridge more than 2-3 days . Results coconut gets quite dry and starting to release oil while blending, get a coconut oil smell in the chutney.

Even after making, you can easily store this coconut chutney in the fridge for at least one week. But for this long-term storage, you have to follow some rules. Take the portions (how much you need) from only one side of the container where the chutney is stored, and keep the other portions untouched. That is the way this chutney will last long.

Also Can check other popular chutney recipes

Momo Chutney

Green Chutney for Kabab

Bengali Coriander Chutney

How to make Coconut Chutney step by step

1. First, put the grated coconut in a blender jar with roasted gram, green chillies, ginger, garlic, coriander leaves and salt.
2. Blend them well. For a smooth blending, in between the blending add 3-4 tbsp of water to the the blender jar.
3. Once the ingredients are blended well then transfer them to a bowl. Keep them aside and make the chutney tadka ready.
4. For making this coconut chutney tadka, in a tadka pan, take oil, dry red chillies(broken into 2 pieces), chana dal, hing, curry leaves, mustard seeds and salt. Sauté until the mustard seeds and curry leaves start spluttering.
5. Then add the tadka to the chutney bowl, mix all well and your coconut chutney is ready to eat. Eat with idli, dosa, vada or any rice bath of your choice. Enjoy!

Important Tips

1. If you do not have without skin roasted chana at home. As an alternative, you can use the same amount of sattu(chhatu in Bengali). Even you can use a second possible way is simply dry roast 1 tbsp of chana dal until golden brown. Later cool them down and blend them with other ingredients as described here. The taste will be the same or even better.
2. People from Bangalore or Karnataka, call this roasted dal as fried Kadle bele(chana dal is Kadle bele in Kannada), available in local shops.
3. This chutney is only made with fresh coconut. But if you are making with dry coconut or a packet of coconut milk then the taste would not be the same.
4. Except blending, for tadka you need to use plain non roasted Chana dal.
5. I was hoping you would not add more ginger than I suggested here, otherwise, the taste of the chutney may get bitter.
6. Though this chutney is not spicy, however, I added 3 green chillies as per my taste, and you can add fewer chiles too.

Tips – How to store coconut chutney

1. You can simply store this chutney at least for one week. Keep it in the fridge in an airtight container, not in an uncovered bowl.
2. However, due to storing, chutney will lose its actual moisture. Whether it will be tight or hard after being taken out of the fridge. But no worries, after taking it out of the fridge, add a little bit of water(as per the consistency you need) to it. Mix them well and your chutney will look as fresh as before.
3. For long-term storage, means not using the full chutney at a time. Take the portions(how much you need) from only one side, and keep the other portions untouched. That is the way it will last long. The more portions you touch(but do not use at that moment), generate higher the chances of quickly spoiling the whole chutney, which never lasts long.