Mahanandi

Living in Consciousness ~ Indi(r)a’s Food and Garden Weblog

Mint Coconut Chutney

The fragrance of fresh mint and the sweetness of fresh coconut come together in this traditional chutney. The recipe is from my friend Janani Srinivasan. When asked to share, Janani wrote “there are two schools of philosophy on the mint-coconut chutney at our home. I prefer to grind mint leaves raw with rest of standard chutney ingredients. But my mom finds it too minty. So she sautés them in oil first and if that is the case, I like to add some garlic too and then grind with the rest of standard issue raw coconut chutney ingredients.”

I’ve been trying out various raw foods in recent weeks, so I picked up dear Janani’s mint chutney-philosophy number one for our meal today. Intense and remarkably good as raw food goes, mintaholics won’t be disappointed with this one.

Mint Chutney Ingredients Mint Chutney
Mint Chutney Ingredients …………………….. Mint Chutney in Sumeet Jar

Recipe:

1-cup mint leaves, tightly packed (spearmint)
½ cup fresh coconut pieces
¼ cup dalia (bhuna chana or pappulu)
4 Indian or Thai variety, small green chillies
1 small Asian shallot – peel and slice to chunks
1 tablespoon tamarind pulp
½ teaspoon salt, or to taste

Take them all in a mixer or mortar. Add about one to two cups of water. Blend to smooth consistency. Remove to a vessel. Do the tadka if you prefer, and serve with breakfast items, rice or roti. Best eaten the day it is made and not suitable to refrigeration.

(Add only shallot (erra gadda) and if shallot is not available, then red onion. Regular white and yellow onions won’t be that good raw in this recipe.)

Mint-Coconut Chutney with Vegetable Upma
Mint Coconut Chutney with Vegetable Upma ~ Meal Today

Health Labels:
Traditional India-Vegan, Raw Food
Mint, varieties and benefits – A Good Read
Amazing healing properties of Coconut

********

Previously with Mint (Pudina):
Pudina Chai with Gunpowder Tea
Pudina Pachadi with Peanuts
Pudina Paneer for Picnic
Pudina Pulao ~ Andhra Style
Pudina Pilaf with Fresh Tuvar (Kandulu)
Healing Herbal Rice with Brown Basmati

Mint is three bunches for a dollar here, now. I like mint and I would love to try new recipes. Any other good, family recipes with mint? Do share. Thanks.

Posted by Indira©Copyrighted in Amma & Authentic Andhra,Coconut (Fresh),Mint (Thursday March 27, 2008 at 2:59 pm- permalink)
Comments (22)

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22 comments for Mint Coconut Chutney »

  1. Hi Indira, Vegetable upma looks like little balls of gold :-))! You can make the simplest of foods look so heavenly!! Kepe up the great work. Oh, yes the mint chutney looks delicious!! I got carried away by the photograph that I forgot about the star of the post 🙂

    Sudha

    Comment by Sudha — March 27, 2008 @ 3:27 pm

  2. My fav mint chutney recipe is quite similar to yours, but no coconut, and it goes well with chaats, samosas, chapathis, or even layered between bread slices in cucumber sandwiches

    Grind together – a handful of mint leaves, 1 green chilli, 1 small piece ginger, 1/2 tsp tamarind pulp, salt, 1/2 tsp lemon juice, 1 tsp chopped red onion

    Comment by ss — March 27, 2008 @ 3:34 pm

  3. Thankyou for the recipe.

    Comment by shalini — March 27, 2008 @ 4:13 pm

  4. hai indira,

    iam also a food lover. i like ur presentation of food is very good.mamulu kuralne chala chakkaga chupisthunnaru

    nenu nuvvulu,tamarind juice,garlic cloves 2,1tomato(first take 1tsp oil in pan and fry the mint&green chillis first then in that pan only fry tomato in 1tsp oil)and jeera add all these ingredients and blend it.After that add popu thats all.

    Comment by saketha — March 27, 2008 @ 4:21 pm

  5. love your veggie upma,Indira.Nenu asale upma loverni.
    seattle maku chala dooram :)))))
    thanks for sharing .
    vineela

    Comment by vineela — March 27, 2008 @ 4:31 pm

  6. I only know 2 uses of mint – Mint Tea and Mint chutney 🙂
    I would love to see some more recipes with mint too.
    Your mint chutney looks good. Upma looks yummier.

    Comment by Anjali Damerla — March 27, 2008 @ 4:59 pm

  7. Your chutney looks tempting, but I avoid using mint because, sometimes when I sautee mint and grind them for chutney, it tastes bitter. Anybody knows the reason for this. I don’t know whether i would like it raw.

    I like my mother-in-law’s recipe for Mint powder, which can be mixed with rice. Traditionally the mint has to be sauteed, but she tried here that last month and as usual it turned out bitter. So she tried keeping the leaves in the microwave oven for 1 minute and proceeded with the recipe. It came out very well. Roast urad dal and red chillies in little oil and powder it with the mint leaves.

    Comment by Madhuram — March 27, 2008 @ 5:53 pm

  8. You are such a wizard of presentation! I love the way you presented the Upma (using icecream scoops?).

    Comment by mystic — March 27, 2008 @ 6:59 pm

  9. Hi Indira

    This chutney looks yummy. If you like mint you may like this recipe for mint rasam. I had shared this recipe with Priya long time ago.

    http://www.sugarandspices.info/?p=847

    Its from Chandra Padmanabhan

    Comment by Renuka — March 27, 2008 @ 9:00 pm

  10. Mint Thogayal:

    In a skillet, put some oil, fry chana dal, hing, urad dal, little jeera, bit of tamarind, mint, coconut , fry them and grind them to a smooth paste. Eat it with Rice and instead of ghee use Idhayam oil. Have it with Aloo Fry on a rainy day 🙂

    You can also make Mint Rice just like usual coriander rice..just mix the chutney you prepared (except for channa dalia) and add garlic to it but you have to make sure that the raw smell goes away.

    Comment by K — March 27, 2008 @ 10:36 pm

  11. Its telepathy? I made this cutney for idlis today fr breakfast! The lovely veggie upma balls should go fantastic with the mint chutney. I am drooling over Indira!

    Comment by Nirmala — March 27, 2008 @ 11:36 pm

  12. its just recently i started loving refreshing mints. there is one recipe which i love the most and its from my hubby dear. its refreshing, cool mint-lemon juice. just blend fresh mint paste+lemon juice+honey(or sugar, although i prefer honey)+ice cubes+water in a belnder and serve. i have tried same with coconut water and plain soda too and its unbelivably delicious.

    Comment by sia — March 28, 2008 @ 2:01 am

  13. Ahhh…….I am happy to see the comment section open for us today too 🙂 . those tiny scoop of veg upma looks so attractive :P.
    If possible then I would have grabbed some :)).
    I think , I have Jaljeera recipe for which mint is a key ingredient. Will try posting it soon. Hope you will like it ,I will let you know when I post it , hopefully soon.

    Comment by Pooja — March 28, 2008 @ 8:34 am

  14. Hello Indira,

    Your pacchadi recipes were the ones which drove me to buy a mortar & pestle. I think its the smartest gadget I bought for my kitchen.

    Two recipes which I have made using the mortar & pestle are:

    1. Mint-Basil Pesto. I took equal parts of Basil and Mint leaves, one garlic clove, red pepper flakes, salt and toasted walnuts and ground them into a pesto using water and little olive oil. Used the pesto with pasta and shredded zuchini. It was very very good.

    2. Cucumber curd pacchadi. I ground 1/2 tsp of mustard seeds, red chillies (Byadgi), 1 tblsp of fresh coconut gratings, salt and 1 ladle of fresh curd. Added this ground mixture to one finely minced cucumber (Pickling or Kirby) along with itsw skin. This is my mom’s recipe called Sasmee(Mangalore speciality).

    Hope you try them. Thanks.

    Comment by Sapna — March 28, 2008 @ 10:58 am

  15. Indira, upma ball too much unnayi 🙂

    Comment by sreelu — March 28, 2008 @ 2:01 pm

  16. Excellent suggestions, I am going to be in mint heaven for few days. 🙂 Thank you for sharing and for your good words about this post.

    Comment by Indira — March 28, 2008 @ 3:29 pm

  17. Here is what my mom does. Not quiet sure about the measurements
    Grind mint leaves + coriander(optional),salt,green chilles together
    Add this to the
    Thalimpu :oil+jeera+karepaku+endu mirapakaya
    Mix rice into the above mix

    Sushma

    Comment by sushma — March 28, 2008 @ 6:11 pm

  18. *Drooling at the 3rd picture*

    Comment by Mamatha — March 28, 2008 @ 7:43 pm

  19. I was looking for a good coconut chutney recipe, and mint would def be a good addition I think! I’ll make this today itself Indira:)

    -Mansi

    Comment by Mansi — March 29, 2008 @ 11:53 am

  20. Indira,
    I’m hooked onto your blog! I love the recipes and the photographs. I had to comment on the mint chutney recipe.
    I do make it myself but I add ginger and garlic to the chutney(both raw as well). I do add a pinch of sugar and leave out the Dalia. My father in law is a big fan of this chutney. I’ll definitely try your recipe one of these days.

    Comment by Asha — March 30, 2008 @ 7:13 am

  21. Love your blog!! Coincidence – Mint was the star of our meal last night. We had mint pulao with cucumber raita. It is very simple. I grind the fresh mint with green chillies in my sturdy Sumeet. Tadka with jeera, add onions and fry till cooked, but not brown. Then I add the mint paste. Add salt and mix with warm basmati rice. I garnished with peanuts yesterday, but one may use cashews. it is very simple and delicious.

    Comment by Sujatha — March 31, 2008 @ 8:31 am

  22. hi there,

    I have been regularly visiting your website since the time i have been in US.

    Since I m married to a tamilian , my MIL has taught me lot of tamilian recipes which includes rasam ,sambhar etc.Though i m not a fan of rasam since they r watery, the only rasam which i love is Pudina rasam.The recipe is as follows for 2 people :

    Cook half a cup of Toor dal and keep it separately.

    In a pan take some vegetable oil , add some mustard seeds and let it splutter.Add hing.Add cut onions(one) and let it saute it.After that add garlic(2-3 pods) ( u can add as it is removing the cover) or crush it.Then add tomato pieces (one) , mint leaves(half bunch is enough) , coriander leaves(little),green chilli(1-2) and half cook it.

    Now in a vessel,make tamarind juice abt 250 ml.Here we get ready made tamarind concentrate.You can add one and half spoons of concentrate in a vessel full of water.Alternately you can make the juice by soaking a small lemon size tamarind in warm water.

    In the tamarind juice, add the half cooked tomatoes , onion pulp , salt(as per ur taste) and sambhar powder(abt 1.5 tsp).I use home made sambhar powder but you get sambhar powder also in shops.Let it cook till the raw smell of powder goes away.

    Add the cooked toor dal and bring it a boil.

    Your pudina rasam is ready.It tastes heavenly with rice.

    The recipe may look long but once u get a hang of it , it is very simple.

    Hope u like it.

    That is an excellent recipe. Thank you for sharing. I am going to try this in a week or so.
    -Indira

    Comment by N Balaji — March 31, 2008 @ 3:01 pm

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