Coconut Garlic Chutney Recipe – Thick Coconut Chutney for Idli, Dosa, Adai

Coconut garlic chutney is this thick coconut chutney (Kerala style recipe) that amma makes on a regular basis to go with idli or dosa, mostly dosa. It’s a very very simple chutney that requires no tempering – just a few basic ingredients to balance the flavours of the coconut and gives an edge to the dosa or idli. When I wanted to take a picture of amma’s basic thick chutney the last time I was in Kottayam, she was protesting saying “this is so simple, why do you want to share the recipe of this chutney?” But I knew that it’s probably not as common in other households as ours and, well, I am all about sharing and caring 😉

The ingredients for thick coconut garlic chutney is pretty much standard but you can and should alter the proportions to suit your tastebuds. The best way is to add lesser of everything and top up as you grind it. We like it spicy and on the sour side with just a hint of garlic. This goes especially well with dosa made on the same day the batter is made so it’s not sour at all and the sourness in the chutney compliments the dosa perfectly. We call this dosa, made thick and with lots of gingelly oil – penrottai.

It’s also worth mentioning that I have named this coconut garlic chutney for lack of a better way to describe it. At home, we simply call it ‘oorindi‘, a colloquial way of saying ‘noorindi‘ in Reddiar Telugu, which means ‘ground’.

Looking for more chutney recipes? Here are my top 3 – onion tomato chutney, red chilli chutney, and peanut chutney.