Cheera thoran or Keerai Poriyal is a very simple and nutritious recipe, perfect for a weeknight if you are looking for a side-dish for your dal chawal, or sambar rice, or even curd rice. I love spinach and considering the abundance of spinach and most other greens in Singapore, this is a real treat for us!
Cheera Thoran Recipe (Keerai Poriyal)
Serves 2 to 4
Ingredients:
5 cups tightly packed chopped spinach leaves (a bunch)
1 cup grated coconut
4 shallots (or half of an onion)
2-4 green chillies
A pinch of turmeric powder
1/2 tsp jeera
2 tsp oil (I always use coconut oil for thoran)
1/4 tsp mustard seeds
A few curry leaves (optional)
1 dry red chilly, torn into half
Salt to taste
How I Made It:
1. Clean and chop the spinach fine. Drain well and set aside.
2. Grind together – coconut, shallots, green chillies, jeera and turmeric. If you don’t have a mixie, use a pestle and mortar to bring these ingredients together. If you don’t have that, then just finely chop the shallots and green chillies and mix well with the rest.
3. Heat the oil in a pan and thrown in the mustard seeds. When they pop, add the curry leaves and the halved red chilly. Fry for 10 seconds and add the coconut mixture. Fry that for 30 seconds and add the chopped spinach with some salt.
4. The spinach will give out water so cook well until all the water evaporates and you have a dry dish (about 5-7 mins)
Serve keerai poriyal with rice and dal, rice and sambar or rice and moru curry.
Soumya says
November 14, 2017 at 10:10 pmJust made this, with a local variety of greens called Ponnanganni.. so delicious! My late grandmother used to make something like this – I lost her when I’d only just developed an interest in cooking, and now I think a whole treasure recipes is lost with her. But eating this today reminded me of her so much. Thank you!
nags says
November 17, 2017 at 11:44 amwhat a lovely thing to hear. i feel the same about my grandmom too..
Anjali Singh says
November 3, 2012 at 6:21 pmI never knew taht spinach can be cooked with coconut…great idea..
Neets says
June 13, 2012 at 4:39 pmThis looks great Nags!! I'll be buying sum spinach this week n trying this out. Will combine it with ure kara kuzhambu!! Shall let u know how it turns out! Cant wait!!
Anonymous says
April 8, 2012 at 10:55 amLovely recipe..Keep up the good work!
glorious pakistan says
December 21, 2011 at 12:25 pmI am going to try cheera thoran, surely!!
SocietyM says
June 2, 2011 at 7:05 pm@author
i have tried this recipe and my wife has liked the surprise dish. thanks for sharing it.
keerthi says
April 19, 2011 at 6:38 pmOk how's this pronounced? wanna wow thatha thathi 😉
M9 Review says
March 24, 2011 at 4:54 pmIt should be delicious as it look like so I am impressed with!
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March 4, 2011 at 5:11 pmThank you for the post, I actually learned something from it. Really quality content on this site. Always looking forward to new article.
burning copy protected dvd says
March 1, 2011 at 1:34 pmwow I'm feeling hungry.My fav thoran. I think something is new in this recipe.
Six Sigma Black Belt Training says
February 14, 2011 at 3:49 pmAh! Great post. It tastes like the "brown sauce" you get at a Chinese restaurant, only sweeter and tastier. The ingredients come together really nicely to make this very enjoyable!
Thanks
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February 10, 2011 at 6:54 pmI found so many entertaining stuff in your blog, especially its discussion. From the tons of comments on your posts, I guess I am not the only one having all the leisure here!
Thanks.
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February 10, 2011 at 5:33 pmThe ingredients come together really nicely to make this post very enjoyable!
Thanks.
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February 8, 2011 at 4:26 pmI have been looking into this for a long time, thanx.
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February 7, 2011 at 4:01 amHappy to find this post. Its a very useful post for me, as it contains lot of information. I always prefer to read the quality content and this thing I found in you post.Thanks for sharing.
Owais says
February 3, 2011 at 11:15 amHmmm…. looks like delicious recipes has been shared…
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Nags says
January 3, 2011 at 12:51 amThanks Jany, glad to have you around too, and hope you like the recipes 🙂
Jany payroll says
January 2, 2011 at 9:17 pmThis is the first time I visit here. I found so many entertaining stuff in your blog, especially its discussion. From the tons of comments on your posts, I guess I am not the only one having all the leisure here! Keep up the excellent work.
Nags says
November 4, 2010 at 5:49 amthat's such a lovely idea! thanks for trying 🙂
Loopbaanadvies says
November 4, 2010 at 5:31 amI was pleasantly surprised with the combination of flavors in this recipe. It tastes like a salad you might order at Applebee's, but healthier. I added honey to the "sauce" for sweetness and poured extra sauce over the finished salad as a dressing. Delicious and VERY FAST and EASY!
vinyl siding installation richmond says
October 14, 2010 at 12:33 pmI think Cheera is very similar to amaranth… Normally in south-indian cooking we use more of these greens than palak, and amaranth is just one of them.
railroad track maintenance says
October 9, 2010 at 4:51 pmThis is absolutely delicious! The sauce is good, but is made excellent with 1 tbsp honey. It tastes like the "brown sauce" you get at a Chinese restaurant, only sweeter and tastier. The ingredients come together really nicely to make this very enjoyable! Plus, I added peanuts for decoration and crunch.
network security consultants in Islington says
September 23, 2010 at 6:53 pmI've already reviewed this recipe, but it's become such a favourite of mine that I had to..
Mariah says
August 23, 2010 at 5:59 amI will have to try portrait mode pictures 🙂
Ananda Rajashekar says
August 15, 2010 at 4:26 pmThis is very new recipe, Sounds fab! Great Click Nags! 😀
Soma says
August 13, 2010 at 9:01 pmI am loving this dish. I could make this with the amaranth too. But without the coconut oil 🙂
Nags says
August 11, 2010 at 5:32 amYes, that's my couch 🙂
Anonymous says
August 11, 2010 at 4:33 ammy family's favorite thoran..i add some urad dal at the time of tempering to give it an xtra crunch!also if you mix it with rice,its spinach rice..btw…is that thoran resting on your couch? ;)..good click!
srividhya Ravikumar says
August 11, 2010 at 4:16 amwonderful thoran nags..1st time to your fabulous space… do visit my site at your convenience…following you..
Sadhana says
August 10, 2010 at 5:45 pmNice thoran with nice clicks dear…keep rocking..
Sandhya Hariharan says
August 10, 2010 at 8:58 amhi nags…
Lovely thoran .. quite ideal to go with a daily meal .. rice…
Been here a couple of times…
following u from now on 🙂
Do sneak a peek at my space when time permits.
Cheers
Sandhya
(http://www.sandhyas-kitchen.blogspot.com)
Rekha shoban says
August 10, 2010 at 7:44 amhi nags, healthy and delicious thoran….nice click too. im following u da.
RAKS KITCHEN says
August 10, 2010 at 5:43 amI love both the recipe and the pictures very much 🙂
Suhaina says
August 10, 2010 at 2:29 amcheera thoran is always my fav.. u have done is so perfectly and love the wonderful clicks too.
sowmya's creative saga says
August 10, 2010 at 1:44 amnever tried stir fries with green..except for chundal(that is spinach with mung dal)..this one looks yumm..
delhibelle says
August 9, 2010 at 11:34 pmLooks so good..and you say it works with all greens? Great recipe!
Priya (Yallapantula) Mitharwal says
August 9, 2010 at 9:00 pmThat is a great looking thoran dear. Love your pictures, I will have to try portrait mode pictures 🙂
Pavithra Srihari says
August 9, 2010 at 4:07 pmyeah as others , I love the click too ..spinach with ground coconut mixture is pretty new to me
Akila says
August 9, 2010 at 4:02 pmSimply superb….. just love the click and the colour of thoran…….
Deepika V. says
August 9, 2010 at 3:35 pmThat looks great. I have to try it!
Priti says
August 9, 2010 at 1:14 pmLooks and and nice click…
Vrinda says
August 9, 2010 at 12:53 pmMy fav thoran..nice shot…