Edible Garden
You are here: Home / Reddiar Recipes / Thakkali Thella Pulusu-Thakkali Kuzhambu-Tomato Curry Recipe

Thakkali Thella Pulusu-Thakkali Kuzhambu-Tomato Curry Recipe

16 Comments

PinterestTelegramWhatsAppYummly
Thella pulusu and vatti pulusu are the two most popular Reddiar curries (kozhambu / pulusu). While growing up, I definitely liked the milder thella pulusu but now, home food means a good thoran with vatti pulusu. Ah yumm. My aatha (amma’s amma) used to make the best vatti pulusu (the recipe of which my sis has shared here).

This recipe is actually very similar to Arch’s tomato saar recipe that I had posted pics of the other day. But there are some minor differences that  make them taste significantly different.

Pin

Considering Reddiars are kinda going extinct, I really should have posted this long back but here goes anyway. I couldn’t ask aatha for her exact recipe before she passed away but amma has a pretty good approximation of the recipe so sharing that here.

Pin

You can add any vegetable of your choice, the most popular ones being tomatoes, drumsticks, brinjal, etc. I made my favourite, the tomato version with drumsticks. 

Thakkali Thella Pulusu 
Serves 4
What I Used:

1 big tomato, cubed
1 drumstick, cut into 4″ pieces
1 cup tamarind water (from a small lime-sized ball of tamarind)
Salt to taste

Grind to a paste:
1/2 cup grated coconut
4-5 shallots / ulli
1/2 tsp jeera
2 dry red chillies
A pinch of turmeric
1 clove of garlic

For tempering:
2 tsp oil
A few fenugreek seeds / uluva / menthayam
1/4 tsp mustard seeds
A few curry leaves
4-5 sliced shallots

How to Make Thakkali Kuzhambu

1. Take the tamarind water in a kadai and add the tomatoes and drumsticks to it along with salt. Bring to boil.

2. Add the ground masala paste to this and continue to boil on sim until the drumsticks are soft. This should take about 12-15mins. Add water as necessary to keep the consistency right (same consistency as sambar). Remove and set aside.

3. Heat oil and add all the ingredients for tempering. Once the mustard seeds have popped and the fenugreek seeds are roasted (take care not to burn them!), dunk them into the gravy. Mix well, adjust salt.

Serve hot with rice, mezhukkupuratti and pappadom.

PinterestTelegramWhatsAppYummly

Reader Interactions

Comments

  2. Bookmarked ! I have frozen drumsticks and frozen (sigh 🙁 ) coconut. this sounds yummy and good for the unusual rainy weather here in Los Angeles!

    Reply

  7. i'd surely love this ….all my fave ingredients.
    i made something with drumsticks n tomatoes in a mustard gravy , n this looks like i need to go for this one too now.

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *