Classic coconut chutney recipe for idli and dosa. An easy south Indian coconut dip made with fresh coconut, chana dal and other ingredients with a tadka of curry leaves etc. This chutney is served with Idli Dosa or any other South Indian tiffin item.
Coconut chutney is a dip or chutney served with popular south Indian breakfast like dosa, idli and medu vada. I also serve this with evening south Indian tiffin dishes like mysore bonda, pakoda, aloo bonda etc.
It is a gluten-free and vegan side dish or dip from South Indian cuisine.
What is Coconut Chutney ?
Coconut chutney is delicious South Indian chutney or dip which is made primarily with coconut. Along with coconut, I often add soaked peanuts, fresh green or red chillies, ginger and spices. And then finally I add a tempering of fried dal and crisp curry leaves for lot of flavour and taste.
Coconut in hindi is known as Nariyal so this chutney is also known as Nariyal chutney.
Ingredients for Coconut Chutney
Coconut: Fresh coconut is most important ingredient when you are making this nariyal chutney. Use the tender coconut meat to make good chutney.
Peanuts: I like to use raw peanuts which are soaked for 30 minutes.
Green Chillies: To add spice and heat to chutney. This chutney recipe will make medium spiced chutney you can adjust the quantity of green chillies as per your liking.
Ginger: Ginger adds a lot of taste. Ginger also has lots of health benefits so this serves the dual purpose of making it healthy and tasty.
Spices & Seasonings: Dried red chilli, chana dal, mustard seeds, asafoetida(hing), Salt to taste.
Curry leaves: These flavourful fresh curry leaves add a great aroma and taste to any dish. The crispy curry leaves used in tempering of coconut chutney taste absolutely delicious.
Oil: You can use any oil for making tadka for the chutney. But if you love coconut flavour use coconut oil to intensify the flavour.
Coconut Chutney Variations
You can make many variations by adding a variety of ingredients. Some of the most popular coconut chutney variations are:
Mint Coconut Chutney: Other than above mentioned ingredients you can add fresh mint leaves to make it.
Green Coconut Chutney: To make this chutney I often add coriander leaves which is a popular choice to make chutney. Or you can use combination of both coriander and mint leaves to make it.
Kerala Style Red Coconut Chutney: The base remains same and few more ingredients like red chillies, shallots and few more are added to make Kerala style red chutney.
Coconut and Peanuts Chutney: This Hotel style coconut peanut chutney is served with most of tiffin items in darshinis and roadside eateries.
Watch Hotel Style Coconut Chutney Recipe Video
Recipe Notes & Tips
Please read these small tips and notes to make the best coconut chutney for Idli and Dosa
- Always use fresh coconut for making chutney, desiccated coconut does not give you the good result.
- I have added roasted peanuts to make the texture creamy, you can add either roasted gram dal or peanuts for a uniform texture, otherwise, it may turn out be watery.
- If you like you can add 2 tablespoons of yogurt while making chutney it adds a nice tangy taste.
- Never over process the chutney while grinding it because that may lead to separation of coconut oil which may not taste good and creamy.
- If you like to make hotel style coconut chutney, please adjust the amount of peanuts. Add a little more peanuts which makes smooth chutney. The classic version has more coconut and is slightly coarse in texture.
How to make Chutney with desiccated coconut
I generally do not advice using dried or desiccated coconut for making chutney. It tastes best either using Fresh coconut or Frozen coconut. But if you must make it with desiccated one add hot water to make it and keep the rest of the ingredients same as this recipe.
How to Serve Coconut Chutney
This is best served as an accompaniment/dip/side with Dosa, Idli, vada, Uttapam, Upma or Pongal along with Hotel Sambar.
How to Store it?
This tastes best when served fresh. I sometimes make some extra chutney and store it in the fridge for up to 5-6 days. You can also freeze it if you want to store it for 10-12 weeks.
Just don't forget to take it out of freezer 12 hours before you want to eat and place it in the fridge to thaws. Thawing in the microwave does not work with coconut chutney.
More Such Recipes to Try
📖 Recipe
Coconut Chutney Recipe
Ingredients
- 200 g coconut fresh
- 20 g ginger
- 3 tablespoon peanuts roasted
- 2 green chilli
- to taste salt
- 2 tablespoon chana dal roasted (for hotel style chutney)
Tempering/tadka
- 3 - 4 red chilli whole
- 1 tablespoon channa dal
- 1 teaspoon mustard seeds
- 1 - 2 sprigs curry leaves
- 1 tablespoon coconut oil
Instructions
- Wash and chop coconut into small pieces.
Classic Coconut Chutney
- In a grinder jar of your mixer grinder or a food processor, add roasted peanuts, green chilli, ginger, coconut and salt, grind it till it looks like fine shredded mixture.
- Add 150 ml milk and grind the mixture to a smooth paste. Don't over process because oil from coconut may get separated, 2 minutes is a good enough time.
- Now to prepare tempering take a small tempering/tadka pan and heat up the oil.
- Add mustard seeds and chana dal to heated oil and cook on low heat till chana dal turns slightly brown. Add curry leaves, switch off the heat and pour this tempering over chutney.
- Serve this coconut with Idli, dosa or any other south Indian tiffin item.
Hotel Style Coconut Chutney Method
- Soak 3 tablespoons raw peanuts for 20-30 minutes
- In a small grinder jar add coconut(chopped), Soaked peanuts, roasted chana dal, green chilli, salt to taste.
- Add ¼cup water and grind into a smooth paste.
- Heat one tablespoon oil and hing and mustard seeds
- Add chana dal, broken whole red chillies, curry leaves stir over medium heat for a minute pour this over coconut mixture.
- Hotel style coconut peanut chutney is ready to serve.
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