Thengai Thogayal Recipe | Coconut Thuvaiyal | Coconut Thogayal
Thengai Thogayal, coconut thogayal or Thuvaiyal is a South Indian Chutney made with lentils and fresh coconut. Serve this spicy and tangy South Indian condiment with steamed rice, sesame oil and roasted appalam. Traditional accompaniment for congee or fermented rice gruel.
Servings 6 people
Equipment
- Mixer Grinder
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup Coconut (Fresh coconut, grated) 1 cup is 250 ml
- 2 tablespoon Urad Dal or Ulutham Paruppu 1 tbsp is 15 ml
- 1 tablespoon Chana Dal (Kadala Paruppu or Bengal Gram Dal)
- 5 Whole dry red chillies See notes below
- 1 Tamarind (Marble Size Ball)
- 1 teaspoon Sesame Oil
- 1/2 teaspoon Jaggery
- a pinch of asafoetida or hing
- Salt to taste
- Water as required to grind the thogayal
Instructions
- Heat a pan, add oil, chana dal, urad dal and whole red chilies. Sauté until lentils have roasted (brown) and chilies have crisped up.
- Reduce the heat to the lowest point, add coconut and sauté until it appears roasted and fragrant. Note - Do not over-roast the coconut. Ensure the flame is on low heat else fresh coconut will burn.
- Once lentils, coconut is roasted, switch off the heat. Remove the contents onto a plate or bowl and allow to cool.
- Once cool, add the lentils and coconut mix to a mixer grinder jar. To this add, tamarind, hing or asafoetida, jaggery and salt to taste.
- Grind the thogayal using little water at a time. The consistency should be thick not runny.
- Store thogayal in an airtight container and serve with hot rice, ghee or sesame oil.
Video
Notes
Ingredients and Substitutes -
- Coconut - If using frozen coconut, thaw it completely and follow the process. You can use desiccated coconut but we prefer fresh. Note - Be careful while roasting desiccated coconut as it burns quickly.
- Dry Red chilies - I have used two varieties of red chilies for thogayal – 4 Pondy chilies + 1 Kashmiri red chili. It has the perfect combination of heat + color. Feel free to use any variety of red chilies that your family prefers and / or easily available in pantry.
- Oil - I have used sesame oil (gingelly oil) for roasting the ingredients. Feel free to use coconut oil and / or vegetable oil as substitute.
- I have added seedless marble size tamarind. You can add more if you prefer thogayal extra tangy.
- Jaggery is optional. It balances heat from chilies and the sourness from tamarind. The thogayal will not taste sweet.
- Thengai Thogayal is Vegan. For a 100% gluten-free recipe, omit hing / asafoetida from the ingredient list above.
- Shelf life of thengai thogayal is 24 hours. It tastes best when eaten fresh.
- Refrigerate leftovers. It will stay fresh for 1-2 days. Store in an airtight container, drizzle some sesame oil on the top. This will prevent the thogayal from becoming hard or dry.