Beetroot Pachadi - Onam Sadya Special

Hope you all had a wonderful Onam, :)..Today I am going to share the recipe of Beetroot pachadi which I prepared, couple of days back for Onam Sadya. Pachadi refers to a traditional South Indian side-dish.  In Kerala and Tamilnadu, pachadi is a side-dish curry similar to the north Indian Raita. Pachadi is typically made of finely chopped and boiled vegetables with coconut, green or red chillies and tempered in oil with mustard seeds, ginger and curry leaves. Curd/yogurt based pachadi can be made of any vegetable, although beetroot, pumpkin, mango, banana or pineapple are common. Pachadi is commonly eaten with rice and its a common side-dish for Onam Sadya.

Ingredients

Beetroot ~ 1 no ( Medium sized, peeled and grated)

Grated coconut ~ 1/3 cup or 1/4 cup + 2 tbsp

Ginger ~ a small piece ( peeled and chopped )

Cumin seeds / Jeerakam ~ 1/2 tsp

Green chillies ~ 2 nos

Dry red chilli / Unakkamulaku ~ 1 no

Turmeric powder ~ 1/4 tsp

Curry leaves/ Curryveppila

Thick curd ~ 1/2 to 3/4 cup

Mustard seeds / Kaduku

Shallots / Kochu ulli ~ 3-4 nos

Salt to taste 
Sugar ~ 1/2 tsp (Optional)

Oil ~ 1 1/2 tbsp

Method

• First wash the beetroot and using a peeler, peel the skin of the beetroot. Next grate the beetroot using a grater or a food processor. Then cook the grated beetroot by adding 1/4 cup of water and little salt for around 10-15 minutes. 

• Meanwhile coarsely grind grated coconut, ginger, cumin seeds, 1/4 tsp mustard seeds, green chillies, 3-4 curry leaves, turmeric powder and dry red chilly.

• Then add ground coconut mixture and sugar (Optional) to the cooked beetroot and keep it in a low flame for around 3-4 minutes or till the water in it is full evaporated. Next remove it from the flame and allow it to cool. After around 5-10 minutes, add beaten curd to the cooked beetroot and mix it nicely.

• Now for seasoning heat little oil in an another pan and add 1/2 tsp mustard seeds and when it pops up, add 2 dry red chillies , followed by 3-4 curry leaves and 3-4 chopped shallots and saute till shallots becomes brown in color and add this to the beetroot pachadi.

Note : You can adjust the amount of curd depending upon your preferred consistency of pachadi, but make sure not to make it watery. Pachadi should be of thick consistency.

Enjoy with rice.

Cheers!!

Jisha