This is a very easy recipe for Kerala style Kadala Curry. We love puttu at home. I do not have my puttu kutty for making puttu here in Hong Kong. But I make kadala curry often and I serve it with idli, chapati or even dosa. It goes perfectly well. Here is how to make Kerala style kadala curry. This is how we make at home. Here is how to do kadala curry.
Here is the video for kadala curry
Soak the black chana / kala chana over night in water.
Now, some prep work. We will make a paste for the kadala curry. Grind the tomatoes, garlic, ginger, cloves, fennel seeds and cardamom to a smooth paste. No need to add any water while grinding. Set aside.
Take a pressure cooker (I used a 3 liter pressure cooker) and add in the sliced onions, the ground masala, soaked and drained chana, salt, red chilli powder, turmeric powder, coriander powder and a cup (250 ml) of water. Cover and cook for 30 minutes on a low flame. After the 30 minutes, remove from heat and wait for the pressure to settle naturally. Set aside.
Take a pan and saute fresh coconut in a teaspoon of oil on a low flame for 5 minutes until slightly golden.
Grind the fresh roasted coconut with half a cup of water to a fine paste. Add it to the curry. If the curry is very thick, dilute the curry with half a cup of water.
Simmer the curry for a couple of minutes. Remove from heat.
Tempering:
Heat coconut oil in a pan and add in the mustard seeds, curry leaves and dried red chillies. Let the mustard seeds pop. Add it to the curry.
Serve kadala curry with puttu, idli, chapati or even dosa.
- 2 ripe tomatoes
- 6 cloves garlic
- 1 inch piece ginger
- 1 clove
- 1 cardamom
- 1 teaspoon fennel seeds
- ½ cup black chana / kala chana
- 2 onions, sliced
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon red chilli powder
- ½ teaspoon turmeric powder
- 2 teaspoon coriander powder
- ⅓ cup fresh coconut
- 1 teaspoon coconut oil
- 1 teaspoon coconut oil
- ½ teaspoon mustard seeds
- 1 sprig curry leaves
- 2 dried red chillies
- Soak the black chana / kala chana over night in water.
- Grind the tomatoes, garlic, ginger, cloves, fennel seeds and cardamom to a smooth paste. No need to add any water while grinding. Set aside.
- Take a pressure cooker and add in the sliced onions, the ground masala, soaked and drained chana, salt, red chilli powder, turmeric powder, coriander powder and a cup (250 ml) of water. Cover and cook for 30 minutes on a low flame. After the 30 minutes, remove from heat and wait for the pressure to settle naturally. Set aside.
- Take a pan and saute fresh coconut in a teaspoon of oil for 5 minutes until slightly golden.
- Grind the fresh roasted coconut with half a cup of water to a fine paste. Add it to the curry.
- Simmer the curry for a couple of minutes. Remove from heat.
- Heat coconut oil in a pan and add in the mustard seeds, curry leaves and dried red chillies. Let the mustard seeds pop. Add it to the curry.
I’m an ardent fan of Kannamma Cooks! So I tried out this recipe! But this one isn’t really the traditional Kerala style puttu kadala, otherwise its a nice curry. I guess we aren’t used to the flavour of so much tomato in the gravy 😞
Thank you so much for this wonderful and easy recipe.. everyone loved it and it is bookmarked
Thank you so much for this wonderful recipe. It was a hit and appreciations from my husband made me so happy.
I missed roasting the coconut but the taste was great. Thanks again for making the cooking experience great.
Thank you!
Today I made tis kadala curry…it was awesome and very easy recipe ..it’s just the same as we used to eat in Kerala…now no need to go to Kerala for having kadala curry…thanks Kannama…
Thank you!
Tried this recipe came out well.. Thanks a lot for such a wonderful recipe
I have made this curry many times and love it’s taste each time and very easy to make.. thank you so much for such wonderful recipes.. love your work mam..
Thank you so much Indhu.
Made this for breakfast today.. yummy !! Thank you.
Tried this today..Came out well with chemba rice puttu..I added mace strands, cinnamon and jaathikai extra apart from your items too for more spice..Came well.. Thanks
HOw to alter this recipe for white chenna pls suggest.
I tried this recipe with puttu… awesome… Very yummy…
I tried this, tasted similar to the one we get in Thalassery restaurant. Thanks a lot for this recipe.
Thank you so much. Will try it 👩🍳
Hi I made this recipe for two . It was yummy and we loved it. I made with 1 cup Channa . Now I want to make the recipe for crowd of 12 people. Can you please give me suggestion for scaling. I really don want to mess up it real taste . Thanks in advance
For scaling, just double the recipe and use a little bigger cooker. It will work well. Thank you so much.
Hello, I am a newbie to cooking. I did everything right, except roasting the coconut before grinding. Forgot about that in the hurry. Added that unroasted ground coconut and it didn’t taste bad at all. So, I was wondering what roasting the coconut does to it, that it is a step at all… Any hint?
Hi Praveen, roasted coconut makes it more nuttier. I sometimes add unroasted coconut too if I am in a hurry. There is a subtle difference in taste when roasted.
I like the channa curry , it is very good. Thank you
Hi Suguna Akka… I love your recipes and your website is the first bookmark that I look out for any new recipes that I want to make. Why don’t you build an app for your recipes so it becomes so user friendly for us and easy to whisk through!
There is an app available for both google and android and the details are available in the home page. Thank you!
Hi, tried your recipe for the first time, kadala curry was mouth watering and very easy to make. Thank you so much.
Thank you ! Glad you liked it!
Tried ur recipe for the first time… it’s fab to taste and easy as well…
Thank you!
Very easy to prepare and too tasty.thank u madam.
This is too easy o make and tasty as well
Thank you so much!
My rating
Can I soak kadala for 3 hrs and then cook or should I soak it overnight?
Minimum of four hours to overnite.
I tried your recipe and it turned out really good. This is the recipe I follow for making kadala curry. Thank you.
Thank you!
Yummy
Hi Suguna, I love this kadala curry.. reduces one trip to the restaurant.. it’s just fabulous!
Just a question: Can I alter the masala and use this same simmer for 30min for rajma too?
sure. you can.
Thanks Suguna… I tried ur few receipes all came very tasty.. specially this kadala curry we just loved this receipe.. keep adding more receipes so we can rock our kitchen.. 😘
Thank you!
Hi, I don’t have fresh coconut but only frozen shredded coconut. Can I use that instead?
Sure. You can use.
Yummy and an instant hit the first time. Now demand for the curry has gone up.Very good presentation and easy to cook. Thank you
Thank you so much!
Hi
Tried your recipe. It came out well. Thanks.
Thank you so much. Really glad that you liked the recipe.
I tried your soft spongy idilis twice,
it came out really soft.
But , noticed while preparing dosa, it was sticking to the tawa..
I used to use Idily rawa earlier as it was easy to grind in the blender. I am waiting to finish the Idily rawa so that I can switch over to Idily rice.
Thanks for posting the recipe..
Sure. Hope you get good dosas with idly rice.
Tried this recipe today…..it came out beautifully. Absolutely authentic taste
Thank you so much. Glad that you liked the recipe. Happy Cooking!
Tried it today and it came out very well. With puttu, superb. Thanks for your wonderful recipes.
Thank you!
Best side dish for idiyappam…Tried it came out with really superb taste…Thanx…
Thank you!
Hi Suguna,
I tried it today and it is just awesome! I love to have it with appam too 🙂
Thank you Pavithara Rathinavel.
Tried this yesterday, it became an instant hit! My wife is from Kerala and she began to wonder how I made this tastier than she ever made it! I did a small modification – added 1 potato in the end. It gave an tastier twist to the whole curry. Thank you Suguna!
Thank you Navaneetha Krishnan Balraj. This kadala curry is one of our family favorite too! Glad you guys enjoyed!
Hello Suguna. Can you Please suggest a substitute for coconut. The place where I currently live in US does not sell coconut ?
You can grind some soaked almonds and add to the curry. But kadala curry needs to have that coconut flavor. So adding canned coconut milk a little also would work.
Here’s my rating. ☺
Thank You!
Hi Suguna,
I tried this recipe today. It came out well and it is very tasty too. Thanks for sharing…
Really glad you liked it Akila.