The beauty of home cooked food is just like this vibrant capsicum chutney. You are the boss of your recipe, meaning you can add little this and that of your choice. You can swap some ingredients, raise spice level or reduce unhealthy ingredients or avoid them completely. The possibilities are just endless. You can branch out and try something new which you know in your head will also be delicious. This freedom of cooking sometimes leads to absolutely unique and out of the box recipes. My love for home cooked food goes to the next level when I stumble upon a perfect recipe after certain tweaks and twists. This capsicum chutney justifies that point and makes me happy on so many levels.
You never find such a uniquely tasting veggie based chutney in any restaurants. If you happen to visit certain restaurant over a period of time, you get to taste same coconut chutney or garlic chutney. And never any veggie based dips (remember sweet pumpkin chutney!!). If you wish for certain fancy chutneys to relish with idli and dosa, then you should surely look for a home made food.
I guess in my long list of chutneys, I have used up most veggies. And today this green beauty capsicum has taken turn to be whipped up as chutney. The recipe remains more or less similar to other veggie based chutney. But capsicum has infused it’s flavor to the dip such that it tastes amazingly unique.
Capsicum chutney can accompany any breakfast like dosa or Idli and even rice. The bowl of chutney was licked clean like never before at my home and I assured myself to buy this wonderful veggie at least for the sake of chutney.
I can see you heading towards kitchen with a capsicum in your hand..
Capsicum Chutney | Bell Pepper Chutney Recipe
Ingredients
- Capsicum medium sized- 1 no.
- Split chickpea lentils- 3 tsp
- Fresh grated coconut- 1/4 cup
- Tamarind- Marble sized
- Coriander leaves- Handful
- Red chillies- 2 nos.
- Salt- 3/4 tsp
To temper
- Cooking oil- 1 tsp + 1 tsp
- Split black gram lentils- 1/2 tsp
- Mustard seeds- 1/2 tsp
- Curry leaves- Few
Instructions
Method
- Rinse and wash the capsicum with enough water and chop it in to medium sized pieces. Discard the seeds. Heat a pan with oil, lentils and red chillies.
- Saute the lentils for few minutes. When they change color, include chopped capsicum. Continue sauteing till capsicum is little soft. Switch off flame. Include grated coconut, tamarind and salt. Toss them together.
- Take all the roasted ingredients in a mixer and grind to coarse puree with enough water. Finally heat a tempering pan adding oil, mustard seeds and black gram lentils. As the mustard splutter pour over the chutney. Unique flavored capsicum chutney is ready to serve as side dish with idli and dosa.
Notes
- Do not roast capsicum for long. The veggie needs less time to get soft.
- The grated coconut doesn't have to be roasted. Include it after switching off the flame.
- I used two red chillies (byadagi variety) and it was mild in spice. You can adjust as per your taste.
