In the foodie spectrum, I have landed on to a side dish which is gorgeously pink and creamy. It’s simple beetroot pachadi using curds. The intense purple colored beetroot gets transformed to awesomely pink when combined with thick yogurt. Because of the color and deliciousness of this simple curry I always end up eating little more.
As we have stepped in to September which is last month of 3rd quarter, it seems the end of Monsoon in India where as we expats still facing summer. The hot days where SUN doesn’t set till 7 pm is what we are going through right now in UAE. The abundant natural light peeping in through my kitchen window makes my clicking work bit easier. But kitchen temperature seems to be quite high for an elaborate meal preparation. Hence this simple beetroot pachadi with curds and rice was my platter for the day.
You can make some variations like grating the beetroot instead of cubing. I love biting the soft cubes of beetroot in yogurt plus coconut mix. Yogurt makes the curry creamy rich and gives slight hint of sourness. Which why I love yogurt based curries (like tindora yogurt curry) in my real food life. Till the end of SUMMER this is going to happen many times a month for sure. How about you?
Beetroot Pachadi using Curds
Ingredients
- Beetroot - 1 medium sized Chopped cubes 1 cup
- Fresh grated coconut- 1/4 cup
- Thick curds yogurt- 1/2 cup
- Red chilly- 1 no.
- Mustard seeds- 1/2 tsp
To temper
- Coconut oil- 1 tsp
- Mustard seeds- 1/4 tsp
- Split blackgram lentils- 1/4 tsp
- Curry leaves - Few
Instructions
Preparation
- Peel off the beetroot using a peeler and chop it in to fine cubes.
Method
- Cook the beetroot cubes in half cup of water in a pan. Add salt now. Let it cook in simmer till soft. Transfer it to a vessel and let it cool down.
- Next, in a mixer take coconut, mustard seeds and red chilly together. Along with some water grind them together to fine paste. Whisk the curds in a bowl and keep it ready.
- Add cooked beetroot cubes and ground coconut paste to the curds and combine well. Check and adjust salt.
- Finally heat a tempering pan, add all the ingredients under the list "To temper". As the mustard seeds splutter and lentils turn brown, pour this tempering over pachadi. Simple curry is ready to serve with rice.
Note
- Do not add too much water to cook the beetroot. It may turn the pachadi watery.
- The consistency of pachadi should be thick, so it's better to use thick yogurt.
- You can even replace red chilly by green chilly too.
