Chutney plays a major role in all South Indian households. Most of our breakfast and dinner consist either of idly or dosai, which has to be accompanied by any kind of chutney. I always prefer chutney without coconut, this is one of my recent choice of chutney which is prepared with chow chow / chayote. It goes well with idly, dosai, paniyaram etc.

Ingredients:

Serves 3 to 4 people

• 1 big – Chow chow / chayote (remove skin and grate it)
• 1 small – Tomato (chopped it)
• 1 no – Garlic
• 1/4 inch – Ginger
• 2 nos – Dry red chillies
• 1 no – Tamarind (blueberry sized)
• 1 tsp – Bengal gram / Kadalai paruppu
• 1 tsp – Split black gram / Ulunthu
• 1 tsp – Oil for sauteing
• Salt to taste

Seasonings:

• 1 tbsp – Sesame oil
• 1/4 tsp – Mustard seeds
• 1/4 tsp – Split black gram / ulunthu
• 4 or 5 nos – Fresh curry leaves
• 1 pinch – Asafoetida

Preparation method:

1. Heat oil in a pan, add bengal gram and split black gram, saute until they are slightly golden brown. Followed by chopped garlic, ginger, tomato and dry red chillies, saute for 1 or 2 mins.
2. Now add grated chow chow and required salt, saute until they are well cooked. Switch off the stove and allow them to cool completely.
3. Transfer sauteed mixture along with tamarind to a mixture grinder / blender and grind them to a coarse paste. Check for salt, if required add more at this stage.
4. Finally heat oil in a pan, season with items given in the list for seasoning and pour this seasoning to the ground mixture in the bowl. Chow chow chutney is ready to serve.

Notes:

• You can increase or decrease number of dry red chillies as per your spice level.
• If you prefer you can chop chow chow into small cubes instead of grating it. But i prefer grated one, because it takes very less time to cook compare to chopped ones.