Indian dipping sauce
This recipe was a request from my beautiful cousin Melanie-Jane who was born in Africa, Zambia and spent the early days of her childhood with my Grandma.
She remembered this as a dip that my grandma would serve with Samosa’s and Pakora’s.
Samosa’s are little parcels of joy and my grandma’s version were practically famous as they were the best example of this Indian starter, with a thin and crispy outside and flavorful filling of onion, peas and potatoes. She must have made tens of thousands in her lifetime.
Pakora’s get their name from two Sanskrit words translating to ‘cooked lump’. This may sound like an odd description, but with such a variety of different types, it is an apt description. My grandma was famed for her potato; bread and chili pakoras but I saw her make a lot of variations. My grandma’s generation lived through much harder times then we did and consequently were less wasteful. My grandma used the pakora batter to make new dishes out of leftovers and so she would make salad pakoras, spinach pakoras, onion pakoras, carrot pakoras and the list continues. Due to her clever flavoring of the batter, these were all incredibly tasty and made sure that no wilting vegetable was ever wasted.
Back to the chutney! I use this chutney for steak and chicken, as an alternative to chimichurri and Mr. B likes it with Tortilla Chips. It is really tasty and you can be used in a variety of ways. This is another quick blender recipe and takes less than 5 minutes including the preparation.
These recipes were taken from: www.vegrecipesofindia.com an amazing website for traditional vegetarian Indian recipes.
Ingredients
- 1 cup/250ml chopped fresh cilantro (coriander) leaves
- ½ inch ginger, chopped
- 1 green chili, chopped
- 1 or 2 tsp. lemon juice
- ½ tsp. cumin powder (jeera powder)
- Sea salt as required
- Add water as needed to thin the mixture
Optional
- Add one cup/250ml of fresh mint chopped, to brighten and lighten the chutney
Method
- To make the dip, blend all ingredients until smooth, taste and add lemon juice and salt to your liking
