Nellikaai pachadi/ Amla/ gooseberry raita

This was a bumper post for me. Before getting on an office call, I realised my mil is making nellikaai pachadi for lunch and told her I shall learn :). These are simple recipes but yummy ones and healthy ones and more importantly ones that I never generally make because mil is there to make them & growing up mom took charge. I never fancied this kind of cooking because you see appa tucker and all :). Slowly I am realising the beauty & the importance of these dishes, and the want to learn them is increasing. The main thing with the work from home scenario I am seeing is the path its carved for me to learn simple dishes like these which take 5 minutes and can be done while on a break from work. My mil is nice enough to time and keep everything ready so when I take a break I quickly make & learn and that is exactly what happened with this. With a fresh batch of nellikaai/ gooseberry that got delivered from grocers mil decided to make these since gooseberry is super high in Vit C and helps boost immunity. While fil & I eat raw gooseberries, D & mil cannot and prefer to have it in thogayal (chutney) or raita/ pachadi form. Both thogayal & pachadi are super easy to put together, super yummy and super healthy. The Vit C of one tiny gooseberry is the equivalent of about 2 medium oranges. I love how Rujuta Diwekar (the super famous nutritionist) keeps emphasising on local foods and keeps mentioning to consume Amla/ gooseberries as much as possible. And I love it even more that mil/ fil/ mom need no Rujuta Diwekar to enforce good and local habits. They know and already follow most stuff that all these super famous nutritionists say :).

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Nellikaai pachadi/ Amla/ gooseberry raita

Prep Time

5 mins

 

Course: Dips, Sides

Cuisine: Indian

Servings: 2 cups

Ingredients

• 4 amlas/ gooseberry/ nellikaai
• 2 no green chillies
• 2 tbsp grated coconut
• 1 tbsp rock salt
• 1/2 tsp asafoetida
• a handful coriander leaves
• 1.5 cups curd
• 0.5 cup butter milk

For tempering

• 1/2 tsp vegetable oil
• 1/2 tsp mustard seeds

Instructions

1. Place the gooseberries/ nellikaai/ amlas in a microwave safe bowl with 1/2 cup water.

2. Microwave on high for 2 minutes to soften the gooseberries.

3. Remove the gooseberries from the bowl & let it cool down a bit. DO NOT discard the water.

4. Break/ chop the gooseberries into pieces (discard seeds) and grind it along with grated coconut, green chillies, fresh coriander leaves, 1T rock salt, 1/2t asafoetida.

5. Add water (the microwave water) to grind the the gooseberry mixture into a smooth puree.

6. In a separate bowl, whisk curd & buttermilk together.

7. Add the gooseberry puree to it & whisk everything together (check & adjust for salt). Nellikaai pachadi/ amla raita ready.

8. Prepare tempering with oil & mustard seeds.

9. Add this on to the pachadi/ raita and ta da, you are good to go. Serve this for thottukka (on the side) of some hot dal rice.

Recipe Notes

1. If you do not want to microwave, then just boil the gooseberries/ nellikaai/ amla in some water on a stove top for 2 minutes or till the gooseberries soften. 
2. Adjust spice levels as per your taste bud. 
3. We had a little less than a handful of coriander leaves because you know Corona but go ahead and add a handful if you got them. 
4. Our curd is nice and thick & hence we add in some butter milk. So adjust the proportions based on how thick/ think you like the raita/ pachadi. 

Stepwise pictures