Okra Peanut Curry | Vendaikai Verkadalai Poriyal

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I welcome you all to the three-day blogging marathon. This week’s theme is easy vegetarian sides. I am starting it off with our favorite okra stir fry with peanuts, to pair up with the Instant Pot Sambar. So what’s special about this recipe? Usually, if I add coconut to my Poriyal, I don’t add shallots and vice versa. But for this, I included both. Shallots + okra + coconut + peanuts spiced with sambar powder, it can’t go wrong huh? Here is a perfect dry curry for your sambar rice or rasam rice.

I have already posted the simple dry okra curry without onion or coconut but with besan.  You might ask why I am posting a similar curry again. The answer is because it is kiddo’s favorite. One fine day when I was planning to prepare okra curry, I saw that I had 5 shallots in my pantry and handful of grated coconut. I decided to add both to the okra curry to see how it is. Also, that’s when Sharmila posted okra curry with peanuts. That intrigued me and I thought of adding all that day and more than I and M, kiddo liked this curry very much (especially peanuts) and from that point on, this has become staple and I started to add peanuts in all my dry curries. Given the background, doesn’t this need to be documented in my blog space?

Last November, one of the BM themes was “Thali”. But I couldn’t participate that month and oh boy I regretted so much especially for missing that theme. So when I saw this vegetarian side as this month’s theme, I thought of taking it one step further and to make it as a mini thali post.  That’s the main reason for posting back to back instant pot recipes for the past three days from today, I will be posting two recipes per day, one the vegetarian side and the other post is the mini thali post.

This year, I am planning to post more of mini and regular thalis featuring from other cuisines too. (Fingers crossed) So stay tuned for day-to-day thali/meal ideas. Today I am serving this okra curry with my IP sambar. It’s a perfect weekday dinner idea. You can prepare the sambar in IP (recipe here), rice in rice cooker and when those gadgets are doing their job, you can prepare this curry. Viola, less than one hour your meal is ready. More details on the thali post which is coming next…

Ingredients:

• Okra (medium size) – approx 50 (It was more than 3/4 lb)
• Shallots – 5
• Grated coconut – 1/4 cup
• Oil – 1 tbsp + 2 tsp
• Mustard seeds – 1 tsp
• Urad dal – 1 tsp
• Channa dal – 1 tsp
• Hing – 1/4 tsp
• Curry leaves – few
• Turmeric Powder – 1/4 tsp
• Peanuts – 1/4 cup
• Sambar Powder – 2 tsp
• Salt – 1.5 tsp
• Yogurt – 1 tbsp

Prep – Work:

• Chop the okra into small pieces.
• Chop the shallots into small pieces.

Steps:

• In heavy bottom pan or kadai, heat the oil.
• Once the oil is hot, add the mustard seeds, urad dal, channa dal, and hing.
• As the mustard seeds start to splutter, add the curry leaves and chopped shallots.
• Cook until the onion turns translucent.
• Then add the peanuts and turmeric powder and saute for a couple of minutes.
• Now add the chopped okra, sambar powder, and salt. Mix them well and let it cook for 5 minutes over medium heat.
• I usually do not cover and cook okra. I keep the kadai open and kept stirring them for every 2 minutes.

• After 5 minutes, the okra will be gooey. Add this stage add the yogurt. The yogurt removes the stickiness from okra. But when you add it initially, the okra will become more sticky but slowly the stickiness wears away.
• After adding yogurt, cook again for 5 to 6 minutes until the stickiness is gone.
• Now add two more tsp of oil and cook for a couple of minutes in medium heat or let it roast for about 5 minutes over low heat until the crust forms.
• Finally, add the grated coconut and mix well.
• Let it cook for a minute and turn off the heat. It took me a total of 15 minutes.

That’s it. Okra curry is ready.

Notes:

• Instead of shallots, regular onion can be used.
• Also, there is no set measure for peanut and coconut. You can add as per your preference.
• Coconut can be skipped too.
• Adding yogurt is to remove the stickiness from okra. Instead, besan and fine sooji can be used too.
• Before adding coconut, you can let the okra to form the brown crust by cooking over low heat for 5 to 6 minutes.
• Adjust the salt and spice as per your preference.

Sending this recipe to the Blogging Marathon #72. Check out the other participating bloggers here.

Okra Peanut Curry | Vendaikai Verkadalai Poriyal

A simple okra and peanut stir fry with the hint of shallots and coconut.

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Prep Time: 15 mins

Cook Time: 20 mins

Total Time: 35 mins

Course: sides

Cuisine: Indian

Keyword: Okra Peanut Curry

Servings: 4

Author: Srividhya G

Ingredients

• Okra medium size - approx 50 (It was more than 3/4 lb)
• Shallots - 5
• Grated coconut - 1/4 cup
• Oil - 1 tbsp + 2 tsp
• Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
• Urad dal - 1 tsp
• Channa dal - 1 tsp
• Hing - 1/4 tsp
• Curry leaves - few
• Turmeric Powder - 1/4 tsp
• Peanuts - 1/4 cup
• Sambar Powder - 2 tsp
• Salt - 1.5 tsp
• Yogurt - 1 tbsp

Instructions

Prep - Work

• Chop the okra into small pieces.
• Chop the shallots into small pieces.

Steps

• In heavy bottom pan or kadai, heat the oil.
• Once the oil is hot, add the mustard seeds, urad dal, channa dal, and hing.
• As the mustard seeds start to splutter, add the curry leaves and chopped shallots.
• Cook until the onion turns translucent.
• Then add the peanuts and turmeric powder and saute for a couple of minutes.
• Now add the chopped okra, sambar powder, and salt. Mix them well and let it cook for 5 minutes over medium heat.
• I usually do not cover and cook okra. I keep the kadai open and kept stirring them for every 2 minutes.
• After 5 minutes, the okra will be gooey. Add this stage add the yogurt. The yogurt removes the stickiness from okra. But when you add it initially, the okra will become more sticky but slowly the stickiness wears away.
• After adding yogurt, cook again for 5 to 6 minutes until the stickiness is gone.
• Now add two more tsp of oil and cook for a couple of minutes in medium heat or let it roast for about 5 minutes over low heat until the crust forms.
• Finally, add the grated coconut and mix well.
• Let it cook for a minute and turn off the heat. It took me a total of 15 minutes.
• That's it. Okra curry is ready.

Notes

Instead of shallots, regular onion can be used.
Also, there is no set measure for peanut and coconut. You can add as per your preference.
Coconut can be skipped too.
Adding yogurt is to remove the stickiness from okra. Instead, besan and fine sooji can be used too.
Before adding coconut, you can let the okra to form the brown crust by cooking over low heat for 5 to 6 minutes.
Adjust the salt and spice as per your preference.

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