Bachali aaku kadala thokku, a flavorful instant chutney made with Malabar spinach stalks and very basic spices. Thokku is a local term for chutney in Telangana and few people also call them as Pachadi. It’s a versatile recipe, absolutely healthy and delicious as very less amount of oil goes into making this recipe.
There’s something about this coarsely hand pounded thokku and it evokes many beautiful memories associated with my Nanamma(Paternal grandmother). This thokku is spicy, tart, and delicious which goes best with any breakfast, flatbreads, rice, and even with crackers. It’s a classic combination to have this instant hand pounded thokku with warm rice topped with THALIMPU NOONE/Oil in Telangana area.
Chutneys have a vast variations across the country of India, starting from Telangana “thokku”, Andhra “Pachadi”, Tamilnadu “Thogayal”, Karnataka “Gojju”, and various North Indian chutneys. The flavors, usage of ingredients, cooking techniques changes with each state and each have their own distinctive flavor. They are sustainable, flavor packed, healthy, and delicious and the presence of this instant thokku/chutney makes a meal wholesome and satisfactory that you keep craving for more.
Unlike the year long pickles, these instant chutneys are not meant to be preserved as the vegetables used in the recipe are flash fried in little oil and later hand pounded/grinded. These thokkulu or instant chutneys are meant to add an intense flavor profile to your meal and it’s also a way of reducing food wastage. Like this BACHALI AAKU KADALA THOKKU, which are made from the malabar spinach stalks which people usually throw away due to its stickiness.
Let me share you the basic ingredients we need to make any Telangana style thokku. We use tamarind as a souring agent, green chillies or red chillies to add a spicy punch, sesame seeds for the rich nutty taste and a hint of jaggery/sugar to balance all the flavors. Typically we use sesame seeds, coriander seeds, cumin seeds, garlic pods, chillies, tamarind, jaggery and salt.
And this dish is a completely based on plant based ingredients and also makes a great accompaniment with any meal. Do try this out and let me know your feedback, but before that please Checkout more traditional and vegetarian Telangana recipes here.
BACHALI AAKU KADALA THOKKU
Ingredients
- 1 cup Malabar spinach stalks
- ¼ cup Sesame seeds
- 5 Garlic cloves
- 1 tbsp Coriander seeds
- 1 tsp Cumin seeds
- 4 Green chillies
- ¼ cup Tamarind
- 2 tbsp Jaggery optional
- Salt to taste
- 3 tbsp Oil
Tempering
- 2 tbsp Oil
- 1 tsp Mustard seeds
- 1 tsp Cumin seeds
- 1 sprig curry leaves
Instructions
Frying the thokku ingredients
- Wash and chop the malabar spinach stalks to ½inch pieces, wash them again and place them in a strainer.
- Heat a pan, add oil, once it's hot add cumin seeds, coriander seeds, garlic cloves, slit green chillies, sesame seeds, tamarind petals and fry until the garlic turns golden brown.
- Now add in chopped malabar spinach stalks, and fry until they turn tender. This may take around 5 minutes on medium heat.
- Add in salt to taste and cook for 2 more minutes.
- Cool the fried stalks and spices and later transfer them to a mortar pestle and pound them by hand or just coarsely grind them in a blender.
- Taste and adjust the salt.
- Transfer the thokku/chutney to a bowl and keep aside until we make a tempering.
Tempering
- Heat a small tadka pan and add oil, once it's hot add mustard seeds, cumin seeds and curry leaves.
- Fry until the curry leaves turns crisp.
- Add the sizzling hot tempering to the pounded thokku/chutney and serve with rice, flatbreads, or with savory breakfasts.
Notes
- You can also add leaves along with stalks, as I use the leaves in making dal stalks get used in making chutneys.
- Chana dal, urad dal also can be added while roasting the chutney ingredients to add more nutty taste and additional protein.
- Tempering is also optional.
- This stays good for a day at room temperature and upto a week in refrigerator.
- Although traditionally we use garlic in thokku, you can omit if you want to make a garlic-free recipe and instead use hing/asafoetida in both roasting the veggies and in the tempering.
If you’ve tried this recipe and loved it, I’d love to hear your feedback by tagging your photo and share it with #mycurryveda on Instagram @mycurryveda or on Facebook . Also follow @taste.of.telangana on Instagram for more traditional recipes, culture and stories.
This is one of the first recipes I had requested and tried first from your blog.this recipe brought back the days when I used to stay in Hyderabad and eat lovely pachadis there.thank you for sharing your recipe with us .
Thank you so much for your lovely feedback prithi and i’m so glad to listen that this dish took you back to Hyderabad!!