Karuveppilai Podi : Curry Leaves Podi

Some days ago we trimmed a part of our healthy curry leaf tree since it was growing very big and we were unable to even reach the top of the tree. We at home love curry leaves in our food and in curry leaf chutney. But this much harvest surely needed something else to be done to it too. So I asked on a whatsapp group and posted on my page and everyone got talking about karuveppilai podi and I knew I had to try it.

 

I spoke to a couple of friends, googled some more and came to my recipe. Its been a day I have made it and we have been eating it with almost everything. N ate double the amount of rice he normally eats because of this and night we decided to have a dinner of idlies just because we couldn’t wait another day to taste how the podi tastes with idly

Karuveppilai Podi is not just tasty, it is also supposed to have great healthy benefits. Curry leaves are said to be great for metabolism hence promoting weight loss and good digestion. They are also very high in Iron and Folic Acid. I remember at the time when I had anemia, doctor had advised me to eat curry leaves in the food and not leave them aside and since then I started eating them. Slowly I developed a taste for them and started enjoying eating them and this podi just sat right on all counts.

So here is the recipe

Recipe – Karuveppilai Podi

Source – RM’s Mom and other internet sources

What I used

• 4 cups of curry leaves
• 1/2 cup toor dal
• 1/2 cup urad dal
• 1/2 cup channa dal
• 1 tsp hing
• 10-15 dry red chillies (adjust according to how spicy you want the podi)
• 10-15 garlic pods (unpeeled)
• Salt to taste
• 1 tbsp gingelly oil (sunflower oil will do too)

How I made it

• Dry roast curry leaves till dry, crisp and slightly brown
• Heat gingelly oil and roast the dals and red chillies till they start turning brown
• Pound the garlic pods with the peel. Here is a tip that my MIL gave me whenever you are adding garlic to the podi’s add with peel. One it will hold the flavour better and two it will leave less moisture and hence the podi will last longer.
• Grind the curry leaves and dals.
• Now mix all the ingredients well. The roasted and grinded curry leaves, the roasted and grinded dals, pounded garlic, hing and salt.
• Store in clean, dry jars.
• Serve with rice or idlies with ghee or gingelly oil. A friend said she eats with roti’s too. I think that’s what I will try next