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June 22, 2007

Beetroot Chutney



One trip to Seema's Recipe Junction is all it took for me to fall in love with Carrot Chutney. The colour, the presentation, the simplicity of it all. I made it that same evening and posted it almost immediately. Imitation sure is the sincerest form of flattery.


But then, variety is also, most definitely, the spice of life. So, when I found a fantastic recipe such as this, I wanted to replicate it. I wanted to push the limits of my imagination. I wanted to see how far I could go. (Oh cut this philosophical pain, I hear you scream!) As all of you know by now, all I really wanted was to make life easy for me. Lazy, impatient old me.


We bought some beetroots at the supermarket last week. I've always eaten beetroot, but I had no clue how to cook it. I always assumed I could make it just like one makes beans etc, in the form of what konkanis call "upkari". But nothing motivated me to try. Ever. But S looked longingly at the beets and we bought some. (I had to throw a pack away because they rotted in the heat and S kept telling me there is no need to put them in the fridge as they are like potatoes. News flash: they're like carrots!!) That got me thinking. What a carrot can do, a beet can beat!

So, I made the easiest dish that one can possibly make using beetroots. The colour was awesome and the taste, simply superb. I made a simple meal of rice, moong dal sambar and this chutney. We ate it with some thengai podi that Amma had made. With some raw banana chips, avakaya and curd, our meal was complete. A feast! (Considering yours truly usually cooks up one dish meals!)

Ingredients:

1 large beetroot, sliced
3 green chillies
3 pods of garlic
2 tbsp coconut, scrapped
Salt to taste
For the Tempering

1 tsp Oil
1/4 tsp Mustard Seeds
1/4 tsp Asafoetida
4-5 Curry Leaves

I cooked the beetroot slices in the microwave for 2-3 minutes with very little water. I ground this with all the ingredients together and then prepared the tempering and mixed the two.

Seema: can I thank you enough?

9 comments:

Suganya said...

Wow. Looks so beetroot-y :8 ... You can even make a sweet jam with beetroot. You may like that one too.

Raaga said...

@Suganya: I've never tried making jams of any sort. I went to the juice jam preservation classes... but all that training was useless :-)

aruna said...

Hi Raaga,
I never tried this beetroot chutney before. What goes well with this? Rice or Roti!
Looks beatutiful though!

Raaga said...

@Aruna: It looks very beautiful and tastes nice too. I served it with rice. As something to be mixed with it... and I also ate it as a side dish with dal rice.

J said...

Ah, so you are the singing chef! i grate the beets and make this as a side dish. Looks great!

Raaga said...

@Jyothsna: Welcome to my blog. I am the sin ging chef. I just tried this out and it came out great.

Lakshmi said...

Hi Raaga, I almost finished writing my version of beetroot chutney and took a break to do some blogpatroling. What a coincidence to find another version of the same chutney! Will post my version soon on my blog.

Raaga said...

@ToM: Hello!! Mine was an experiment... fortunately a successful one.

laxmi said...

tried this.came out well. i couldnt get adjusted tot he sweetness of the beetroot with rice, so added some curd.. it was really good..