Plain Salna (Empty Parotta Chalna) is a South Indian street style curry made with onion and tomato as its base ingredients. This recipe is super easy to make at home and requires only pantry staples (vegan, gluten-free).
Here are some more South Indian curries that you may like – Vegetable Stew, Veg Kurma, Mor Kuzhambu, Ulli Theeyal, and Kadala Curry.
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About This Recipe
Plain Salna (Empty Parotta Chalna, Empty Salna, Veg Salna) is a street-style thin gravy popular in Tamil Nadu state of India.
If you go to Tamil Nadu, you will find street carts and roadside street food shops selling salna and hot parottas and a huge crowd gathered around the carts relishing this humble combination.
Empty Salna is a tomato-onion-based gravy that has a prominent flavor from fresh coconut. It comes together in under 30 minutes and used pantry staples.
Salna is very similar to a Hyderabadi salan or a biryani gravy when it comes to its color and consistency but in terms of its tastes, it’s very different and unique.
Traditionally, it is served with flaky Malabar parotta, but I even enjoy this curry with appam, neer dosa, or ghee roast dosa.
This plain salna recipe is vegan and gluten-free and can be easily scaled up.
I also have a Chicken Salna Recipe which is also very delicious. Do try it too!
Ingredients
To Make The Coconut Paste
Salna recipe uses a fresh coconut paste that is prepared with ingredients such as fresh coconut, fennel seeds (saunf), cinnamon, cloves (laung), green cardamoms, white poppy seeds, cashew nuts, and green chilies.
You can adjust the green chillies as per your taste.
Buy already grated fresh coconut from the freezer section of an Indian grocery store to save time.
For The Gravy
To make the gravy, you will need some everyday ingredients such as vegetable oil, whole spices, fresh curry leaves, onions, green chilies, salt, ginger-garlic paste, tomatoes, spice powders, and cilantro (fresh coriander leaves).
You will need whole spices like bay leaves (tejpatta), cinnamon (dalchini), cloves (laung), black peppercorns (kali mirch), and star anise (chakr phool).
To enhance the flavor a little further, add in some spice powders such as coriander powder, Kashmiri red chilli powder, turmeric powder, and garam masala powder.
How To Make Plain Salna
Make The Coconut Paste
Add ½ cup chopped or grated fresh coconut, 1 teaspoon fennel seeds, 1-inch piece of cinnamon stick, 2-3 cloves, 2-3 whole green cardamoms, 1 teaspoon white poppy seeds, 8-10 cashew nuts, and 1 green chili to a blender.
Add ¼ cup of water and blend to make a fine paste.
Make The Curry
In A Pressure Cooker
Heat 3 tablespoon vegetable oil in a pressure cooker over medium-high heat.
Once the oil is hot, add 2 bay leaves, 1-inch piece of cinnamon stick, 2-3 cloves, 2-3 black peppercorns, and 1-star anise, and let them crackle for 4-5 seconds.
Add 10-12 curry leaves, 1 cup thinly sliced onions, ¼ teaspoon salt, and 1 green chili pepper (slit into half).
Fry until the onions are slightly browned (4-6 minutes), stirring frequently.
Now add 2 teaspoon ginger garlic paste and fry for 2 minutes.
Add ½ cup of sliced tomatoes and cook for 2-3 minutes. Stir frequently while cooking.
Add 1 teaspoon coriander powder, 2 teaspoon Kashmiri red chili powder, ½ teaspoon turmeric powder, and 2 teaspoon garam masala powder, and fry for another minute.
Now add the ground paste that we made earlier along with 2 cups of water. Add 1 teaspoon salt and stir well.
Close the lid of the cooker and pressure cook for 2 whistles on medium-high heat.
Remove the cooker from heat and let the pressure release naturally and then open the lid.
Check for salt and add more if needed.
Garnish with 2 tablespoon chopped cilantro and serve hot.
In An Instant Pot
To make salsa in an instant pot, press SAUTE mode and follow the steps until the lid of the cooker is closed.
Now press CANCEL and then press PRESSURE COOK.
Set the timer to 4 minutes at high pressure.
Once the timer goes off, let the pressure release naturally for 10 minutes. Release the remaining pressure manually and open the lid.
Pro Tips By Neha
You can add a few mutton and chicken pieces to the salna before pressure cooking. Then either serve the salna with them or remove them and use them in other recipes. They add flavor to empty salna.
You can swap cashew nuts with peanuts or roasted gram.
Frequently Asked Questions
Salan is a Hyderabadi curry and salna is a Tamil Nadu curry. These two dishes look very similar in terms of color and consistency but are very different in terms of taste.
One of the main difference is the use of peanuts. In salan, it is one of the most ingredients and the thickness is achieved with the use of peanuts whereas, in salna, the thickness is achieved with the use of tomatoes and onions.
In salna, fresh coconut is used to make a paste and in salan, dry coconut is used. Though these differences are subtle, it does bring a lot of change in taste.
Serving Suggestions
Parotta Salna is a very popular combination. It is traditionally served with hot and flaky Malabar Parotta. You can also serve it with Tawa Paratha or Lachha Paratha.
It also goes well with rice recipes like Lemon Rice, Tamarind Rice, Jeera Rice, Ghee Rice, etc.
Plain Salna also tastes great with Chapathi, Plain Dosa, Appam, Ghee Roast Dosa, Neer Dosa, Idiyappam, and Idli.
This salna gravy is also used to make Kothu Paratha, so in case you have some leftover curry, you can try that recipe too.
Storage Suggestions
Empty Salna can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 4 days. Reheat it in a pan over the stovetop or in a microwave.
You can also freeze it for a month. Thaw and reheat before serving.
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Recipe Card
Street Style Plain Salna Recipe (Empty Parotta Chalna)
Equipment
Ingredients
For The Coconut Paste
- ½ cup chopped fresh coconut
- 1 teaspoon fennel seeds (saunf)
- 1 inch piece of cinnamon stick (dalchini)
- 2-3 cloves (laung)
- 2-3 whole green cardamoms (hari elaichi)
- 1 teaspoon white poppy seeds
- 8-10 cashew nuts
- 1 green chili (chopped)
For The Gravy
- 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 2 whole bay leaves
- 1 inch piece of cinnamon stick
- 2-3 cloves (laung)
- 2-3 whole black peppercorns (kali mirch)
- 1 whole star anise (chakr phool)
- 10-12 curry leaves
- 1 cup thinly sliced onions
- 1 green chili (slit into half)
- 1 and ¼ teaspoon salt (divided)
- 2 teaspoons ginger garlic paste
- ½ cup sliced tomatoes
- 1 teaspoon coriander powder
- 1 teaspoon Kashmiri red chili powder
- ½ teaspoon turmeric powder
- 2 teaspoons garam masala powder
- 2 tablespoons chopped cilantro (fresh coriander leaves)
Instructions
Make The Coconut Paste
- Add coconut, fennel seeds, cinnamon, cloves, green cardamoms, poppy seeds, cashew nuts, and green chili to a blender.
- Add ¼ cup of water and blend to make a smooth paste.
Make The Curry
In A Pressure Cooker
- Heat oil in a pressure cooker over medium-high heat.
- Once the oil is hot, add bay leaves, cinnamon, cloves, black peppercorns, and star anise, and let them crackle for 4-5 seconds.
- Add curry leaves, onions, and green chili.
- Add ¼ teaspoon salt and fry until the onions are slightly browned (4-6 minutes), stirring frequently.
- Add ginger garlic paste and fry for 2 minutes.
- Now add tomatoes and cook for 2-3 minutes. Stir frequently while cooking.
- Add coriander powder, chili powder, turmeric powder, and garam masala powder, and fry for another minute.
- Now add the ground paste that we made earlier along with 2 cups of water. Add 1 teaspoon salt and stir well.
- Close the lid of the cooker and pressure cook for 2 whistles on medium-high heat.
- Remove the cooker from heat and let the pressure release naturally and then open the lid.
- Check for salt and add more if needed.
- Garnish with cilantro and serve hot.
In An Instant Pot
- To make salsa in an instant pot, press SAUTE mode and follow the steps until the lid of the cooker is closed.
- Now press CANCEL and then press PRESSURE COOK.
- Set the timer to 4 minutes at high pressure.
- Once the timer goes off, let the pressure release naturally for 10 minutes. Release the remaining pressure manually and open the lid.
swetha v
it tastes very nice thank you so much