A delicious combination of yogurt, coconut and okra, this South Indian Vendakkai Pachadi is prepared during Onam Sadhya. Serve it as a side dish with your everyday meals. Try it!
Here are a few more Pachadi recipes that can be prepared as a side dish for your weekday meals – Cabbage Pachadi, Sorakaya Pachadi, Tomato Pachadi, Beetroot Pachadi and Kerala Style Pineapple Pachadi.
About This Recipe
Vendakkai Pachadi (Okra Pachadi) is a traditional South Indian side dish with resembles to North Indian raita. It is popularly served in the Onam Sadhya or weddings.
Yogurt is mixed with a coconut green chilli paste and then tempered with bhindi, curry leaves, lentils and dry red chillies. It is super easy and comes together in just 15 minutes.
It can be served on the side along with your everyday meals such as sambar rice, rasam rice or any curry and roti/paratha.
Ingredients
Curd – Use homemade or store bought, make sure that it is fresh and not sour.
Coconut paste – Fresh coconut, green chillies and cumin seeds are ground together to make a spicy paste. Adjust the amount of green chillies depending on how spicy you want the pachadi to be.
Tempering – Raita is tempered with oil, okra/bhindi, curry leaves, dry red chillies, lentils, salt, hing and turmeric powder.
Use firm and fresh bhindi for the raita. Avoid the ones that are very soft or has black marks on it.
Urad dal and chana dal adds a great crunch along with soft bhindi.
Avoid hing to make it gluten free.
Pachadi v/s Raita
Pachadi and raita both are yogurt/curd based recipes, but different in terms of taste and flavour. Pachadi comes from the southern past of India where yogurt is mixed with fresh coconut paste, whereas Raita comes from the northern part of Indian and does not use coconut.
Pachadi is often tempered, whereas traditional raita is not. Pachadi is seasoned with lentils, curry leaves, mustard seeds, and raita is seasoned with chaat masala, cumin powder, chillies and herbs.
Serving Suggestions
Okra Pachadi can be served as a side dish with Indian meals. It tastes great with rasam rice, sambar rice or a simple curry/sabzi and roti as well.
You can also serve it with mixed rice, biryani or pulao recipes.
Storing Suggestions
Vendakkai Pachadi taste the best when served fresh, but you can store the leftovers for a day or two in the fridge in an air tight container. As it has fresh coconut, it won’t last for long. Stir it well before serving.
It is not freezer friendly! It will split while thawing and won’t tastes great.
Step by Step Recipe
Grind coconut, green chillies and cumin seeds to make a smooth paste. Use little water to grind.
Whisk the yogurt and add the coconut paste in it and mix well.
Add water to adjust the consistency of the raita.
Heat vegetable oil in a pan.
Add mustard seeds, urad dal, chana dal, dry red chillies, and curry leaves and fry until the dal turns golden brown.
Add bhindi, salt, thing, and turmeric powder and fry until bhindi turns crispy.
Remove the pan from heat and let the bhindi cool slightly.
Add the bhindi in the curd mixture and mix well.
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Recipe Card
Vendakka Pachadi Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup Fresh Coconut (Chopped)
- 3-4 Green Chillies
- 1 teaspoon Cumin Seeds
- 2 cups Curd
- 3 tablespoon Vegetable Oil
- 1 teaspoon Mustard Seeds
- 1 teaspoon Urad Dal
- 1 teaspoon Chana Dal
- 2 Dry Red Chillies
- 200 g Bhindi / Okra (Chopped)
- Salt to taste
- ¼ teaspoon Hing
- ½ teaspoon Turmeric Powder
Instructions
- Grind coconut, green chillies and cumin seeds to make a smooth paste.
- Use little water to grind.
- Whisk curd and add the coconut paste in it and mix well.
- Add water to adjust the consistency of the raita.
- Heat vegetable oil in a pan.
- Add mustard seeds, urad dal, chana dal, dry red chillies and curry leaves and fry until the dal turns golden brown.
- Add bhindi, salt, hing and turmeric powder and fry until bhindi turns crispy.
- Remove the pan from heat and let the bhindi cool slightly.
- Add the bhindi in the curd mixture and mix well.
- Garnish with coriander leaves.
Sujatha
It was good.