Mint Chutney (aka Puthina Thogayal in Tamil)
Prep time - under 5 mins
Cook time - under 5 mins
Cool time – 15 mins
Grind time – 3 min
Serves – 2
Mint leaves: (Plucked and washed well) One cup
Green chili: slit and chopped (0.5/1/2 depending on your tolerance for “hotness”)
Tamarind paste: 0.5 teaspoon
Ginger: (finely chopped) 0.5 teaspoon
Oil: 1.5 tablespoon (can be any of gingelly/vegetable/olive)
Mustard seeds: 1 teaspoon
Hing (Asafetida): 0.25 teaspoon (really a few pinches for flavoring)
Urad dal: 1 tablespoon
Salt: 0.5 teaspoon (less is OK, you can add later depending on taste)
Optional:
Coriander leaves: (Plucked and washed) 0.25 cup
Curry leaves: about 10
Dry red chili: 1 (if you want to make it spicy hot) broken into bits with hand
Preparation
1. Wash the mint leaves thoroughly; (optional) wash the coriander leaves thoroughly
2. Wash the curry leaves thoroughly
3. Chop the green chili and ginger.
Cooking
1. Heat oil in a frying pan; add mustard seeds when you start heating the oil
2. When mustard seeds start sputtering, add Urad dal, hing, red chili bits
3. When the urad daal starts turning golden in color, lower the flame, add chopped green chili,
ginger, and curry leaves
4. Fry in low flame for a minute or two
5. Lower the flame to the lowest setting
6. Add the mint leaves and gently sauté for about 2-3 minutes; make sure the mint leaves retain
the greenness (over sauteing will turn them black which you don’t want to happen)
7. Add coriander leaves to the pan and gently sauté for another minute
Cooling
1. Let the sauteed mix sit for about 15 minutes to cool off
Grinding
1. Transfer the sauteed mix into a grinder (mixie)
2. Add tamarind paste to the mix
3. Add salt to the mix
4. Grind the mix, adding water sparingly (for the entire ground you should not be adding more
than 0.25 cups of water, as otherwise the end result will not be a nice paste)
5. You may have to stop/stop the grinding to make sure that the ingredients mix well and get
uniformly ground.
How to use Mint Thogayal?
1. You can mix it with “temperate hot” rice, and ghee (clarified butter) or oil (just a little to taste)
and eat with potato chips on the side.
2. You can use it a sandwich spread.
Bon Appetite!
Images (for items you may not be familiar with…)
1. Urad daal (google “urad daal” to purchase online or visit any nearby Indian store; even
supermarkets like publix/Kroger/Walmart/Farmer’s market may carry them)
2. Tamarind paste (google “tamarind concentrate” to purchase online or visit any nearby Indian
store; even supermarkets like publix/Kroger/Walmart/Farmer’s market may carry them)
3. Mustard seeds (google “mustard seeds” to purchase online or visit any nearby Indian store;
even supermarkets like publix/Kroger/Walmart/Farmer’s market may carry them)
4. Hing (Asafetida) (google “asafetida powder” to purchase online or visit any nearby Indian store;
even supermarkets like publix/Kroger/Walmart/Farmer’s market may carry them)
5. Dry red chili (google “dry whole red chili” to purchase online or visit any nearby Indian store;
even supermarkets like publix/Kroger/Walmart/Farmer’s market may carry them)
