Brussel Sprouts is a green leafy vegetable and looks like a mini cabbage. It’s crunchy texture and subtle sweet taste makes it an eligible candidate for our lip-smacking south-Indian Puli kulambu / tamarind curry. Thanks to my insta buddy Mrs.Padmabalasubramanian aunty for introducing this idea to me. From then, whenever I buy Brussel Sprouts, my go to menu is tamarind curry with some dal-based vegetable kootu. The cute mini sprouts and slight sweet taste makes it a favorite vegetable for kids too. Do try it out and I am sure you will fall for it, just like me 😉
Brussel Sprouts Tamarind Curry
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
Serves: 4
Ingredients
Base ingredients:
- Brussel Sprouts - 20
- Small onions - 15
- Garlic cloves - 5
- Tomato - 2
- Tamarind - Small lemon sized
To Temper:
- Sesame oil - 1 tbsp
- Mustard seeds - ¼ tsp
- Split urad dal - ¼ tsp
- Fenugreek Seeds - 10
- Curry leaves - Few
Spices:
- Turmeric powder - ¼ tsp
- Sambar powder/Gravy powder (link) - 1 tbsp
- Salt - 1 tsp or as required
To grind:
- Coconut - ¼ cup loosely packed
- Small onions - 2
Instructions
- Add 1 tbsp Sesame oil to a dry pan.
- Once pan is hot, add ¼ tsp Mustard seeds.
- Once mustard seeds crackle, simmer the stove and add ¼ tsp split urad dal.
- Once urad dal starts to change color, add 10 fenugreek seeds. Make sure not to darken fenugreek seeds.
- Give a quick stir and add curry leaves along with peeled and lengthwise chopped 15 small onions and 5 garlic cloves. Fry in medium heat.
- Once onions are fried(do not brown), add 2 chopped tomatoes along with ¼ tsp turmeric powder and fry till oil separates.
- Wash Brussel sprouts well and make a deep cut in the middle but make sure not to cut the bottom as the sprout shouldn't be cut into 2 pieces. Through the cut part, open wide to examine if there are any worms/insects. If it is clean, then make another cut (not too deep) to make a plus symbol as shown in below pic:
- Once tomatoes are mushy, add 10 to 20 pieces of 4-slit Brussel Sprouts and fry gently for a minute.
- Simmer the stove and add 1 tbsp sambar powder / any homemade gravy powder /Kulambu Milagaai thool and give a quick stir. If you know that your sambar powder doesn't yield thick gravy, feel free to add a tbsp of coriander powder along with it to make thick gravy.
- Fry the spice powders in low flame for few seconds & add water till Sprouts immersing level. Add ½ tsp salt and cook closed in med-high flame for 5 mins.
- Then add tamarind extract (taken from small lemon sized tamarind soaked in 1 cup hot water) + ½ tsp more salt & again cook closed for 10 mins in med flame.
- Grind ¼ cup coconut, 2 peeled small onions with lil water to fine paste and add it to gravy.
- Once it starts to boil, close the lid & cook in low-medium heat it for 10 to 15 mins until gravy thickens and oil oozes out.
- Garnish with coriander leaves.
Notes
1.Small onions can be replaced by 1 finely chopped big onion. To grind with coconut, use only small onions or else skip it and just grind coconut.
2.Sambar powder can be replaced by 2 tsp coriander powder + 2 tsp chilli powder + ¼ tsp jeera + ¼ tsp pepper powders.
3.Coconut paste is optional. You shall skip it to make dark colored gravy. But coconut balances the spice level and gives body to the gravy. In the first pic in this post, the gravy is made with coconut and in the last pic, it is made without coconut.
4.Increase the quantity of sambar powder or add extra 1 or 2 tsp of plain chilli powder to make a spicy curry.
5.The sprouts are split for 2 reasons. One is to check for worms and the other is to make sure that spices are absorbed well by sprouts.
2.Sambar powder can be replaced by 2 tsp coriander powder + 2 tsp chilli powder + ¼ tsp jeera + ¼ tsp pepper powders.
3.Coconut paste is optional. You shall skip it to make dark colored gravy. But coconut balances the spice level and gives body to the gravy. In the first pic in this post, the gravy is made with coconut and in the last pic, it is made without coconut.
4.Increase the quantity of sambar powder or add extra 1 or 2 tsp of plain chilli powder to make a spicy curry.
5.The sprouts are split for 2 reasons. One is to check for worms and the other is to make sure that spices are absorbed well by sprouts.
This tamarind-based Brussel Sprouts curry goes well with subtle dal based kootu varieties like bottlegourd/ridgegourd kootu(link), raw banana kootu(link) or just enjoy with fryums/papad.
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