Dill leaves & Chayote skin chutney (Dill herb & chow chow thol Thogayal)

Dill leaves, are very therapeutic and has lot of benefits. It’s a green herb variety, which adds flavors in culinary methods. They help in aiding digestion issues, intestinal gas, and even for loss of appetite or urinary problems. It can be made as dip or sauce or flavored to your meat or vegetables. And can be blended this way of how I have done.

Chayote (Chow chow) is a squash variety from Mexico. They are rich in nutrients and contains antioxidants. Definitely promotes healthy heart and blood sugar control. In my households, when I was growing up these were mostly made as sautéed vegetables drizzled with freshly grated coconuts or made as stew cooked along with some mashed lentils and spiced puree. Chayote skin if it’s soft it surely can be used in cooking, and needn’t have to go for waste. The hard skin usually get discarded.

Let me now start with how I combined Both Dill leaves and chayote skin in my South Indian cooking, that we used to prepare with other things.! Am combining them with these here. And it was amazing in taste, even little kids will love to consume it.

DILL LEAVES & CHAYOTE SKIN CHUTNEY: (Dill leaves & chow chow Thol thogayal)

INGREDIENTS:

Dill leaves- 1 cup

Chayote skin- of 1 veggie

Onions-1

Ghee-3 teaspoons

Thuvar dal-1tablespoon

Urad dal – 1tablespoon

Pepper corns- 1/2 teaspoon

Green chilies- 3-4 no’s

Salt – as needed

Tamarind paste – 1&1/2tablespoon

Grated coconuts – 1 cup

Water-1-2tablespoon

START:

Wash dill leaves and remove the base stem and keep them aside. Peel one chayote and use the skin, or if you have cooked one earlier, keep the skin of it stored in a zip lock and refrigerate and use the same.
In a pan add ghee, Thuvar dal, Urad dal, pepper corns. Saute them and then add the green chilies.
Add onions after that, and the skin of chayote and cook for couple fo minutes and then add the dill leaves and splash some water, cover with lid and cook on medium to low flame.
Then once it’s done, turn off the stove, add salt, coconuts, tamarind paste, and the mentioned quantity of water. Allow them to cool. Grind them in a blender into a thick purée.

It’s ready to be consumed with Rice, Idly, Dosa, Curd rice. And shelf life of it in fridge is 7 days.

NOTE:

You can use red chilies instead of green.
You can add sesame oil instead of ghee.
If you don’t have tamarind paste, use whole tamarind or skip that step, or substitute with 1teaspoon of lemon juice or add tomato pieces.
Instead of fresh coconuts, you can use desiccated or you can Infact skip the step of adding coconuts.
If you like you can add fresh ginger or garlics too.
Some don’t like to sautee dill leaves. You can use uncooked fresh leaves too.
If you don’t like the skin of the chayote, do use half of the chayote veggie, provided you de-seed them.
You can also add fresh turmeric roots, just 1/4 piece.