Coconut Chutney Recipe | How to Make Coconut Chutney

Vegan Coconut Chutney Recipe

Coconut chutney – can you imagine eating pongal without it? It is a must have for us! Yum!

Coconut is a super versatile nut, and goes well with any sort of recipe, savory and sweet, adding its unique flavor to the dish. In South India, coconut is used in pretty much every dish, from chutney to sambar to poriyal to avial!

Chutneys today are popularly garnished with an oil tadka. This is unnecessary and does not add any health benefit to the chutney when nuts are already used. In fact, nut-based chutneys have plenty of natural oil by themselves, from the whole nut. This oil is of much better quality than any extracted oil, whether it is unrefined or refined.

Raw fresh coconut is a neutral food, health-wise. If you want to make this even healthier, replace coconut with almonds or walnuts!

Here’s a super easy and delicious coconut chutney recipe. It can be used as dip with vegetables or salads, or with pongal, idli, dosa or roti. We have replaced green chili with pepper, to bring out spice that does not irritate the intestines. Bring out the creative side in you using herbs and spices to flavor this versatile chutney. Hope you enjoy it! 🙂

Whole Food Plant Based Coconut Chutney Recipe

Course: Chutneys, Side Dish for Course 3: Grain Dishes at Lunch & Dinner Meals
Cuisine: Satwik South Indian Recipe
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Servings: 2 people

INGREDIENTS

1/2 cup Fresh Coconut grated or cut
1/4 tsp Black Pepper
1 cm piece Ginger
2 tsp Roasted Gram Hurigadale, putani, pottukadalai
2 tsp Miso Paste (Healthy Salt Alternative. See Nutrition Science Highlights below)
1 tsp Mustard Seeds
2 tsp Coriander leaves chopped
Water as required
1 pinch Asafoetida / Hing

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Grind coconut with black pepper, and make it into a fine paste. Add just enough water to get the right consistency.
2. Pour the chutney into a bowl and garnish with chopped coriander leaves.
3. Dry roast mustard seeds until they just start popping. When they do, immediately pour them on to the coconut chutney, and serve with pongal, dosa or roti!

Plant Based Chef Pro Tips

1. Squeeze some lemon juice or add amla to make it tangy.
2. Any herb can be used instead of coriander leaves.
3. Do not add too much water as coconut chutney will become too watery.
4. If coconut chutney does become too watery, squeeze lemon juice and dilute it further to make coconut thambulli!

Nutrition Science Highlights for WFPB Coconut Chutney Recipe

1. Why Miso Paste? Miso paste is fermented & salted soya bean paste. American Heart Association Maximum recommended maximum daily salt intake of 3.75 grams per person to minimise risk of high blood pressure, stomach cancer and chronic kidney disease. In addition to helping us restrict salt intake, replacing salt with miso paste also helps by neutralising the negative effects of salt by soya phytonutrients. You can easily make fresh miso paste at home by mixing 100 grams of cooked soya paste with 10 grams of salt, or 10 tablespoons of cooked soya paste with 1 tablespoon of salt. If making at home, ensure to use immediately, or freeze in batches to use later. Or, simply use 3.75 grams of salt or less per day per person and add 18 to 20 grams (dry weight) of soya beans in any dishes, spread through the day!
2. Why mustard seeds? Myrosinase, an important enzyme in cruciferous vegetables such as knol kohl, cauliflower, cabbage, radish, and broccoli, is essential to form sulforaphance, a powerful anti-cancer compound in the body when we consume these vegetables. However, when they are cooked, myrosinase gets deactivated and sulforaphane does not get synthesised. By adding raw or slightly roasted mustard seeds, or a little of any raw cruciferous vegetable to the dish after cooking, we can add myrosinase back into the dish and protect the powerful anti-cancer functions of cruciferous vegetables.
3. Why nuts instead of oil? Whole foods are healthier than processed foods. When nuts are pressed and oil is extracted, fiber and phytonutrients are lost, along with many other nutrients. Therefore, whole nuts are much healthier than oils, whether cold-pressed or refined.