Vellarikka/ Cucumber Khichadi, is a curd side dish made with cucumber, yoghurt and coconut. This dish is easy to make and refreshingly cool. It is one of the important dishes in the Onam sadya and Vishu sadya menu. It is a yogurt based vegetarian dish, and can be served as a side dish for rice. Well…..I love to have them with chappathis as well. For making kerala khichadi you can use cucumber, ladies finger, carrot, ash gourd, bitter gourd etc. The cooking method is the same only the vegetable has to be replaced. Now let’s try this recipe….with cucumber aka vellarikka, as its called in Malayalam.
Ingredients
- 2 cups, Cucumber (cut into very small pieces)
- 1 cup Yoghurt
- 1/ 2 cup Grated coconut
- 1 Green chilli
- 3 Shallots
- 1/2 tsp. Cumin seeds
- Half tsp. Mustard seeds
- Curry leaves, a sprig
- Salt, to taste
- Oil
- 2 nos. Dry Red Chillies
Method
- In a pan, first pour some oil, splutter mustard seeds. Add dry red chillies, curry leaves and about two chopped shallots.
- Cook the cucumber along with some water and salt in the same pan. Don’t add more water as the cucumber will get mushy.
- Grind together the grated coconut, small onions, chilli and cumin seeds.
- After the cucumber is cooked, add the ground coconut mixture and mix well.
- When the mixture is cool, add yoghurt and mix well.
- Vellarikka khichadi is ready to serve.
