Sodhi | Thenga Paal Kulambu | Watery Coconut Milk Curry | Coconut Milk Vegetable Stew | Maapillai Sodhi Recipe

Sodhi is a very popular South Indian Vegetarian curry prepared using certain vegetables and coconut milk. Its a very mild flavored watery curry and the best thing about this curry is it needs very little oil and ingredients, yet tastes so divine. I tasted this curry in my MIL's home and immediately fell in love with it and got the recipe from her. When I inquired about the curry, she said that the curry is very popular in the South Indian districts such as Tirunelveli and Tanjore, where they used to serve this curry specially on the feast after marriage as a part of the ceremony, hence the name Maapillai Sodhi. Glad I tasted this curry, I definitely felt like I have missed this curry for long. The curry was so mild with a hint of cinnamon flavor and the vegetables in it tasted too good, when accompanied with a spicy side-dish this definitely makes a satisfying platter. It was almost like mor kulambu that has a runny watery consistency. You can call it a coconut milk soup too. The curry is basically prepared with thin and thick coconut milk then flavored with cinnamon; and the addition of lemon lemon perks up the flavors. You can prepare this curry with vegetables like carrots, beans, cauliflower, drumstick, brinjal and potatoes. Who says South Indian curries are spicy and hot? here we have a nice mild and tasty curry that will definitely become one of your delectable favorites. 

INGREDIENTS

Serves 2 people
Total Preparation Time - 30 minutes

1. Coconut - Half of a medium sized coconut 
2. Yellow moong dal / Green gram dal / Paasi Paruppu - 5 tablespoons 
3. Shallots - 5 to 8 
4. Carrots - 1 (chopped into small pieces)
5. Beans - 10 (chopped into small pieces)
6. Potato - 1 (peeled and diced into medium sized cubes) 
7. Green chillies - 1 
8. Garlic pod - 3 
9. Lemon - Juice from half of a lemon 
10. Curry leaves - A handful 
11. Cinnamon stick - 2 small pieces
12. Turmeric powder - 2 pinches 
13. Salt - As per taste 
14. Oil - 1 tablespoon (coconut oil preferably)

PREPARATION METHOD

• Wash moong dal and add it to a cooker. Pour water until there is an inch water above the dal and add salt. Close the cooker and pressure cook it for 10 minutes on low flame. The dal should be well cooked and mushy. 
• Grate the coconut and grind coarsely using a blender. Now pour 100 ml of water and grind again into a fine paste. Then strain using a small pore strainer or a place in a white cloth and squeeze out the thick milk. Set this aside, do not discard the ground coconut mixture, you will need it to extract thin milk. To extract thin milk pour some 500 ml of water to the coconut mixture mix well and extract thin milk from it and set aside. 
• Now place a pot/deep pan on flame, pour the second coconut milk into it and add the chopped onions, chopped beans, cubed potatoes, slit green chilly, garlic pods, a small cinnamon stick, add salt, turmeric powder and cook on low flame.  
• When the vegetables gets half cooked add the cooked moong dal stir well. Check for salt and add if needed. 
• Close the pot/pan with a lid and cook until the vegetables are done. 
• Open the pot and pour the thick coconut milk after the veggies gets cooked well, stir well. Cook only until a boil, do not cook further. Pour the lemon juice now and remove from flame. 
• Place a pan / tadka pan on flame and pour 1 tbsp of oil to it. After the oil heats up, add the other cinnamon stick and curry leaves and let it splutter. Add this tempering mixture into the prepared sodhi. 
• Close pot with a lid for few minutes for the flavors to incorporate into the kulambu, then serve!! 

TIP 1: The curry should be watery, not thick. It should be very runny in consistency. 

TIP 2: You can even saute the garlic pods and then add it to the curry, this will give it a very nice flavor.

TIP 3: Turmeric powder gives a nice mild yellow color, but you can avoid it to get a white colored sodhi.

TIP 4: See that you use fresh coconut only then the curry will taste good. 

TIP 5: You can also add cauliflower, brinjal and drumstick along with carrots and beans. 

A mild tasting and pleasant coconut milk curry is now ready!! Serve with steaming hot rice and enjoy!!



Sending this recipe this to Vegan Thursday