Zucchini Cucumber Pachadi

- Submitted by Beryl

(Zucchini Vellarikkai Pachadi, Zucchini Cucumber & Yogurt Curry)

Pachadi is a dish commonly prepared in Kerala state of India for lunch, where the vegetable (cucumber or mango or squash or beetroot or bitter gourd or pineapple) is cooked in yoghurt and coconut. My kids enjoy eating this as it is less spicy compared to many other Indian dishes and it looks like yoghurt. Cucumber Pachadi is one of the important side dish in Onam Sadya.

In this recipe, the main vegetables are Cucumber and Zucchini. Cucumber is found in almost all vegetable shops and Zucchini may be found in selected vegetable shops in India.

Recipe for Zucchini Cucumber Pachadi

Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 15 minutes
Serves: 4 - 6

Ingredients

• Zucchini- 2 cups (skin peeled and cut into small pieces)
• Cucumber- 1 cup (skin and seeds removed and cut into small pieces)
• Salt- as necessary
• Water- 1/4 cup
• Yogurt - 1 cup (beaten)

For Grinding

• Coconut- 1 cup
• Green chili - 3 to 4 numbers
• Cumin seeds- 1 tbsp
• Shallots (Sambar Onions) - 3 to 4 numbers
• Yoghurt- 1/4 cup
• Ginger- 1 tbsp
• Salt- as necessary
• Water- as necessary

For Tempering

• Mustard Seeds- 1 tbsp
• Coconut oil - 1 tbsp
• Curry leaves - 8 to 10 numbers
• Cumin seeds - 1 tbsp
• Dry Red chilies - 3 to 4 numbers
• Shallots (optional) - 1 or 2

Method

1. First peel the skin of cucumber and zucchini and cut into small pieces. If the seeds are big and hard, it is better to remove the seeds in cucumber. 
2. In a pan, put the cut vegetables, add some salt and 1/4 cup of water and keep it on the stove and turn it on. Cook for 5-7 minutes till the vegetables become soft.
3. In the mixie jar, put all the ingredients for grinding in the mixie and grind well, so that it becomes a nice paste.
4. Add this ground paste into the cooked vegetable and let it cook on low flame for 2 minutes. Once the raw smell disappears, switch off stove.
5. Remove this from the stove top and allow it to cool. When it cools completely, add 3/4 cup of beaten yoghurt to this and mix.
6. Now lets do the tempering. Heat coconut oil in a pan, add the mustard seeds, cumin seeds, dry red chilies, chopped shallots and curry leaves. When the mustard seeds start to pop and the shallots become brown in color, remove it from the flame and pour it over the prepared pachadi.
7. Mix well and check the salt. Adjust if needed. Enjoy with rice.

Tips

• In Kerala dishes, coconut oil is used widely. This recipe tastes good if prepared in coconut oil. If you do not have coconut oil or cannot use it due to health reasons, you can use other vegetable oils also.
• Do not cook or heat pachadi after adding yoghurt. It will alter the taste of pachadi.
• You can also prepare this recipe using zucchini alone. You can also prepare beetroot pachadi, yellow cucumber pachadi, pineapple pachadi, mango pachadi, squash pachadi and bitter gourd pachadi, making slight variation in the above procedure.

More Zucchini Recipes

Zuccini Chutney	Zucchini Curry
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