Kadala curry in Kerala (the region of India I belong to) is a spicy gravy based recipe made originally with black chickpeas and fresh coconut. It is usually served specifically with kerala puttu (as I did in the video) or appam. It is hands down my FAVOURITE breakfast of all times!
What is Kerala Garam Masala?
Kerala Garam Masala is VERY different from the North Indian Garam Masala most people are used to. The spices have sweeter notes because of the fennel and mace. All the ingredients can be easily found in your local Indian store 🙂
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Check out these other recipes from my page:
Kerala Kadala curry/Kari
This spicy and coconut-y Kerala Kadala curry is the perfect accompaniment to steamed rice based dishes.
Ingredients
Chickpeas/Kadala
- 1 cup/ 180g dry black chickpeas baby brown chickpeas or kala chana
- 1 tea bag for dark colour optional
Coconut paste
- 2½ cups water
- ¾ cup coconut pieces or ½ cup grated coconut, sub with coconut milk or desiccated coconut
Kadala curry Base
- ⅓ cup chopped shallots if available, use pearl onions
- 1 inch ginger finely chopped
- 1 or 2 green chilies or serrano peppers chopped
- A bunch curry leaves about 10
- ½ tsp mustard seeds
- ¼ tsp turmeric powder ground turmeric
- 1 tsp red chili powder to taste
- 1 tsp ground coriander
- ¼ tsp ground black pepper
- 1 tbsp coconut oil
- 1 to 2 cups water or the black chickpea water
- salt to taste
Kerala Garam Masala (makes about 3 times this recipe)
- 5 thin strands of mace
- 2 inch cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon fennel seeds
- 6 cloves
- 1/4 tsp grated/ground nutmeg
Instructions
Chickpeas
- Pressure cook (overnight) soaked chickpeas with salt, tea bag and 6-8 cups water until tender.
Kerala Garam Masala
- Dry roast the Kerala Garam Masala spices till aromatic. Very slightly, do not let it burn!
- Grind them in a coffee grinder or a mortar pestle and store in a small air tight jar.
Coconut Paste
- Add coconuts to a blender with just enough water to blend it smooth. Set aside.
Kadala Curry
- Heat coconut oil in a pan.
- Add mustard seeds and let them pop.
- Add chopped shallots. Stir and saute for a minute.
- Then add the aromatics- ginger, chopped green chilies, curry leaves and saute till the shallots turn light brown.
- Then add ground spices- red chili powder, coriander powder, black pepper and 1 tsp of the Kerala garam masala.
- Saute for a minute on low heat.
- Then add the ground coconut paste and mix well. Saute for about 5 minutes on a low heat.
- Add the cooked black chickpeas (Kadala) and the chickpea water and stir.
- Season with the salt and cook kadala until you get the right consistency.
- Serve kadala curry hot with puttu, like I did here or with dosa (recipe on the blog) or rice.
Notes
- Sub black chickpeas with white chickpeas or any other beans you have
- Scaled this recipe as per your needs (make smaller or bigger batch).
- Sub fresh coconut with coconut milk, frozen coconut or unsweetened desiccated coconut.
- If cooking chickpeas in a pot, add the soaked chickpeas to 3 cups water in a pot and the salt. Cover and bring the water to a boil. Cook on medium to till they are tender.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
This was phenomenal. I followed the recipe to a T, other than the whole coconut (subbed one can of coconut milk). Your instructions are easy to follow and once I got all the ingredients, affordable too. The flavors are rich and incredible, spicy with a creamy sweetness from the nutmeg and coconut with kicks of ginger in between the crunchy curry leaves. I’m afraid any tomato-based curry and masala after this will just pale in comparison.
Thank you so much for your detailed and positive feedback, Vera! I’m so happy to know that you loved it. Yeah, Kerala curries are next level! 😉
Kadala curry is always an obsession for Malayalis. Especially when you need a curry for Kerala delicacies like puttu and appam.. This recipe is a quick and a must-try one 🥰😋
Girl, I totally agree!!! This kadala is perfect for appam, putty, dosa, or whatever! I even have it with rotis, coz why not?!
Thanks for the review!