Vengaya Kosu | Simple Onion Tomato gravy

This recipe for Vengaya Kosu comes from my maternal grand mother. It consists of very few ingredients and there are few tricks (which we will see later) to make it taste great. I have been eating this from my childhood and it is my most favorite side dish that goes well with chapathi, idly and dosa.

Also I have used homemade chilli powder which is prepared by sun-drying the red chillies and coriander seeds (ratio 1 : 1.5) and then sent to the grinding mill to be pulverized into a fine powder. However my mom does this for me and sends the chilli powder to me through courier (since I am not in India). Those who do not have this homemade chilli powder can use store bought chilli powder and coriander powder (1.5 teaspoon and 2 teaspoons respectively).

Ingredients:

1. Oil – 4 tablespoons
2. Mustard seeds – 1 teaspoon
3. Urad dhal – 2 teaspoons
4. Channa dhal – 2 teaspoons
5. Green chilli – 1
6. Onion – 1 cup (finely chopped)
7. Garlic – 4 big cloves (chopped)
8. Tomato – 1/2 cup (finely chopped)
9. Turmeric powder – 1/2 teaspoon
10. Homemade chilli powder – 1 heaping tablespoon ( or store bought chilli powder : 1.5 teaspoons, coriander powder : 2 teaspoons)
11. Water – 1 cup
12. Salt – as required
13. Rice flour – 1 teaspoon (optional)

Method:

1. First, heat a large pan with oil. Add mustard seeds and allow to splutter. After the mustard seeds splutter, add urad dhal, channa dhal, green chilli, garlic and onions.

2. Please use oil liberally as mentioned in the ingredients section. This dish becomes tasty only when the onion gets nicely sauteed in the right amount of oil. Also take care to finely chop the onions. The above two factors plays a major role in increasing the taste of the dish.

Now, nicely saute the onions until they become translucent as shown below:

3. Then add the tomatoes and saute until they turn mushy. After that lower the flame, then add, turmeric powder, homemade chilli powder, salt and give a quick mix.

4. Now add 1 cup water and allow to simmer for 15 to 20 minutes. The raw smell of the chilli powder should not be felt after this stage. Then do the taste test. Adjust the amount of salt if you need more. Also, if you feel that the gravy is too watery, add 1 teaspoon of rice flour and simmer for 5 more minutes. If you feel the gravy is too thick, add water accordingly to your consistency and simmer for 5 more minutes.

5. Serve hot with idly, dosa or chapathi. Stays good for 4 to 5 days in the refrigerator and 24 hours in room temperature.

Tip : Use this as a base gravy and kindle your imagination to create many varieties (using paneer, potatoes, baby corn, capsicum etc). Also this can be made in bulk and kept in the freezer section for about a month.

Visit my other side dish varieties:

1. Tomato Peanut chutney
2. Onion Tomato chutney