5 CHUTNEY RECIPES FOR DOSA, IDLI | HOW TO MAKE CHUTNEY

5 quick & easy chutney recipes for dosa, idli. A perfect accompaniment for South Indian Breakfast.

Chutney is a popular spicy or savory condiment or a dip from Indian cuisine that can be served from breakfast to lunch, snack, or dinner as an accompaniment with almost anything.

In India, chutneys are served with dosa, idli, vada, buns, chapati, puri, upma, pongal, poha, etc., for breakfast. These can also be served as a dip with snacks like pakora (bhaji or fritters). It can also be used as a spread for sandwiches, vada pav, chapati rolls, kati rolls, etc. Some chutneys used for preparing chaats are sweet.

Some chutneys are also used as a side dish along with steamed rice.

The texture of chutney varies from smooth to coarse or chunky, thick to watery. Some chutneys are cooked, while others are blended raw with fresh herbs.

In the olden days, chutneys were made using mortar and pestle or in large stone grinders. Nowadays, we use a mixie or mixer grinder or blender to make chutneys.

I can go on with a list of various chutney recipes and their variations prepared across India, but that would require a dedicated series of blog posts - therefore, I will defer. To those who are new to chutneys, these can be prepared with any of the following ingredients or their combinations - coconut, lentils, nuts, whole spices, coriander leaves, mint leaves (pudina), spinach, eggplant, cranberry, apple, dosakaayaa, ginger, garlic, tamarind, dates, mango, pear, tomato, onion, etc. The list is endless. Some also use cured meat and dried fish to make non-vegetarian chutneys. 

Today's post is about some of the simple, easy-to-make popular South Indian chutney recipes with coconut (thengai or nariyal) being the key ingredient. The best part about making chutney is it is ready in less than 5 minutes.

The chutneys below can be served with any South Indian Breakfast recipes from dosa to idli or with snacks like bhaji (bonda or pakora) or even as a spread with vada pav. And yes, these are also perfect accompaniments for jolada rotti, ragi rotti, chapati, puris, etc.

To be very honest, while making chutney, we don't measure or follow a standard recipe. According to taste buds and ingredients available in the pantry, we end up doing some variety of chutney. The consistency can also be varied as desired. Once you learn to make traditional coconut chutney, you can add additional ingredients and make your own variations. Almost on a daily basis, we try new recipes for chutney to serve with dosa and idli (our comfort food).

You can take this post as a guide for making some chutneys. I am sharing these as I got multiple requests after trying my SAMBAR POWDER & EASY SAMBAR RECIPE and MOMS SAMBAR RECIPE to share chutney for dosa and idli.

Beginner & bachelor (bachelorette) cooks can easily make this recipe if you have a mixer or blender.

Grating coconut is easy for us as we have been doing it from our childhood. If you do not know how to grate coconuts, you can even chop them into pieces. Now, if you have no access to fresh coconut, use frozen or store-bought shredded or grated coconut to make chutney. You can also use desiccated coconut or coconut powder to prepare chutneys.

Chutney I

Ingredients for Coconut Chutney or Thengai Chutney

⅔ cup Coconut, grated
2 Green chilies
4 sprigs Cilantro or Coriander leaves
½ cup Water
¼ teaspoon Salt

How to make Coconut Chutney or Thengai Chutney

In a mixie jar, add all the ingredients and blend to a smooth paste. You can adjust water and salt as desired. Transfer this to a bowl and temper it with the ingredients given below in the tempering.

Chutney II

Ingredients for Green Chutney or Cilantro Chutney

⅔ cup Coconut, grated
2 Green chilies
20 sprigs Coriander leaves or Cilantro
¼ teaspoon Salt
½ teaspoon Tamarind (or small ball)
½ cup Water

How to make Green Chutney or Cilantro Chutney

In a mixie jar, add all the ingredients and blend it to smooth paste. Transfer this to a bowl, and add the tempering and mix. The ingredients may look similar for chutney I and chutney II, but the difference in taste lies in the amount of ingredients for each chutney.

Chutney III

Ingredients for Red Chutney or Coriander Seeds Chutney

⅔ cup Grated coconut
1 tablespoon Coriander seeds
4 Dry red chilies
½ teaspoon Tamarind (or small ball)
¼ teaspoon Salt
½ cup Water

How to make Red Chutney or Coriander Seeds Chutney

In a mixer, add all the ingredients given in the list and blend to a smooth paste. Add the tempering. Transfer to a serving bowl.

Chutney IV

Ingredients for Hotel-style Chutney or Restaurant-style Chutney

⅔ cup Coconut, grated
4 to 5 sprigs Coriander leaves
6 Mint leaves
2 Green chilies
2 Garlic cloves
1 inch Ginger slice
½ cup Water
¼ teaspoon Salt

How to make Hotel-style Chutney or Restaurant-style Chutney

Add all the ingredients mentioned above to your mixer jar and blend it to a smooth paste. Transfer this to a bowl and add the tempering.

Serve with idli, dosa, and enjoy.

Chutney V

Ingredients for Tomato Peanut Chutney

1 tablespoon Oil
½ teaspoon Cumin seeds
5 Dry red chilies
6 Garlic cloves, chopped roughly
1 tablespoon Dalia or Hurigadale or Puttani
¼ cup Peanuts or Groundnut
¼ cup Coconut, grated or chopped
1 Tomato cut into cubes
½ cup Water
¼ teaspoon Garam masala powder
¼ teaspoon Salt

How to make Tomato Peanut Chutney

In a pan on medium heat, add oil. To this, add cumin seeds. When they splutter, add dry red chilies, garlic and saute for a few seconds.

Next, add dalia, peanuts, and saute until roasted on medium flame.

Add this to the mixer jar along with coconut, tomato, water, salt, and grind it to a smooth paste. Transfer it to a bowl. Add tempering and mix. Serve as needed.

Tempering for all chutney is the same (it is optional). But the addition of tempering will enhance the taste of the chutney.

1 tablespoon Oil (I prefer coconut oil)
1 teaspoon Mustard seeds
5 Curry leaves
1 Dry red chile, broken

In a pan on medium heat, add oil. Once hot, add mustard seeds. When they start to splutter, add red chilies, curry leaves, and saute for a few seconds. Switch off the flame. Add it to the chutney and mix.

Tips that are worth reading 🙂

• Fresh coconut tastes the best. But if you can't find fresh coconut, you can use frozen or dry shredded coconut, and it still tastes great.
• To make the chutney rich and creamy, you can use dalia (hurigadale or roasted gram or putani) or cashews in all the chutney recipes.
• Adjust water to get the desired consistency. Little watery is best to be served with idli and thick ones with dosa.
• I have mentioned ¼ teaspoon salt, and it was perfect for the amount here. If you increase the amount of water, you may have to adjust salt.
• You can add a pinch of hing (asafoetida) for all the chutney tempering for additional flavor.

How to store coconut-based South Indian chutney?

Chutney tastes the best when prepared fresh and served. But if you have any leftovers, keep them in the refrigerator and use them in a day or 2. I would not recommend storing it beyond two days. 

Another way to increase the shelf life of coconut-based chutney is to cook them. After the chutney is ground to a smooth paste, add it to a pan and bring it to a boil on medium flame. Then, add the tempering. Cooking ground coconut-based chutney will improve the shelf life of chutneys significantly.

What do you eat or serve with coconut-based chutney?

I can go on with the accompaniments for South Indian chutneys. These are some of my favorite.

• Idli & Dosa
• Surnali Dosa
• Sabudana Idli
• Idli in Jackfruit leaves
• Undi or Rice Dumplings
• Banana Buns

Video recipe for 5 quick & easy chutney recipes for South Indian Breakfast in 10 minutes

Detailed step-by-step recipe for South Indian chutney recipes for Idli, Dosa, Buns, Pongal, etc.

Recipe card

For more recent updates, follow me on Pinterest, Instagram, and Twitter.