Pirandai thuvaiyal, a healthy chutney with chilies and lentils. This mildly spicy thuvaiyal can be served with rice and also with South-Indian breakfast dishes like idly/dosa and upma.
Pirandai Thogayal | How to make Pirandai Chutney | Easy Thuvaiyal with Pirandai | Thuvaiyal without Coconut | Spicy Thogayal Recipe | Heirloom Recipe | South-Indian Thuvaiyal | Tamil Brahmin Style Pirandai Thogayal
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What is Pirandai | Adamant Creeper
Pirandai is a creeper that has wonderful medicinal uses and health benefits. It is called Adamant Creeper | Devil’s Back Bone | Veldt Grape in English and it’s botanical name is Cissus quadrangularris and it is called Hadjot in Hindi. This creeper grows easily everywhere and can be very easily grown in pots at home.
Since ancient times, people have used it to help treat pain, regulate menstruation, and repair bone fractures
The healing properties of this plant are attributed to its high contents of vitamin C and antioxidant compounds like carotenoids, tannins, and phenols
How to Handle Pirandai| Hadjot
Many hesitate to use pirandai because of it’s itchy nature, but if we handle it properly, we can prevent itchiness in our hands. Few pointers to note
- To prevent itching in the hands, smear your hands with a bit of sesame oil before handling pirandai.
- Always pick tender pirandai, tender pirandai can be easily broken with hands and as the pirandai ages it thickens.
- String the pirandai and scrap or peel the sharp angular edges (all sides) and discard the nodes and leaves. If you pick tender pirandai, there is no need to string. Amma never peels the tender pirandai. Only if there is thick, aged pirandai, then you have to string the ridges and chop the nodes away.
Chutney or Thuvaiyal | Thogaiyal | Thuvayal
Thogayal or thuvaiyal is a condiment made with lentils and spices. Whereas Chutneys made to pair with idly/dosa not necessarily include lentils.
As a south-indian we love our Thogayal/thuvaiyal. Growing up in my parents home, our Saturday menu used to be thogaiyal/thuvaiyal and rasam. Coconut thogayal with jeera rasam is a delicious combination.
South-indian households we make lot of thogayals, even with vegetable, fruit peels and scraps. Like Ridgegourd peel thuvaiyal and orange peel thuvaiyal. Check this herbal thuvaiyal with ajwain and tulsi leaves.
When in season this turmeric thogayal is a must try with fresh turmeric root. Also this healthy and colorful amla and carrot thogayal boosts your Vit A & C.
Check this nut free pesto made with fresh herbs, packs a punch on your pizza, pasta and sandwiches.
Ingredients to Make Adamant Creeper Thuvaiyal
- Main Ingredients : 3 tender links of Pirandai /adamant creeper. Make sure you use tender links, aged or hard pirandai has lot of strings and will cause throat itchiness.
- Lentils : i have used chana dal and urad dal along with sesame seeds to the thogayal. They add volume to the chutney
- Spices, i have used red chilies and fresh ginger along with curry leaves and tamarind to spice the chutney.
- A small piece of jaggery is added to the pirandai thuvaiyal to balance the flavors.
How to Make Pirandai Thuvaiyal
Please check recipe card below for exact measurements of each ingredient used and also for the detailed instructions
- Measure and keep all ingredients ready on the counter. Pick 3 tender links of pirandai and chop into bite size pieces.
- In a small pan, add 2-3 drops of oil and roast the chana dal and urad until golden brown.
- Towards the end of the dals turning brown add white sesame seeds, curry leaves, ginger and red chilies.
- Remove all the roasted ingredients on to a flat plate. Now to the same pan, add 2 tablespoon oil.
- Add the chopped pirandai to the hot oil and roast until they shrivel and turn slightly brown on the edges. The bright green of the pirandai will turn into pale green.
- Remove the roasted pirandai to the same plate as lentils, let this all cool well.
- Once it cools, take all the ingredients together along with asafoetida and salt in a mixer jar.
- Pulse grind to a powder first then add 3-4 tablespoon water and grind to a thick paste. South-Indian thuvaiyals are thick. Remove the thogayal to a serving bowl.
- Serve this healthy pirandai thogayal with steaming hot rice and drizzled with gingely oil.
Pro Tip From My Mother
To make this healthy hadjot chutney we need to fry the chopped pieces of pirandai in hot oil. Once roasted, remove the chopped pirandai pieces from the oil. The leftover oil after roasting the pirandai can be used as a pain relief oil for joint pains.
Pirandai Thuvaiyal | Adamant Creeper Chutney
Equipment
- Indian style mixie or any heavy blender
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoon Pirandai | Adamant Creeper | Veldt Grape Cut into 1 inch piece
- ¼ cup urad dal/black gram dal/Uluntham paruppuu
- 2 tablespoon chana dal/gram dal/Kadalai paruppu
- 1 tablespoon white sesame seeds
- 6-8 round red chilies
- 1 inch piece of ginger
- 3 tablespoon curry leaves
- 20 grams tamarind size of Indian gooseberry
- 1 teaspoon salt or to taste
- 2 tablespoon jaggery
- ½ teaspoon hing
- 2 tbsp cold pressed ground nut oil
Instructions
- Smear your hands with oil before handling the pirandai or adamant creeper. Use tender pirandai, chop them into 1 inch pieces.
- Heat a pan with 1-2 drops of oil. Roast the urad dal and chana dal in a medium flame until golden brown. Keep the flame medium and roast or else the dals will burn.
- Towards the end of the dals turning golden brown, add white sesame seeds and red chilies to it along with ginger, hing and curry leaves.
- Soon the sesame seeds becomes toasty, remove the roasted ingredients to a flat plate and let it cool down.
- In the same pan, add the remaining oil, when it is hot, add the chopped pirandai pieces to it.
- Fry them until the bright green color of the pirandai turns pale green. The edges will turn a bit golden.
- Remove the roasted pirandai too to the same plate as the other ingredients. Let it all cool down.
- Once it cools, take them all together in a mixer jar, along with tamarind, jaggery and salt. Pulse grind it to form a powder first. Then add 3-4 tablespoon water and grind it to a thick paste
- Thogayals are generally kept quite thick, so add water only when absolutely necessary.
- Remove the ground thuvaiyal to another serving bowl, Serve the delish pirandai thogayal with steaming hot rice with a drizzle of gingely oil.
- Any leftover thogayal can be refrigerated in an air-tight box. The amount mentioned might come for a day or two not more than that for a family of 5.
Nutrition
Disclaimer
I m not a Doctor or a Nutritionist The Nutrition information provided above comes from the plugin and is only an estimate.
Jayanthy Kumaran
wow...very healthy post..reminds me of my MIL s taste. will search for this nutritious green availability at my place.
chef and her kitchen
My mom used to make this when we were kids....its been ages we had....looks nice...
Unknown
thogayal looks great Priya. Ya I remember my FIL advised us to eat perandai once in a while..
Kamakshi
Such an informative post.My mom has this planted in her pot.I didn't know it had so many medicinal qualities.I shud try this sometime..
Unknown
Wow, that is a very unusual chutney and lots of info. Thanks for sharing this 🙂
Krishnaveni
my mom used to make like this and my fav one, i would like to go my mom's place to have this healthy recipe, looks so good
Priya Suresh
My mom used to make this thogayal, have had them since long, looks fabulous Priya..
Shanthi
My mom and granny used to make it with great taste. Wonderful
Simona Carini
What an interesting post! Thanks for participating.
Raks
My mom have told that we can make thogayal with this,never tried of my own! Sounds very good!
Vijiskitchencreations
My first visit is here. Very nice blog and all recipes are very good.
this thogayal my mom will make,unfortunately I won't get pirandai here.
I am missing such kind of items. thanks priya, u just remind me in those days.
wwww.vijisvegkitchen.blogspot.com
vidhas
Yummy thogayal, very informative. An award is waiting for you.
Sadhana Valentina
Lovely dish dear!!! Ur blog is very nice with a nice collection of recipes...
Anonymous
I've been told that it is necessary to scrape of the outer skin and not use the nodes. But the picture shows no peeling. Is it ok
Priya_Srinivasan
Hi anonymous,no need to peel!!!!actually if u peel the skin, there will be nothing left for the chutney!!!! 🙂
Priya_Srinivasan
Thank you guys, for ur encouraging comments!!!!
Anonymous
Awesome, just stumbled on your blog. It reminds me of my granny.
Anonymous
Could please let me know where we can buy this plant in U.S.A?
Unknown
Very Healthy post. Love the flavour of sesame seeds in thogiyal. Happy to follow you.
Hamsamalini,
http://www.indianrecipecorner.com
Seema Sriram
I learnt this recipe from Mil for my FIL's thevasam. We made it so many times that it was such a part of regular life. Now I cannot get any, so miss that terribly.
Kalyani
Pirandal Thogayal takes me back to Pati's backyard where this grew in abundance. These vibrant pics of the thogyaal is too tempting, priya. am trying to get a cutting of this pirandai for years now in my neighbourhood to grow it at home, and wish you lived closer 🙂
Archana
The pirandai is new to me but I think it grows in my garden. I used to think of it as a weed will get it and make some thogayalvedt. We will love it like you said with rice.
Priya Vj
Pirandai thogayal from my mom's balcony garden was a super hit among her friends and my neighbors. I remember her picking it meticulously and cleaning the pirandai links to dish out this delicious thogayal . Bright and crisp clicks as always Priya which do justice to the recipe !!