Peerkangai Thuvayal | Ridgegourd Chutney | Vegan and GF dip

For this month of , I was paired with Shobana who gave me two delightful ingredients  -Ridge gourd and Bengal gram for the Shhhh Secretly cooking Challenge with the theme "Chutneys".

It was unusual to see that although we make it frequenty, I was yet to post this thuvayal. Thuvayal or Thogayal as its known in Tamil is different from the nomenclature of chutney in the sense that it has lentils , tamarind and vegetables as the base, in addition to coconut. 

Some chutneys / thuvayals also use onions (shallots mostly), but we dont use them

Its also much thicker than chutneys. And makes it easy to mix with rice as well as as a dip with Idli / Dosa / Pongal / uthappam etc. We had this with Quinoa Adai for breakfast (that explains the early morning rush pictures :p)

Without much ado, lets get started on this thuvayal. Similar thogayals on my blog are : 

Inji Thogayal (GInger chutney)

Pudina Thogayal (Mint chutney)

Paruppu Thuvayal(Lentils only chutney)

Karivepalai Thogayal (Curry leaves chutney)

For dips with Idli / Dosa, check out more than 20+ varieties of chutney here.

So, here's presenting a Vegan, GF dip to go with your dosa / Idli or even rice+sesame oil. Keeps for upto 3 days under refrigeration.

Prep time : 15 mins, cook time : 5 mins, Serves : 3 generously.

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What you need:

• Ridge gourd peels - 1 cup (scrape the hard thorny ridges with the knife, and with a peeler, peel thick peels along with a little flesh, but not too much)
• Channa dal / Bengal gram / kadalai paruppu - 2 TBSP
• Urad dal / Ulutham paruppu - 1 tsp
• Dry Red chillies - 3 large
• Tamarind - about small lemon quantity
• Fresh / frozen coconut - ¼ cup
• Handful of coriander leaves - optional but tastes great ! 
• Salt - to taste
• Oil - 1 TBSP

Tempering:

• Mustard seeds - ½ tsp
• Sesame oil - 1 tsp
• curry leaves - few

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Method:

1. In a pan, heat 1 tablespoon oil. Saute the dals one by one till golden brown, drain to a plate. Now add the tamarind, red chillies and the ridge gourd peels and saute on low heat for 3-4 mins till the peels turn slightly crisp (remove the chillies after 30 seconds, though).
2. Cool, grind all the ingredients with adequate salt and very little water to a thick thovayal consistency. add a teaspoon of water if required to get all the ingredients together.
3. Make the tempering with the mustard seed and curry leaves. Add to the chutney and serve.