Kandi Pachadi | Toor Dal Chutney

Updated: July 15, 2022, By Swasthi

Kandi Pachadi is a traditional Andhra style chutney or condiment made with toor dal, garlic, red chilies and spices. Andhra cuisine is well known for spicy and hot foods. We make a variety of chutneys known as pachadi for our everyday meals. This kandi pachadi is a traditional recipe which was made in the earlier days.

kandi pachadi



Kandi is the Telugu word for pigeon peas. Pachadi means chutney in telugu. Kandi pachadi refers to a chutney made with pigeon peas.

Toor dal or pigeon peas were one of the most commonly cultivated lentils in the region. Apart from making pappu or dal dishes for their everyday meal even this chutney was made to go with hot rice and ghee.

Kandi pachadi is also served with breakfast foods like idli, dosa, punugulu & garelu. In the modern days, most women have forgotten this chutney and is rarely made. Same with me as my mom never made kandi pachadi and I had never even eaten this until I got married.

My husband loves this kandi pachadi a lot and always would suggest me to learn this. I got to taste this in an authentic Andhra restaurant here in Singapore. After a few trials I am here with this awesome kandi pachadi recipe.

Kandi pachadi is made by deep roasting toor dal & red chilies. It is then blended with salt, tamarind, garlic and jeera. Lastly it is tempered with mustard, urad dal, curry leaves and red chilies.

If you prefer to serve this with rice, then make the pachadi to a thicker consistency using minimum water. Runny chutney doesn’t taste good with rice. Since I made it for our breakfast I made it slightly runny.

You can also roast the ingredients for chutney the previous night. Below are some variations I have tried.

kandi pachadi

More chutney recipes
Peanut chutney
curry leaves chutney
beerakaya pachadi
capsicum chutney
Ginger chutney

Variations

  1. You can also use 1 small onion in the recipe. Just fry the cubed onion well until golden to bring out the sweet aroma.
  2. A tablespoon of urad dal can also be used in the recipe. Fry it very well until golden after frying the urad dal.
  3. Sometimes I also add a handful of coriander leaves to add flavor.
kandi pachadi recipe

Related Recipes

Recipe Card

kandi pachadi recipe

Kandi Pachadi

5 from 9 votes
kandi pachadi is a traditional Andhra chutney made with toor dal aka split pigeon peas, red chilies, garlic and cumin. Serve this with plain rice, any breakfast or snack. 
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Comments

For best results follow the step-by-step photos above the recipe card

Prep Time5 minutes
Cook Time5 minutes
Total Time10 minutes
Servings2
AuthorSwasthi

Ingredients (US cup = 240ml )

  • ¼ cup toor dal (split pigeon peas or)kandi pappu
  • ½ teaspoon cumin or jeera
  • 3 red chilies or green chilies (slit) (adjust to taste)
  • 2 small garlic cloves
  • ½ teaspoon tamarind (adjust to taste)
  • ¼ teaspoon salt to taste
  • 1 teaspoon oil

seasoning

  • 1 sprig curry leaves
  • 1 clove garlic crushed
  • 1 red chili broken
  • ¼ teaspoon cumin (optional)
  • ¼ teaspoon mustard
  • 1 teaspoon Oil


Instructions

  • Rinse toor dal very well a few times & drain the water completely.
  • Heat 1 tsp of oil & fry the dal on a medium flame till you get a nice aroma. Dal has to turn deep golden. Remove to a plate.
  • Fry red chilies on a low flame till they turn crispy. Add garlic & cumin to the same pan & fry just for 30 seconds.
  • Cool all the ingredients and add to a blender along with salt & tamarind. 
  • We usually soak tamarind in little warm water and filter it to the grind the chutney.
  • Grind the ingredients with little water to a smooth or coarse kandi pachadi. Adjust the consistency as desired. Smooth  chutney goes well with snacks and breakfasts. Coarse kandi pachadi tastes good with rice. 
  • Taste the toor dal chutney and add more salt and tamarind if needed.

Tempering kandi pachadi

  • Heat 1 tsp oil in a pan, add cumin and mustard. 
  • When they begin to crackle, add curry leaves and garlic. 
  • Fry til curry leaves turn crisp. Pour this to the kandi pachadi and mix well.


NUTRITION INFO (estimation only)

Nutrition Facts
Kandi Pachadi
Amount Per Serving
Calories 193 Calories from Fat 63
% Daily Value*
Fat 7g11%
Sodium 18mg1%
Potassium 519mg15%
Carbohydrates 24g8%
Fiber 8g33%
Sugar 5g6%
Protein 8g16%
Vitamin A 895IU18%
Vitamin C 151.8mg184%
Calcium 28mg3%
Iron 3.2mg18%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.
Tried this recipe?Mention @SwasthisRecipes or tag #swasthisrecipes!

© Swasthi’s Recipes

About Swasthi

I’m Swasthi Shreekanth, the recipe developer, food photographer & food writer behind Swasthi’s Recipes. My aim is to help you cook great Indian food with my time-tested recipes. After 2 decades of experience in practical Indian cooking I started this blog to help people cook better & more often at home. Whether you are a novice or an experienced cook I am sure Swasthi’s Recipes will assist you to enhance your cooking skills. More about me

Follow Swasthi’s Recipes

Comments

Recipe Rating




8 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

Super good receipes

5 stars
Simple, good recipe…and very tasty too…

5 stars
Wanted to try this but ran out of chillies, in such case is it ok to use red chilli powder for any pachadi?

5 stars
VERY HEALTHY & TASTY RECIPE !!!!!

This is a very good chutney without coconut, I had this today morning with Idli. All of them from my home liked this very much, coz they were few disappointed, as if I was not preparing much chutney due to coconut in it.

This chutney is very helpful for those who tries to avoid coconut.

Thank you for posting such a healthy recipe.

like your presentation.. yummy yum..