A famous Maharashtrian recipe, this spicy dry garlic chutney, also known as khopra lehsun chutney, is a tasty condiment used for Vada Pav. And this chutney can also make any of your sandwiches taste so much better.
You’re reading a Mumbai girl’s blog, and needless to say, you’re going to find a plethora of recipes that celebrate her Bombay upbringing. Vada Pav tops the list of my all-time favorite snacks or fast foods, and this mouthwatering chutney is the secret to why the Bombay Burger is so special and universally loved. It is super hot thanks to the chili powder, super zingy thanks to the garlic, and super meaty thanks to the dried coconut. While you can buy a bottle of this chutney at your local Indian store or online, making it from scratch is a special kind of experience. You can make smaller batches and also tweak the ingredients to suit your palate.
What do you need for the dry garlic chutney?
Lots of Garlic Cloves, to drive the primary flavor of this chutney.
Some dried coconut flakes or powder, to add that “khopra” or coconutty flavor and meatiness to the chutney.
Dried Red Chilies for how can you have a chutney that you’re using in Vada Pao to not have spice? 🙂
How long can you store this lehsun ki chutney?
Because we use coconut in the recipe, it is important to keep the chutney refrigerated. Refrigerated, this dry garlic chutney can last anywhere between 6-12 months.
How do you use this chutney?
The most commonly used way is to add it to your Pav or Dinner Rolls, then pile on the Vada or Bhajiya, making a delicious Vada Pav or Bhajiya Pav.
But you can also simply use this to spice up your curries, burgers, and sandwiches. At the end of the day, it is just chilies, garlic, and coconut flakes blended together. And this chutney can be pretty much used in any recipe to add to the flavor components.
Here’s an old video I made for this chutney. I still use the same process, but I prefer reduced coconut and increased garlic flavors now, and my written recipe will reflect the new measurements.
Dry Garlic Chutney for Vada Pav | Khopra Lehsun ki Chutney
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup Garlic cloves, peeled
- 1/4 cup dry Coconut flakes (or powder)
- 1/4 cup Dry Red Chili (or use Red Chili Powder)
- 1/2 tsp Cooking Oil
- 1 Tbsp Salt (adjust to taste)
- 1 Tbsp Roasted White Sesame Seeds (optional)
Instructions
Important: Each ingredient needs to be roasted individually and then cooled completely before grinding to a powder. If the ingredients are warm when you add to the blender, you'll end up with a wet (not dry) chutney.
Making the Chutney
- Coconut: If you're using coconut flakes, blitz it to a coarse powder. Then dry roast until it turns golden and aromatic. Set aside to cool completely.
- Dry roast the dried red chilies until they're crunchy. Let them cool completely. Then add them to the blender and blitz to a coarse powder. Skip this step in case you're using red chili powder.
- Heat a drop of oil in a pan and add the garlic cloves and fry for a minute or until the garlic turns aromatic, develops some color and dries out a bit. Allow it to cool completely.
- Add the garlic to the blender (which has the previously ground chilies). Blitz a few times to break it down to a coarse powder.
- Finally, add the reseerved roasted coconut powder and some salt to taste and grind until you have a dry and smooth chutney.
- Don't over-blend, or you'll end up with a wet or soggy chutney. For best results, blitz a few times, check for consistency, move things around and blitz again until you have your desired consistency.
- Optional step: Once the chutney is done, mix some roasted white sesame seeds with it for extra crunchy texture and flavor.
- Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator. This can last upto a year.
Video
Notes
- You can play around with the proportions based on your taste preference. I like a stronger garlic flavor, so I use more of that and less of the coconut.
- But as a thumb rule, you can start with a 50:50 ratio and then adjust based on your preference
- Chili Powder also can be adjusted based on how spicy you want the chutney to be. And even if the dried red chilies aren’t enough, you can always add the red chili powder later to the chutney to increase its spice.
- In case you don’t like the coconut flavor or don’t want to use it for any reason, you will need some ‘crunchy’ element to keep the garlic chutney dry.
- What you can do is make a thick batter with besan (chickpea flour), salt, water. Then using a spoon or a piping bag, drop rough blobs of the batter into the oil to fry until crispy. Essentially, this is the “chura”. Once this is cool, you can simply add this to the garlic instead of coconut powder and blend.
Here are some other spice mixes and chutneys you should try –
