Breakfast
Black-chickpea curry in roasted coconut — the classic partner to puttu, appam, and chapathi.
About
Kadala curry (Malayalam: കടലക്കറി, also kadalakkari) is a Kerala gravy whose main ingredient is kadala — black chickpeas (Bengal gram). Grated coconut is roasted with chilli, coriander, and turmeric, ground, and simmered with the cooked peas. Unlike North Indian chana masala, which is tomato-forward, this is a coconut-oil breakfast curry. Homes pour it beside puttu, appam, or chapathi; it is also eaten with poori, idiyappam, parotta, or rice.
Kadala (black chickpeas), onion, garlic, ginger, tomato, grated coconut, chilli powder, coriander powder, turmeric, garam masala, salt, and a mustard-curry-leaf tempering in coconut oil. Green chilli goes into the sauté. The peas are Cicer arietinum — the dark, smaller chickpea, not the pale kabuli chana of Punjabi chole.
Soak and pressure-cook the kadala. In a cheenachatti, roast grated coconut with turmeric, chilli, and coriander until the coconut browns, then grind it. Temper mustard and curry leaves in coconut oil, sauté onion, green chilli, garlic, and ginger, stir in the roasted-coconut paste, and when it boils add the cooked peas, masala, and salt. Simmer until the gravy thickens and the oil rises.
The everyday plate is puttu and kadala, often with banana and papadam. Appam, chapathi, poori, and idiyappam take the same gravy. Southern tables may add black coffee or kattan chaya. English Wikipedia notes kadala curry beside puttu and as a vegetarian pairing for Kerala parotta.
Some kitchens skip roasted coconut and cook a thinner onion-tomato masala; others finish with coconut milk. Black chickpeas also appear in koottu curry on a sadya, mixed with yam and raw banana — a thicker feast dish, not this breakfast gravy. Vanpayar (red cowpeas) is a related but separate coconut curry.
Gallery
How it is steamed, served, and varied — open any image for a larger view.
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More dishes
Other famous plates from Kerala’s kitchen.