Andhra tomato pachadi
Vegetarian
టమాటా పచ్చడి · ṭamāṭā paccaḍi
Tomatoes cooked down in oil with tamarind, then pounded coarsely with fried Guntur chillies, fenugreek, cumin and garlic and finished with a tempering. Hot, sour and garlicky, it is mixed into rice with ghee or eaten with dosa and pesarattu.
Andhra tomato pachadi is a South Indian condiment, ready in about 50 minutes and made with tomato, dried whole chillies and garlic. It serves 8 and is rated easy to cook.
No licensed photograph of this dish yet.
- Prep
- 15 min
- Cook
- 20 min
- Rest
- 15 min
- Total
- 50 min
- Serves
- 8
- Level
- Easy
- Calories
- 56
Method
Step 1
Wash and roughly chop the tomatoes (opens in a new tab). Soak the tamarind (opens in a new tab) in 2 tbsp warm water and peel the garlic (opens in a new tab).
How it looks · Photo: Mayara Caroline Mombelli on Pexels Step 2
Heat 10 ml of the oil in a frying pan over medium-low heat. Fry the fenugreek (opens in a new tab) until it turns reddish-brown (about 30 seconds; black fenugreek is bitter), then add the cumin, coriander seeds and dried chillies and fry for 1–2 minutes until the chillies puff and darken a shade. Lift out onto a plate.
- 3 min
- medium-low heat
- Frying pan / skillet (opens in a new tab)
Step 3
Add the remaining 10 ml oil to the pan, then the tomatoes (opens in a new tab) and turmeric (opens in a new tab). Cook over medium heat, stirring now and then, for 10–12 minutes until the tomatoes collapse completely, their liquid has evaporated and the oil starts to separate at the edges. Stir in the tamarind (opens in a new tab) with its water for the last 2 minutes.
- 12 min
- medium heat
- Frying pan / skillet (opens in a new tab)
Step 4
Cool everything for 15 minutes. Pound the spice mixture with the salt and garlic (opens in a new tab) in a mortar (or pulse in a blender (opens in a new tab)) to a coarse powder.
How it looks · Photo: https://kaboompics.com/ on Pexels Step 5
Add the cooked tomato (opens in a new tab), jaggery and coriander leaves (opens in a new tab) and pound or pulse briefly to a coarse, rustic relish with visible flecks of chilli. Do not purée it.
Step 6
For the tempering, heat the gingelly oil (opens in a new tab) in a small pan or tadka ladle over medium heat until it shimmers. Add the mustard seeds (opens in a new tab); when they crackle and pop (20–30 seconds), add the urad (opens in a new tab) dal and chana dal (opens in a new tab) and the broken dried chilli and stir until the dal turns light golden (about 30 seconds). Take the pan off the heat, add the curry leaves (opens in a new tab) (they spit) and the asafoetida (opens in a new tab), swirl for 2–3 seconds and pour everything over the chutney.
- 2 min
- medium heat
- Frying pan / skillet (opens in a new tab)
Food safety: Hot oil spits when mustard seeds pop and curry leaves go in; keep your face back and have a lid nearby.
About this dish
- Origin
- Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, India · Commonly attributedA staple roti pachadi (pachadi pounded on a stone, the rolu) in Telugu homes. Spice proportions follow common home recipes and vary widely.More food from India
- Dish
- Breakfast · Lunch · Dinner · Condiments, chutneys & relishes
- Cooking method
- Sautéed, Simmered, Blended
- Taste
- spicy (chilli heat), tangy, garlicky, savoury
- Diet
- Vegan · Dairy-free · No nut ingredients · Keto-style · Low-carbWithout the optional extras: No added sugarWorked out from the ingredients. How labels work
All labels
Vegan · Plant-based · Vegetarian (lacto-ovo) · Eggetarian · Lacto-vegetarian · Ovo-vegetarian · Pescatarian · Flexitarian-friendly · Whole-food focused · Dairy-free · Egg-free · No nut ingredients · Alcohol-free · Pork-free · Beef-free · Keto-style · Low-carb · DASH-style - Good for
- Everyday · Make-ahead · Budget-friendly
- Cook more with
- Tomato · Dried whole chillies · Garlic · Gingelly oil (untoasted sesame oil) · Fenugreek · Cumin seeds
- Techniques
- Sautéing · Simmering · Tadka (tempering) · Wet grinding · Emulsification
Allergens
- May contain: Wheatfrom asafoetida
- May contain: Glutenfrom asafoetida
- Contains: Sesamefrom gingelly oil (untoasted sesame oil)
- Contains: Mustardfrom mustard seeds
Based on typical versions of these ingredients and not verified allergen-free. Brands differ and cross-contact happens, so always check labels. For severe allergies, follow your clinician’s advice.
Nutrition
56 kcal per serving
Estimated1 serving ≈ 43 g · recipe makes 8
Where the energy comes from
- Protein 8%
- Carbohydrate 34%
- Fat 58%
| Nutrient | Per serving | Per 100 g |
|---|---|---|
| Energy | 56 kcal | 133 kcal |
| Protein | 1.2 g | 2.7 g |
| Carbohydrate | 5.2 g | 12.2 g |
| Net carbohydrate | 3.9 g | 9.2 g |
| Sugars | 2.2 g | 5.2 g |
| Added sugars | 0 g | 0 g |
| Fibre | 1.3 g | 3.1 g |
| Fat | 3.9 g | 9.1 g |
| Saturated fat | 0.5 g | 1.3 g |
| Trans fat | — | — |
| Cholesterol | 0 mg | 0 mg |
| Sodium | 296 mg | 696 mg |
| Salt equivalent | 0.7 g | 1.7 g |
Vitamins & minerals per serving
- Potassium
- 206 mg
- Calcium
- 16 mg
- Iron
- 0.7 mg
- Magnesium
- 13 mg
- Vitamin A (RAE)
- 38 µg
- Vitamin C
- 9 mg
- Vitamin D
- 0 µg
- Vitamin B12
- 0 µg
- Folate (DFE)
- 14 µg
How these numbers were made
- Calculated from USDA FoodData Central (SR Legacy) per-100 g values and the listed quantities.
- Optional ingredients are not included: ground coriander, jaggery / palm sugar, coriander leaves.
- Not counted (tiny amounts or “to taste”): curry leaves, asafoetida.
- Chana dal (split bengal gram): Whole raw chickpeas / bengal gram (FDC 173756) used as a stand-in for split, skinned desi chickpeas; the composition is very close.
- “—” means the value isn’t known for enough of the ingredients; it is never zero by default.
- Values are estimates for guidance, not for medical dosing. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. FoodData Central, 2019. fdc.nal.usda.gov.
Good to know
Tips
- Sour country tomatoes (naatu tomatoes) give the most authentic flavour; with sweet hybrid tomatoes add a little more tamarind.
- A blender works, but pulse it: the pachadi should have texture.
Common mistakes
- Burning the fenugreek, which makes the whole batch bitter.
- Not cooking off the tomato water, which makes a runny pachadi that spoils quickly.
Serve with
- Mix into hot rice with ghee (the classic Telugu first course), with papad.
- Serve with dosa, pesarattu, idli, upma or chapati.
Food safety
- Store in a scrupulously clean, completely dry jar (sterilise it in boiling water or a low oven and let it dry fully) and always use a dry spoon; moisture is what spoils chutneys, podis and pickles.
Storage
- Keeps 4–5 days in the fridge in a clean, dry jar with a film of oil on top.
Variations
- Tomato-onion pachadi: Sauté a sliced onion before the tomatoes.
- Telangana style: Uses fresh green chillies with the dried ones and more garlic.
- Tomato pachadi with dal: Fry 1 tbsp each of urad and chana dal with the spices and pound them in for body.
Original editorial recipe · FriendsPantry editorial · Not yet independently reviewed · Added · Updated
Goes with
Recipe DNA
How this dish is built
Built from the recipe’s own sections. Each band’s width is its share of the dish by weight. Choose a component to see what it does.
Make it milder, swap ingredients for your diet, change the batch size or thickness — the original stays as it is.
Customise in Sauce & DrizzleReviews & corrections
Reviews come from signed-in cooks and appear after a moderator checks them. We never show made-up ratings.
You might also like
Gongura pachadi (Andhra sorrel-leaf chutney)
South Indian · 40 min · 55 kcal · VeganAllam pachadi (Andhra ginger chutney)
South Indian · 35 min · 56 kcal · VeganSouth Indian tomato chutney
South Indian · 20 min · 77 kcal · VeganTomato thokku
South Indian · 1 h 35 min · 45 kcal · Vegan