Vazhakkai Podi Recipe - Raw Banana Podi Recipe

One of the delicious dry curry recipes has its origin in the south of India and can be prepared under 15-20 mins. This recipe is made by roasting and frying Urad Dal, Chana Dal, and spices and is ground along with the cooked and cooled Raw Bananas. This recipe goes well with sambar rice and rasam rice. This recipe for making vazhakkai podi is fail-proof.

Planning & Pre-Preparation: 5 mins

Cooking time: 15-20 mins.

Ingredients

    Ingredients 1:

• Oil – 4 Tsp. (2 Tsp. for Raw Bananas + 2Tsp. for Podi)

• Raw Banana (Chopped into bigger chunks) - Medium-sized – 3

    Ingredients 2 – Podi Preparation:

• Urad Dal - 1/4 Cup

• Chana Dal - 1/4 Cup

• Red Chillies – 3

• Asafoetida/Kayam/Hing - 1 Tsp.

• Salt – Per taste.

Directions

    Cooking Raw Bananas:

• Let's begin by chopping Medium-sized Raw Bananas into bigger chunks and keep them aside.

• In a Kadai, add 2 Tsp. of oil and start frying the bananas on a medium flame.

• Cover the Kadai with a lid until the bananas are completely cooked.

• Once cooked, transfer it to a plate and allow the bananas to cool down before grinding. If the bananas are not completely cooled, then while grinding, the mixture turns into a thick coarse thogayal/thuvayal like texture instead of crumbled texture.

    Preparing Podi:

• Add oil to a Kadai, add Urad dal and Chana Dal, and roast on low flame. 

• Now add Red Chillies and keep roasting until it is completely roasted. Switch off the flame and let it cool down before grinding.

• Once roasted, transfer it to a mixer grinder. Then add Asafoetida/Kayam/Hing and grind into a coarse powder and allow it to cool down.

    Making Vazhakkai Podi:

• To the coarsely ground podi add salt and bananas (cooked and cooled) and pulse (DO NOT GRIND) the contents two to three times coarsely in the mixer grinder. 

• Yummy Vazhakkai podi is ready!!!! Mix the vazhakkai podi with hot rice and ghee and serve. 

Points to be Noted

• Instead of frying the bananas in oil you can also steam the banana (along with the skin) and mash the bananas when cooked and add podi and crumble the mixture. 

• Alternatively, you can also roast the bananas directly on the flame without peeling the skin by applying little oil. Once charred remove from the flame and mash the bananas and add podi and crumble it evenly.