Having both sides of the family here with us in Sydney is such a blessing. Last week, we visited my husband’s cousin. We came back with bag full of plants and chillies. I am so glad she shared the cuttings for the Indian borage plant.
Once I had planted these, I had so much of the fresh leaves at my disposal. Since this is one of my favoite herb and one that I befitted a lot with respect to health. So first up is a simple chutney recipe and will follow up with many more recipes as the plant grows.
What is doddapathra?
Indian borage or Mexican mint is doddapathra. This perennial plant with a flavour of oregano. Referred to as panikoorka (malayalam), ajwain patta(Hindi) or karpuravalli( tamil) the leaves are used. Either as raw in salads or cooked in various recipes the leaves are helpful in cold and cough. Fairly easy to grow, the leaves are fleshy, with short hairs and scalloped at the edges.
Ingredients to make the doddapathra chutney
This is a fairly simple, raw, vegan, gluten free, 6 ingredient recipe hat takes less than 10 minutes to make.Here is the list of ingredients to gather to make this easy Indian dip.
Coconut: grated fresh coconut is the base for the recipe. You can use frozen coconut to make tjos recipe. However ensure it is thawed so it grinds smoothly. The dessicated coconut will not be suitable for this recipe as it wont blend to a creamy consistency.
Fried gram: this is a unique ingredient in Indian cooking. It is the chickpea cotyledons that are roasted and puffed. Called porikadalai, pottukadalai or gives a powdery texture to the cotyledons and adds protein and thickness to the recipes. Since pre roasted this can eaten raw. When adding to this chutney, you only need a tablespoon of it. You cannot use whole chickpea or channa dal to substitute as the flavours and the consistency are different.
Doddapathra: the fresh succlent leaves of the Borage plant are the ones that are used in this recipe. Ensure you check both sides of the leaves and use clean green leaves to extract maximum flavour and taste.
Seasonings and spices: The Savory chutney is spicy and tangy at the same time. Chillies and ginger provide the heat. The chillies commonly used are serrano or birds eye chilli. use these based on your heat tolerence. Lemon juice adds the required acidity.
For the tenpering:the seasoning is done with coconutoil with mustard seeds, chillies etc give a characteristic chutney flavour. In this case, I have added additional doddapathre leaves to the oil to enhance the flavour.
Let’s make this Indian borage chutney
Blending into the blender add the grated coconut, fried gram, the doddapathre leaves and give it a pulse so it breaks down. Now add the salt, chilli and water and blend to a smooth paste. Remove this into a bowl and set aside.
Tempering . Once the mustard seeds crackle in the oil add the mustard seeds, chopped leaves of Indian borge and let this fry. Once mustard crackles add to the prepared chutney
Mealprep and storage
The doddapathre chutney stays good for 2 to three days in the fridge.
What to pair with this indian borage leaves chutney?
The chutney is a raw dip that is tasty with set dosa, upma kozhukattai or soft idli. These are peefect at breakfast or lunch boxes.
Doddapathre chutney
Equipment
- blender
Ingredients
For blending togther
- 1 cup grated coconut
- 1 tbsp fried gram
- 3 medium Green chillies
- 1/2 inch fresh ginger root
- 8 large Indian borage leaves
- salt
- 1 tsp lemon juice
for the tempering
- 1 tbsp coconut oil
- 1/2 tsp mustard seeds
- 4 large Indian borage
Instructions
- Add the ingredients to blend into the blender jar.
- Blend to a sooth paste.
- Remove into a bowl
- Squeeze the lemon and mix well.
- Add oil to a small pan.
- Add the mustard seeds and let them crackle.
- Add finely chopped doddapathre leaves and saute well.
- Add this to the prepared chutney and it is ready to serve.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
What else can you use the Indian borage for?
Indian borage leaves are close to oregano in fragrance but much milder.in traditional ayurvedic medicine, the leaves are crushed and the juice had to help relieve rhinitis. Due to it fragrance it is wonderful to use it in soups abd pasta. When we have large quantities of leaves, we make a simple bajji out of them. You can use it as a tea as well.
Stay connected
Hope you have access to some Indian borage leaves. We enjoyed this chutney with idlies. Hope you will make some and tell us in the comments below if you liked the flavour.
Pin this for later
See you in the next post.
