Name: Garlic and chilli dahi chutney
Prep time: 10 min
Total time: 10 min
Ingredients: 200 g yoghurt (dahi); 3-4 cloves garlic; 3-4 fresh chilis (or as per taste); 2 tbsp oil; 1 tsp mustard seeds; 8-10 fresh curry leaves; ¼ tsp asafetida (hing); 1 tbsp coriander leaves (finely chopped); salt to taste

Facebook0 Pin0 Tweet0 Email0

Jump to Recipe

Under Indian cuisine, you will find hundreds, if not more, chutney recipes. From the powdered versions, to the wet ones, from sweet and tangy to lip smacking spicy – we love our chutneys. And I, especially, can pair them with almost everything! For example, while a spicy coriander-mint chutney is a yummy dip for pakoras, I can even have some with steamed rice too. So, I always have a batch of it in my fridge. Another regular feature on my dining table is this yummy garlic and chilli dahi chutney. I learnt this no-cook yoghurt chutney from my maternal aunt, when I visited her last year, on my trip to India. Not just me, even my husband loved it, hence I’ve been making the dahi chutney ever since. But I always kept wondering if I should do a blog post on it, since it is pretty much a “non-recipe.”

However, I decided that it definitely deserves a post on my blog. And so here it is! After all, this garlic and chilli dahi chutney pairs well with so many things and is a breeze to make. It is great, with stuffed parathas and kachoris but is equally yum with samosas and pakoras, too. Additionally, I have it even as a side dish – that’s how yummy it tastes. Like you can see in my picture, I had some dal, palak paneer and the dahi chutney for lunch along with naan. And believe me, we throughly enjoyed dipping our naan in the chutney and devouring it. Moreover, the fact that this is a no cook recipe is the icing on the cake. The tempering of mustard seeds and curry leaves, that I have given here, is optional. Maashi (my maternal aunt) simply leaves it at flavouring the yoghurt with the garlic and chilis.

The tempering

So, you could also choose to either add the tempering or leave it out. Either way it tastes great. Since I love the aroma of toasted curry leaves, I temper my dahi chutney whenever I have some fresh ones with me. And when I do that, I also add some hing or asafetida too to the oil. This further enhances the taste and fragrance of the chutney. However, none of this takes away the primary flavours of the chili and garlic. The quantities of both these are much more than the curry leaves and/or the hing. Coming to these flavouring agents of my chutney, I love keeping them coarsely crushed when adding to my yoghurt. This is how my aunt also makes it. While I use a mortar-pestle, you could pulse them twice or thrice in your mixer, if you don’t have a mortar-pestle.

Keeping the chilis and garlic coarse, ensures that you get to bite into them, too, when having the condiment. Since, we at home love it this way, I don’t crush them too fine. Nonetheless, if you want to avoid getting their bits in your mouth while eating, then you can run both to a fine paste and then mix in the dahi. Now, you can adjust the amount of both of them, as per taste. Some of you may like garlic, but not too much of it, some may not prefer it too hot. In either of these cases, you could reduce the number of garlic cloves/chilis that you will be using for your chutney. Also, make sure that the yoghurt you are using isn’t too sour. If it is, add a little bit of sugar to round the taste up.

Serving suggestions

You can serve your lip smacking garlic and chilli dahi chutney at room temperature and/or even chilled. And it tastes the best when consumed the same day. Since, it will take only about 10 minutes of your time, it is best to make a fresh batch every time you want to have it. You can even pair this condiment with your pulaos and biryanis too. So, make sure that you give this it a try soon. And if you love yoghurt, garlic and/or chilis, this is going to become your favourite chutney, that I promise!

If you do, I’d be thrilled to hear from you. You can share your food pictures with me over on Instagram and/or drop me a line or two with your feedback in the comments section, below. I’ll be looking forward to hear from you.

Eat hearty!