I love how a complete meal, be it South Indian or North Indian always has a pachadi / raita in it. When eating a large meal, the yogurt in the pachadi does have a very soothing effect on the tummy. It is especially useful to people like me who skips the curd rice / Thayir Saadham. Because of our use of yogurt in our everyday diet, we avoid a lot of stomach issues as we maintain a healthy dose of probiotics. This Thakkali Pachadi is one recipe that I have never been able to get the same taste as my mother’s. I have her handwritten recipe and have used the same ingredients, but I still prefer hers over mine. Guess now I have to just keep trying until one day it tastes like hers. I have done a few blunders in this tomato raita recipe, this particular day when I clicked the pictures. The yogurt has to be mixed with the tomato mixture once the mixture has cooled well. I added it while it was still hot and it sort of changed the texture of the pachadi. Also, I did not whisk the yogurt well because of time constraints and that also changed the texture of the tomato pachadi.

Other recipes that I made for lunch -

Milagu KuzhambuParuppu ThuvayalBeans Curry

Ingredients to make Thakkali Pachadi– Serves 4

Tomatoes – 4 (chopped finely)Green chilies – 2Yogurt (whisked) -1 cupMustard seeds – ½ tspCumin seeds – ½ tspAsafetida – a pinchOil – 1 tspCurry leaves (optional) – fewCilantro – few (finely chopped)Salt – to tasteSugar – ½ tsp

Procedure to make Thakkali Pachadi –

Heat oil in a pan and add the mustard seeds and the cumin seeds and let it crackle. Then add the asafetida and curry leaves and let it cook for about 5 seconds.

Add the chopped tomatoes and green chilies along with the salt needed. Let the tomatoes soften a bit, but make sure that they do not cook completely and become mushy.

Let the mixture cool down entirely and then add the whisked yogurt along with the sugar and cilantro. The sugar helps in cutting down the acidity.

Mix well and serve the Thakkali Pachadi. If serving at a later time, add the yogurt just when you are ready to serve or keep the Tomato raita refrigerated so that it does not become sour.

Expert tips

Always add the yogurt to the tomatoes when it is cooled down to room temperature. Adding the the yogurt to hot tomato mixture will curdle the Tomato pachadi.Also make sure to whisk the yogurt really well before adding to the raita. Homemade yogurt works best for the raita.Make sure that the yogurt we use for the raita is not sour. 

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Recipe

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