Karuveppilai kuzhambu recipe - Raks Kitchen (2024)

Karuveppilai kuzhambu is a south Indian tamarind based gravy with ground curry leaves added to it. Learn how to make south Indian karuveppilai kuzhambu with step by step pictures, video.

Curry leaves kuzhambu is best had with steamed rice, sesame oil or ghee. Goes well with idli dosai too.

Karuveppilai kuzhambu is very tasty and healthy, easy to make too😎! We make it similar to the vatha kuzhambu that is usually made.

But grinding curry leaves and adding to it makes the difference. Just like this kuzhambu,only ground curry leaves make the difference😉.

This can be made in bulk and keep refrigerated and use for a week. Tastes great as it gets old 😉

As always, my mom is queen👸🏻 of making kuzhambus. It will be so flavorful, perfectly balanced and the best part is she feeds us with her own hands or the least mixes with hands and gives to us.

That much spoilt we were 😆. I am so glad I learnt it from her!

Ingredients

• Curry leaves - Karuveppilai in Tamil, the star ingredient in the gravy. Make sure to use fresh ones, then only it will be flavorful. My mom says more than kozhundhu karuveppilai (young tender ones) only older ones have flavor when it comes to this.
• Onion - We only make this kuzhambu with Small onion. If we are time pressed or low in stock, we use chopped small onions. Otherwise of lots whole small onion works too. If using large ones, just use one finely chopped.
• Garlic - Adds so much flavor to the kuzhambu. Same as above, depending on the situation, we use less chopped garlic or more whole cloves.
• Sambar powder - We use our sambar powder for all kind of our south Indian lunch - poriyal, kootu, poricha kuzhambu, sambar, vatha kuzhambu. Check recipe card for link and notes for alternates.
• Jaggery - Add very very less, so that you won't have a distinct sweet taste but nicely balances all together.

Check recipe card for full list.

Step by step method

1. Wash curry leaves and grind it with little water (¼ cup) to a smooth paste.

2. Extract tamarind juice from tamarind by soaking it in hot water for 20 mins.

Mash tamarind well with hands after 20 mins and filter through metal strainer.

Repeat with little more water to extract tamarind juice. Total measurement - 2 & ½ cups cups.

Make karuveppilai kuzhambu

1. Heat kadai with oil and add all the tempering items in order and fry till golden colour. After that, add onion and saute till translucent. I used my Kalchatti here.

2. Follow it by adding garlic. Continue frying until garlic and onion turn golden here and there. Pour in tamarind extract.

3. After that, add ground curry leaves (adjust water - ½ cup), turmeric, salt, sambar powder (See notes for alternates for sambar powder).

4. Mix to boil in medium flame. It takes 15 minutes roughly. Depending on spice powder you use this time may change.

5. Drop jaggery lastly, mix and give a boil. Switch off stove.

Karuveppilai kuzhambu gets thick as it cools.

Enjoy with hot rice and a mild side dish. Stays good for a week in fridge if handled properly.

My notes

How I extract tamarind juice easily:

• I usually keep the tamarind in a small bowl with little water inside pressure cooker along with rice. I cook rice in pressure cooker (pot in pot method) so cover rice with a plate and place this bowl over it. If I make kootu, I will also alternately keep this small bowl in middle of dal for kootu I keep in separator bowls. Like below example.

• This way we can easily separate juice from the fibre in no time! I learnt this from my MIL, she always does this everyday basis for sambar or kuzhambu. Try this and do let me know if it was helpful for you 😃

Spice powder

We have this in bulk for year's use and add it to all sorts of south Indian cooking right from poriyal, kootu, poricha kuzhambu, vatha kuzhambu, sambar etc. It's like an universal curry powder I will say.

I am sure many of the Tamil homes does this. In case you want to use readymade, you can use aachi or sakthi sambar powder which is close to ours. Though it is called sambar powder, trust me, it can be used to many dishes.

What if you don't have any of this? Just replace with 2 teaspoon red chilli powder and 1 teaspoon coriander seeds powder for this recipe. But thickening will take a while. So you can add ½ teaspoon of rice flour dissolved in 1 tablespoon water and add to fasten the process.

Fine tunes:

My mom adds a dash of black pepper powder along with jaggery for extra zing.

How to temper properly?

Add the tempering items only when oil is hot. First methi seeds, followed by mustard. Mustard should crackle after which you should add dals and roast it golden in low flame. Lastly add cumin and let it crackle.

Top tip

• If you do not add enough tamarind, salt and spices in this, the curry leaves may smell raw in the gravy. So make sure to balance and boil well.
• My tamarind is pudhu puli (white tamarind) and it came around 30 grams.

Recipe card