A 100-Year Old Family Recipe for Nalleru Pachadi
This tangy, spicy and bitter pachadi is made from the stems of the lesser-known nalleru plant.
I first tasted nalleru pachadi at a friend’s farmhouse. I found the bitter and pungent flavours incredibly enticing. That evening I walked out of her home with two things in hand — the recipe on a piece of paper and a few stems of nalleru from her kitchen garden. I waited patiently for the stems to grow in my kitchen garden and couldn’t wait to try this recipe that had been in the family for over a century. One fine day, I woke up to see long vines on the plant and I got ready to cook the nalleru pachadi.
A Lesser-Known Medicinal Plant
A climber, nalleru (Cissus quadrangularis) is a tropical plant that grows in Asia and Africa. It has long, spiky stems with an acrid flavour. Every part of this creeper is used to make various medicines. Sadly, nalleru is virtually forgotten these days and is not available at local grocery stores. Instead it can now be found in home gardens. The tender stem blended with roasted peanuts makes a tart but scrumptious pachadi.
Known as veld grape in English, in Hindi the plant is called hadjora and nalleru in Telugu. In Sanskrit, it is poetically called vajrangi which means strong as a diamond.
The nalleru plant is mentioned in Ayurvedic texts in regards to medicine. Different parts of the plant were used to cure many diseases that included, but were not limited to, osteoporosis, healthy digestion, piles, and diabetes.
Pachadi: At the Heart of Andhra Cuisine
One of the most delicious uses for nellaru is in a pachadi. No meal in Andhra Pradesh is complete without a fresh pachadi (or chutney). Hot, tangy, and spicy, pachadi is prepared with fresh vegetables, peels, or greens, spiced with fried or roasted green or red chilies. Known as roti pachadi, (roti refers to a stone mortar and pestle) these pachadis are pounded to a coarse or fine paste, tempered, and served. Though not long-lasting like pickles, it is stored in the fridge for a week. Nalleru pachadi is served with steaming hot rice, drizzled with a liberal amount of ghee. It can also be served as an accompaniment to dosa, adai, and appam.
The stem of the nalleru plant is used to make the pachadi. Nalleru is innately robust in flavour and needs to be paired with peanuts, pigeon pea dal, or coconut to reduce its punch. This particular recipe uses peanuts to neutralise the spice factor.
It gives me great pleasure to walk into my kitchen garden, pluck the fresh nalleru stems and cook it right away. From the garden to the dining table in 30 minutes. Can it get fresher than that?
Recipe: Nalleru Pachadi
Ingredients
10 nalleru stems, chopped (use tender stems for the best flavour)
½ cup peanuts
1 tsp tamarind
2 red chillies
4 cloves garlic
1 tbsp coriander seeds
2 green chillies
1 tbsp cumin
1 tbsp oil
½ cup water
Salt to taste
For the tempering
2 tsp oil
1 tsp chana dal
A sprig of curry leaves
1 dry red chilli
1 tsp mustard seeds
¼ tsp turmeric powder
1 sprig of fresh coriander
Method
In a pan roast peanuts and crush lightly to remove the peels. Set aside. In the same pan, roast coriander seeds, cumin seeds, and red chillies till aromatic. Let it cool and grind these to a fine powder.
To cook the pachadi, heat some oil and add the chopped nalleru stem and green chillies. Sauté till it’s wilted and transfer it to the blender. Blitz this, and add the powder, tamarind and garlic and blend to a smooth paste. Take a wok or a kadhai to temper the pachadi. Heat oil and toss in the mustard seeds, chana dal, and broken red chilies. Once they splutter add the curry leaves and a pinch of turmeric. Add the ground pachadi and sauté for a minute. Transfer to a bowl and garnish with freshly chopped coriander.
Serve with hot steamed rice drizzled with hot ghee.
Harjeet Kaur is a writer whose work has appeared in The Hindu Metro Plus, Times of India amongst others. You can read more of his work here.
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