Okra Curry / Vendakkai Curry - Simple Side dish for Rice !

I prefer this kind of simple side dishes  or curry recipes for rice & chapathi than the kuzhambu or kurma. This curry is loaded with veggies with simple preparation and no need of coconut paste, ginger garlic paste and also other fancy spices. Just a simple onion tomato saute with okra and mild spices. Low in calories, rich in fiber and other nutrition. And also it takes just 20 or less minutes to make this curry. Healthy & quick recipe to fix busy weekdays dinner or lunch. This okra curry pairs well with hot plain rice, dosa  and chapathi also. Here in this recipe i used Okra/Vendakkai, to the same recipe you can also use Brinjal, Ridge gourd, chayote, cabbage,radish, drumstick also but like okra it doesn't need to be stir fried you can directly add this to the curry and cook.

Ingredients

1. Okra/vendakkai      200gm (cut in to small bite size pieces)
2. Onion   1 medium(finely chopped)
3. Tomato    2 medium.(finely chopped)
4. Curry leaves     few
5. hing (powder)    a pinch
6. Mustard seeds      1/2 tsp
7. Cumin seeds/Jeera      1/2 tsp
8. turmeric powder    1/4 tsp
9. Chilli powder     1 and 1/2 tsp
10. Coriander  powder     2 tsp
11. Cumin powder    1 tsp
12. Salt    as needed
13. Oil    1 tbsp and 1 tsp

Method

• Heat a tsp oil in a pan, when it heated add cut okra pieces and Heat 1 tbsp oil in a vessel,add mustard and cumin seeds and allow to splutter. 

• Then add hing powder,curry leaves and chopped onions ,sprinkle some salt. 
• saute the onions till it turn transparent and add the chopped tomatoes. 

• Fry still tomato get soft and now add all the dry powders ,enough salt and stir well. 
• After frying for few minutes then add about 1 cup of water and allow to boil. 

• when it started boiling add the stir fried okra pieces and stir gently and simmer for 2-3 minutes. 
• when okra get cooked switch off the stove and sprinkle some coriander leaves. 

• Now the okra curry is ready to serve. 
• This Okra curry goes well with Plain rice,dosa ,chapthi & parathas.

Notes:
Stir frying the okra is must, if you add without stir frying it makes the curry slimy and will not taste good.
Heat two pans simultaneously and roast okra in one pan and start seasoning and sauteing in another pan like what i did. When the curry starts boiling, add the roasted okra pieces to the curry.