Radish Pachadi

It’s both delightful and amazing how a humble dish such as this radish pachadi or radish chutney can so dramatically elevate a simple home-style meal of rice and dal. Telugu cuisine, both from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana is famed for its pachadis – the word is used for both chutneys (which are generally ground or pulped) and pickles (which usually have chunks of the fruit/vegetable). In this case, the radish pachadi is a chutney. Pachadis may be formally classified and condiments meant to bring spice or tang to a meal, but as any Telugu person will proudly tell you, pachadis lie at the very soul of their food.

Eat Your Radish

Merely a few everyday ingredients go into making this finger-licking radish chutney. Radish or daikon, known as mooli in Hindi and moolangi in Telugu is a vegetable that polarises people. A few, like me, love its pungent, slightly astringent notes. Others, like my husband, screw up their noses if they even catch a whiff of it – it does have a strong personality among vegetables. This radish pachadi recipe is perfect for him. He loves it. In fact, the first time I made it, he couldn’t guess what it was. And revealing the ingredients did not stop him from enjoying a second helping. I think because this pachadi retains the umami compounds of this vitamin C-rich vegetable while removing its natural smell that many find offensive. A storehouse of the digestive enzyme amylase, radish is regarded as one of the healthiest vegetables(especially by the Japanese).

That’s just the bonus I think. The radish chutney is so delicious with idlis and dosas as with parathas and plain steamed rice, that I don’t need any other reasons to have it regularly on my table. Radishes, fresh, hot green chillies, cumin seeds, garlic and a little yoghurt are all that is needed for this recipe. Staples like salt, oil, a few curry leaves and mustard seeds go into the tempering. Although the recipe doesn’t need a lot of oil, gingelly oil (lightly toasted sesame oil not the dark variety used in east Asian cuisines) is preferable if you have it (just because it brings some additional flavour). If you don’t, regular, neutral vegetable oil will do just fine. Read all about sesame oils here.

A couple of teaspoons of oil are needed to lightly saute the radishes. Cooking the vegetable takes away some of the pungent smell as does using yoghurt to grind the pachadi. Unlike most Andhra pachadis, this radish chutney does not have tamarind but rather has the gentle tang of plain yoghurt to balance the heat of the green chillies and the earthiness of both the radishes and the cumin seeds. The radish pachadi keeps well for up to a week in the fridge, (if it lasts that long) and I think a brilliant way of serving it would be as a dip for crudites and chips. Try it, especially with kids, who, in my experience, rarely like radish. You’ll surprise them with the flavours and they, you, with their response.