Peanut Sundal is a South Indian snack or tiffin dish made with boiled peanuts and South Indian seasonings served along with coffee/tea.
Table of Contents
Peanut Sundal or Verkadalai Sundal is a snack, appetizer or you can even classify it as a salad.
We make Peanut Sundal or Verkadalai Sundal with boiled peanuts or groundnuts and season it with a classic South Indian spice-medley of mustard seeds, curry leaves, and asafoetida.
I make this sundal often as it takes very little effort and I always have raw peanuts at home. You can make this healthy verkadalai sundal for Navarathri Golu to give as prasadam.
Ingredients for Peanut Sundal
The main ingredient is Peanuts or groundnuts. It goes by the name of Kadlekayi in Kannada, Verkadalai in Tamil, Mungfali in Hindi and Shengdane in Marathi.
The ingredients needed for the tadka are groundnut oil, mustard seeds, split urad dal, curry leaves and asafoetida powder.
Grated carrots, freshly grated coconut, green chillies, and lemon juice are the other ingredients for the garnish.
How to make peanut sundal?
The Prep Work
The first step is to soak the peanuts in water for a minimum of one hour or overnight. Soaking the nuts before cooking will help easily digest them.
Once the soaking period is done, drain the water and rinse the peanuts. Add fresh water until all the peanuts get covered in the water. Add 1/4 tsp of salt to the water and mix well.
If you are using a large pressure cooker, add 1 inch of water and place the bowl of peanuts inside and close it with a lid. If you are using a small pressure cooker, you can add the rinsed peanuts directly to the pressure cooker with sufficient water covering them.
Pressure cook the peanuts for 3-4 whistles and turn off the cooker. Let the pressure come down naturally. Drain the water and keep the peanuts in a large bowl. Add 1/2 tsp of salt and mix well.
Now, take a tadka pan and place it on a medium flame. Add one tsp groundnut oil; once the oil is warm, add mustard seeds and split urad dal. Let the mustard seeds sputter. Turn off the flame and add the curry leaves and asafoetida powder.
Pour this seasoning on top of the peanuts. Add the grated carrots and garnish with fresh coconut and lime juice.
Alternatively, you can take the fresh grated coconut along with 2 small green chillies in a small mixer jar. Pulse it a couple of times to get a coarse texture. Use this coconut-chilli mixture as a garnish on top of the sundal.
Serve this delicious Peanut Sundal as a side dish with Lemon Rice and curd for your lunch box.
Storage and Shelf Life
Peanut Sundal will store well on the counter for half a day in weather like Bangalore’s, but it’s best to keep it in the fridge if you are eating later.
If you have added coconut, it’s best to store it in the fridge before serving.
You can store peanut Sundal in the fridge for up to two days. It will lose freshness, but it is perfectly edible.
If you are going to garnish with lemon juice, it’s best to do it before serving. If you store this sundal in the fridge with the lemon juice, you might taste some bitter flavour when consuming it later.
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Recipe
Peanut Sundal | Veru Kadala Sundal
Ingredients
- 1 cup Raw Peanuts (200g)
- 1 Carrot medium-sized, grated
- 1 tsp Salt adjust as required
For Tempering
- 1 tsp Cooking oil
- ½ tsp Mustard seeds
- ½ tsp Split Urad Dal
- 2 sprigs Curry Leaves
- ½ tsp Asafoetida powder
For garnish
- 1 Green Chilli
- 2 tbsp Grated Coconut
- 1 Lemon (juice)
Instructions
- Soak raw peanuts in a bowl with 1 inch of water about the nuts. Let it soak for 1-2 hours or maybe overnight if you are making it the next morning. But a minimum of one hour soaking is sufficient.
- Drain the water and add fresh water to the bowl of peanuts. Rinse the peanuts off under water. Add the rinsed peanuts to the bowl and add fresh water until it covers all the peanuts.
- If you are using a large pressure cooker, add about an inch of water to the bottom of the cooker and place this bowl of peanuts inside with a lid on top. If you are using a small pressure cooker, directly added the soaked and rinsed peanuts to the cooker and add about 200ml water or as much as required to cover all the peanuts.
- Allow for 3-4 whistles and turn off the cooker. Let the pressure release naturally. Meanwhile, peel and grate a carrot and keep aside.
- After the pressure has released, remove the bowl of peanuts or, with the use of a sieve, remove the cooked peanuts from the pressure cooker. Add them to a bowl and season with salt. Mix well.
- Place a tadka pan / small pan on a low-medium heat. Once the pan is warm, add a teaspoon of oil.
- Once the oil is warm, add the mustard seeds and split urad dal. Toast it until the urad dal turns brown.
- Turn off the heat and add the asafoetida powder and curry leaves. Let the curry leaves crisp up. Add this tadka to the bowl of cooked peanuts. If using, add the grated carrots too.
- If you are short on time, you can skip this step, but I think this final garnish adds a nice zing to the dish. Take two tablespoons of grated coconut along with a green chilli in a mixer and pulse grind it for 3-4 times until the green chilli looks minced.
- Add this grated coconut mixture as a garnish to the peanuts, and mix well. For the final garnish, just before serving, you can squeeze the juice of half a lemon on top.
