A simple South Indian style grated carrot stirfry popularly known as carrot thuvattal or carrot poriyal, and that’ what I am going to share today! A simple side dish for rice.
South India is known for its dry curries and gravy curries. While every South Indian state has its version of dry curries, today, I am going to share a grated carrot poriyal, which is popular in Tamil Nadu. This carrot poriyal with coconut and without onion and garlic is a perfect side for your lunch menu.
You can find this poriyal called as carrot thuvattal or carrot thuruval, all meaning carrot stir fry. This version is a basic one, and I have used sambar powder to spice up the curry. Please check the other variations below.
Why grated carrots-
I feel it’s easy to grate carrots than to chop them. I peel and grate the carrots as part of my weekend meal prep-work, and I use the grated carrots for salads, chaat, and making this poriyal.
The cooking time is comparatively less with grated carrots. You don’t need to steam them separately. With the open pot method, it gets cooked quickly.
VVK TIP – If you don’t want to use grated carrots, peel them and cut them into halves. Steam them in a pressure cooker/Instant Pot/Microwave, and then chop them. It’s easy to chop steamed carrots than the raw ones.
Carrot poriyal – Variations
- Instead of sambar powder, you can add red chili powder or vaangi bath powder or rasam powder to spice the curry.
- You can add ½ cup of finely chopped onions and two finely chopped garlic. You can skip the garlic and add onion alone too. After tempering, saute the onions until they are soft and translucent and then add the carrots.
- You can also add ¼ cup of soaked and par-boiled chana dal / kadalai paruppu or any other legumes for that added protein.
PS – You can also make similar poriyal with daikon radish. Check out my white radish thuvattal if interested.
How to serve the carrot poriyal-
You can pair it with sambar rice, rasam rice, or with any variety rice recipes. You can also prepare this as a part of your daily lunch menu and serve it along with rice and other curries.
If you are following a low-carb diet, you can relish this stirfry as is.
This carrot stirfry or carrot poriyal with coconut-
✔ Is vegan. Skip hing to make it gluten-free
✔ Can be made quickly
✔ Perfect for a low-carb diet
✔ Bachelor’s friendly recipe
Other carrot recipes from my blog-
Now without any further ado, let’s see how to make this Tamil Nadu style carrot poriyal with coconut.
How to make grated carrot poriyal-
- Heat the oil in a pan and when the oil is hot, add the mustard seeds, urad dal, hing, and dried red chilies. Let the mustard seeds splutter.
- Then add the curry leaves and saute for 30 seconds. Now add the grated carrots, salt, turmeric powder, and sambar powder. Mix well.
- Cover and cook for 4 minutes and then remove the lid and cook for 4 to 5 minutes until the moisture is absorbed. You can cook the grated carrots in less than 10 to 12 minutes.
- Now add the grated coconut and mix well.
- Cook for two minutes over low heat and switch off the heat. That’s it. Carrot stir fry/poriyal is ready.
Recipe Notes-
- As always, adjust the salt and spices according to your preference.
- Please check the variations in the post for different ways to make this carrot poriyal.
- Instead of grated carrots, you can use chopped carrots as well.
- Also, you can make similar poriyal with chayote squash, zucchini, beets, etc. The cooking time differs, though.
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📖 Recipe
Grated Carrot Stirfry | Carrot Poriyal with Coconut
Equipment
- Saucepan or kadai
Ingredients
- 1 tsp oil
- ½ tsp mustard seeds
- ½ tsp urad dal
- 3 red chilies broken into small pieces
- ⅛ tsp hing
- 5 curry leaves
- 4 cups carrot grated
- 1.5 tsp salt
- ¼ tsp turmeric powder
- ½ tsp sambar powder
- ¼ cup coconut grated
Instructions
- Heat the oil in a pan and when the oil is hot, add the mustard seeds, urad dal, hing, and dried red chilies. Let the mustard seeds splutter.
- Then add the curry leaves and saute for 30 seconds. Now add the grated carrots, salt, turmeric powder, and sambar powder. Mix well.
- Cover and cook for 4 minutes and then remove the lid and cook for 4 to 5 minutes until the moisture is absorbed. You can cook the grated carrots in less than 10 to 12 minutes.
- Now add the grated coconut and mix well. Cook for two minutes over low heat and switch off the heat. That’s it. Carrot poriyal is ready.
Notes
- As always, adjust the salt and spices according to your preference.
- Please check the variations in the post for different ways to make this carrot poriyal.
- Instead of grated carrots, you can use chopped carrots as well.
- Also, you can make similar poriyal with chayote squash, zucchini, beets, etc. The cooking time differs, though.
Nutrition
I am not a nutritionist. The nutritional information is provided as a courtesy and is an estimate only. It varies depending upon the product types or brands.
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I use green chilli and rest of the procedure is almost same and I make it at least once in week or 10 days. One of our favorite too.
Oh, nice.
This looks quite an easy recipe. What I love is that we all have so many unique recipes without onion and garlic and they taste so delicious.
Oh yeah definitely there is a lot of no onion no garlic recipes
The carrot poriyal looks so vibrant , lovely colour and what a simple yet flavorful dish . Obviously we don’t make poriyals , except when making South Indian , but it’s the beans poriyal that is always made , let me try the carrot one this time !
All poriyal recipes are more or less the same. Please do try I am sure you will like it.
We don’t make carrot stir fry that often as it tends to be sweet though I like it..this one is surely more like halwa to me..heheheh..:)
oh man… I make it quite often as it’s easy to make and healthy as well.
I make it similarly. It’s a favorite of mine and my kids as well though my husband thinks it’s rabbit food. :)
ha ha :-) Thanks
I make it the same way too Srividhya. Simple, satisfying and healthy.
True. Thanks Harini.