PAROTTA SALNA | VEGETABLE SALNA FOR PAROTTA

Salna is a spicy, delicious side dish served with parotta in road side hotels of Tamil nadu(Kai endhi bhavan). It is very popular in Madurai. Empty Salna recipe is nothing but a plain, watery, tomato based spicy gravy packed with awesome flavor. But today I made vegetable salna recipe for parotta. Whenever I think about parota, the side dish that immediately strikes my mind is Salna. This road side hotel gravy is my favorite more than vegetable kurma that is served in restaurants. Nothing can beat this combo. Before marriage, my dad used to buy parotta salna almost twice in a month. We used to buy the parotta just for salna which tastes good for dosa, idli and chapathi as well. So we buy less parotta and ask for more salna ;). My mom makes idli /dosa additionally and we relish the salna with it. Even nowadays when I visit my mom’s place , my lovable dad never forgets to buy this for me.

Last week I bought frozen parotta for the first time just to prepare this salna. When I searched for the recipe, I got so many. Finally I made my own by combining all the recipes based on the salna I tasted. Usually in vegetarian salna , you can’t find any vegetables except onions, skin of tomato and a layer of oil floating on top and may be some pieces of cauliflower. I too wanted to make a plain tomato salna similarly. But I added some vegetables just to make it healthy. We loved its taste. Its taste will surely remind road side hotels salna to you. Lets see how to make parotta salna at home. Give a try and let me know how it turned out for you.  Hope you will love it like me ;) If you have salna and parotta leftover in hand, you can make delicious kothu parotta too. 

Do check out my Saravana bhavan style Parotta Kurma,  Parotta recipe with less oil, Kothu parotta recipe, Tomato kurma and chilli parotta. 

INGREDIENTS
1 cup - 250ml

Cut Vegetables ( carrot , beans , peas and potato, cauliflower) – 1/2 cup Ginger – Garlic paste – 1/2 tsp Big onion –1 no (finely chopped) Tomato  - 1 no (-do-) Mint leaves – a few Cooking oil – 1 - 2 tbsp Salt & water – as needed To grind: Oil – 1 tbsp Big onion – 1 no Tomato – 2 nos Red chilly powder – 1.5 tsp(use 3/4 tsp for less spice) Coriander powder – 2 tsp Jeera powder – 1/4 tsp Turmeric powder – 1/4 tsp Cinnamon – 1 small stick Cloves – 2-3  nos Elachi / cardamom – 1 seed Fennel seeds /soambu – 1/2 tsp Grated coconut – 3 tbsp Khus khus / Poppy seeds – 1/2 tsp Cashews – 3 nos

METHOD

Cut all the vegetables of small size uniformly. In a kadai , add a tbsp of oil and put cinnamon , cloves , cardamom , fennel , onion , tomato , all powders and mix well till tomato mushes. Then add the grated coconut , cashews .mix well and switch off the flame. After it cools down, add little water and grind to a smooth paste. In a cooker base , add oil and Ginger garlic paste,onions, mint leaves and sauté till raw smell emanates. Now add the chopped tomato pieces and saute well till it turns mushy. Now add the ground masala paste,required salt  and all the vegetables. Add enough water and pressure cook for one whistle. When u open the cooker , you’ll see a layer of oil floating on top and u get a nice aroma. If u feel the water is more , allow it to boil for sometime by simmering the flame which makes the oil separate. Remove and garnish with coriander leaves. Serve hot with parotta !!

NOTE

If you want the salna to be watery , add little more water after opening the cooker and allow to boil. U can also add coconut milk at the end instead of grinding coconut . For variations , try adding all the masala while sauting instead of grinding part. Adjust the amount of chilli powder according to your taste. You can even add it at the end and boil for sometime if required.

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