Tambuli/malabar spinach + basil tambli

Tambuli/tambli is a simple side dish from the state of Karnataka in the south of India. In my opinion, tambuli is an epitome of comfort food, cannot get any more comforting than this. Especially in the summers, as the temperatures begin to spike, I wish to have this refreshing and cooling dish with every meal!

What is tambli?

Tambli is a side dish that is prepared using herbs/vegetables, fresh coconut and yogurt/Indian buttermilk(not to be confused with buttermilk available in USA). Spices like cumin and black pepper are used for extra flavour. Tambuli is enjoyed with rice. I also like to sip on it at the end of my meal. I find it to be very soothing.

Tambli is made using various herbs and wild herbs, ginger, garlic, onion and a few more vegetables. Dried pomegranate skin is re-hydrated and used to make tambuli, talk about zero-waste! You can also get creative, I have also used pickled olives, pickled jalapenos.

Some tambuli do not require any cooking. Every ingredient can go in raw into the blender. Some are made by first sautéing the herbs before blending with coconut.

A short video tutorial

Ingredients required

Tambuli usually has one star ingredient. Today I chose two, malabar spinach(regular spinach can also be used) and basil(a mix of Thai and Italian. Holy basil/tulsi can be used too) . You can choose to saute them or keep them raw.

Toasted Cumin/Jeera/Jeerige. This is an optional ingredient. If the star ingredient has it’s own strong flavour/aroma I like to skip it. For ex, if am using spinach, I would add toasted cumin whereas if I am preparing it using an herb like curry leaf I may/may not add it as the curry leaves already have a strong flavour.

Black pepper – I like to spice my tambuli with black pepper. I love the flavour it brings to this dish.

Coconut – Curries from coastal areas in Karnataka tend to be heavy on coconut. This dish though, for a change uses it in small quantities.

Yogurt/mosaru/majjige – Yogurt is an important contributor here :). Yogurt gives the dish flavour, tartness and makes tambli refreshing.

Traditionally Indian buttermilk, majjige, as we call in Kannada is used instead of yougurt/mosaru. Indian buttermilk is the tangy liquid left over after extracting butter from yogurt.

Other flavours

Tambuli can be prepared using any of the following ingredients as the star ingredient. You would need to replace the spinach and basil in the recipe below with any of the following. A little goes a long way, as the dish is simple, with not many spices to overpower the star ingredient!

• Other greens/herbs like fenugreek(methi), curry leaves, pennywort and wild edible greens.
• Ginger, garlic, onion (any one of them)

Check these other simple sides from Mangaluru like this potato mosaru gojju/potato salad

Tambuli recipe/malabar spinach + basil tambli

Shwetha

Simple, refreshing side for rice. The ultimate comfort food!

5 from 3 votes

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Prep Time 5 minutes mins

Cook Time 2 minutes mins

Total Time 7 minutes mins

Course Side Dish

Cuisine Indian

Servings 2 people

Equipment

• Blender

Ingredients

  

• ½-¾ cup mix of malabar spinach (basale) + basil basil can be substituted with tulsi/holy basil
• ¼ cup fresh/frozen coconut
• ¼ cup yogurt/mosaru/majjige
• ¼ tsp cumin seeds
• salt to taste
• ¼ tsp pepper or to taste
• ½ tsp oil
• water as needed

Instructions

 

• Toast the cumin seeds in a few drops of oil/ghee until aromatic. Take care not to burn them.
• Defrost coconut if using frozen.
• Saute the spinach and basil in a few drops of oil/ghee.
• Transfer cumin, sauteed greens, pepper, salt, coconut, enough water to blend and make it into a smooth paste.
• Take the blended paste out into a bowl.
• Whisk the yogurt smooth. Add in the yogurt to the blended paste and mix.
• Taste and add water to thin it to suit your taste.
• Adjust salt and pepper.

Video

Notes

• Tambuli can be enjoyed with rice or sipped plain.
• A tadka/oggarane can be added to tambli. To do that, heat 1 tsp oil and add 1/4 tsp mustard seeds, 1/8 tsp cumin seeds(jeera) and dry red chilli. When mustard splutters, pour the oil along with the spices over tambuli.

Tambuli can be prepared with many other ingredients. I have listed some of them in the writeup above the recipe.

Keyword tambli recipe, tambuli recipe

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