Tamarind Leaves Rice Recipe / Hunase chiguru chitranna/ Chinta Chiguru Annam

If you’ve never cooked with tamarind leaves before, you’re in for a treat. Tamarind leaves, known as chinta chiguru in Telugu, are tender, slightly tangy, and full of flavor. This Tamarind Leaves Rice recipe is a simple, earthy dish that makes a delicious weekday lunch or a festive side during springtime, especially when the tender tamarind shoots are in season.

Whether you're looking for something new to do with tamarind leaves or want a nostalgic dish from Andhra cuisine, this recipe will hit the spot. By the way, I was recently introduced to cooking with tamarind leaves by my manager, who is from Andhra. Although I vaguely remember seeing a dish made with these greens on Instagram a while ago, this was my first time actually trying them. For this recipe, I adapted my usualMoringa/ curry leaves rice by simply swapping the moringa leaves with tamarind greens.

Preparation time:  15 minutes

Cooking time: 20 minutes

Serves: 3-4

Ingredients:

tamarind leaves (young and tender, tightly packed) - 1 cup

Rice – 2 cups

Salt – to taste

Coriander Seeds - 2 tsp

Cumin - 1 tsp

Channa dal – 3-4 tbsp

Urad dal/ Black gram lentil – 2 tsp

Dry red chillis – 3-4 (as per taste)

Fenugreek seeds – ¼ tsp

Grated coconut/ grated dry coocnut – 2 tbsp (optional)

Coconut oil/ cooking oil – 2 tbsp

Onion – 1 (optional)

Peanuts/ ground nuts – 2 tbsp

Cashews for garnishing (optional)

Curry leaves - 1-2 sprig

Method:

• Clean the tamarind leaves and remove hard stems if any (tender the leaves, better the taste). Wash the leaves well and spread on a clean kitchen towel and allow drying for few minutes.
• Cook rice in a pressure cooker with 4 cups of water and salt to taste. It should be done in 3 whistles. Let the pressure settle down completely.
• Chop onions and keep aside.
• Heat a wok/ pan, add coriander seeds, cumin, channa dal, urad dal, fenugreek seeds and red chillis. Add a few drops of oil and fry them until you get nice aroma. Avoid burning of ingredients. Add grated coconut at the end and sauté once. Transfer this to a plate and allow cooling.
• In the same pan, add cleaned green leaves and fry until the leaves are wilted and they leave good flavor. Add this to the above fried ingredients. Let it cool down completely.
• Now, take a mixer jar, dry grind all the fried ingredients along with the roasted tamarind leaves and powder everything together. It need not be very fine powder.
• Heat the pan; add oil, mustard seeds & peanuts. Fry the peanuts & let the mustards splutter. Add curry leaves.
• Add onions, salt as required (remember that little salt has already been added while cooking rice) and fry until they turn translucent.
• Add cashews and the spice & ground mix that is prepared before. Sauté for a while and add rice, mix well.
• Switch off the stove.
• Serve this rice when warm with a choice of raita. Enjoy the delicious rice with your family.