Coconut sambal with red chilli

 I did promise the coconut sambal recipe will come up soon so here it is!

This coconut and red chilli sambal is a regular in our house, my husband it’s the expert or even the master to rank him correctly, at making it and I’m a champion at eating it. He often finds it too spicy 😉 since I never fail to interfere and demand for more red chillies to be added. Lol. I do love it spicy! Wow!

It’s truly unbelievable, especially when made hot, hot, hot! The beauty of it its that you choose how hot you want to make it.

Coconut sambal is a very popular side dish in Sri Lanka and in South India.

The ingredients needed in this recipe are easy to find ingredients and these are:

• • fresh coconut that needs shredding, grating or scraping
• • shallots
• • red chillies (dry) toasted for best flavour
• • salt
• • lemon or lime
• • black pepper freshly ground
• • fresh curry leaves (a must for the best possible flavour)

How many chillies …

The number of red chillies will clearly dictate the level of spiciness so go with what you’re comfortable with. Everyone knows their heat threshold. I believe mine it’s somewhere quite high up there to something like 15 red chillies. Did you say unusual? Oh yes! I am unusual I know, since even my own Sri Lankan husband cannot take that many chillies. 😉

This coconut and red chilli sambal goes well with idli, dosa, appam (a recipe that I have just posted see here) any roti or a nice slice or two of fresh homemade bread. I also love it as a side to any curry whether that’s a vegan, vegetarian or a meat curry like this delicious lamb curry. I will be right to say that this sambal is such a versatile dish. Right?

I would have this easily every day, the only hold up it’s the actual onions in it. They are the real hold up really. Onions are what is holding me back, otherwise, it’d be on my plate with every single meal. Truth! That’s how much I love this coconut sambal.

Variations …

This sambal can be made with fresh green or red chillies but to me, the red dry and toasted chillies have the best flavour and subtleness, hence my choice to share this particular version.

I call it a spicy lip-smacking treat and anyone who enjoys coconut, spice and spicy would absolutely and utterly LOVE this sambal.

It’s one of those dishes that you can take to a picnic, to a potluck party, great with barbecue or any meal to enjoy with family and friends.

The beauty of it is that spiciness level can be adjusted according to everybody’s threshold so it can be made from very mild to super spicy (just like I like it ???). It’s one of those dishes that awakens all the senses, takes you to cloud 11 ( just two levels above cloud 9 or even above that). So, so tasty, refreshing and super healthy! Definitely a must try.

Eat this coconut sambal and this sardines dish and you’ll never catch or get a cold or a flu ? again. Your immune system will be at its highest it can ever be, seriously.

Let’s do some grinding, scraping, some mixing and a bit of squeezing then, shall we?

Coconut sambal with red chilli

This coconut sambal contains really nice and healthy ingredients like fresh coconut, lemon, shallots, red chilli and fresh curry leaves making it such a flavoursome side dish. Delicious!

5 from 14 votes

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Course: Appetizer, Side Dish

Cuisine: Asian, Ramona’s Cuisine, Sri Lankan

Keyword: coconut recipes, coconut savoury, curry, free from, healthy food, homemade chutney, side dish, spicy food, vegan, vegetarian

Prep Time: 25 minutes

Cook Time: 0 minutes

Total Time: 25 minutes

Servings: 4 people

Calories: 66kcal

Author: Ramona Sebastian

Cost: £1.50

Equipment

• mortar and pestle
• coconut scraper/ grater
• chopping board
• knife
• bowl

Ingredients

• 1 coconut fresh, shredded/scraped or grated
• 1 lemon or 2 limes
• 4-15 red chillies dry and toasted
• 1 Salt
• Pepper
• 4 shallots
• 1 handful of curry leaves fresh

Metric – US Imperial

Instructions

• Shred the coconut and the best tool it’s using a coconut shredder but if you don't have that you can grate it on the small grater or use a food processor to get it to a gritty couscous size and texture.
• Toast the red chillies for 1-2 min tossing them in a pan over medium heat. I do not add any oil but feel free to do so if you wish.
• Whizz the toasted chillies into a food processor. These should be done separately while nice and dry so they don’t get moist with the other ingredients.
• Peel and chop the shallots roughy and add together with the curry leaves to the toasted whizzed already red chillies in the food processor. Give these a good whizz until they get to a gritty texture and the size of a fine couscous.
• Into a larger bowl bring all the ingredients together and mix well, add the lemon juice, the salt and some freshly ground pepper to taste. Some add sugar, 1 teaspoon or so, but I never do. I do not find that necessary.

Notes

• dry red chillies can also be replaced with red chilli flakes or even fresh chillies – don’t forget to toast these too ;-)!
• shallots can be replaced with red onion or regular brown or yellow onion; shallots are the best if you can get them as they are a lot tastier.
• curry leaves are not so easy to find in general supermarkets but if you have any Asian store around, these will surely be sold there. You may be able to find the dry ones but they are nothing like the fresh ones so if you cannot find them at all use parsley or coriander (cilantro). 

Nutrition

Calories: 66kcal | Carbohydrates: 9g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 4g | Saturated Fat: 3g | Sodium: 7mg | Potassium: 161mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 3g | Vitamin A: 30IU | Vitamin C: 22mg | Calcium: 16mg | Iron: 1mg

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