Thakkali Pachadi | Tomato Raita

I love how a complete meal, be it South Indian or North Indian always has a pachadi/raita in it. When eating a large meal, the yogurt in the pachadi does have a very soothing effect on the tummy. It is especially useful to people like me who skips the curd rice / Thayir Saadham. Because of our use of yogurt in everyday diet, we avoid lot of stomach issues as we maintain a healthy dose of probiotics.

This Thakkali Pachadi is one recipe that I have never been able to get the same taste as my mothers. I have her hand written recipe and have used the same ingredients, but I still prefer hers over mine. Guess now I have to just keep trying until one day it tastes like hers.

I have done a few blunders in the recipe, this particular day when I clicked the pictures. The yogurt has to be mixed with the tomato mixture once the mixture has cooled well. I added it while it was still hot and it sort of changed the texture of the pachadi. Also I did not whisk the yogurt well because of time constraint and that also changed the texture of the pachadi.

Other recipes that I made for lunch –

Milagu Kuzhambu
Paruppu Thuvayal
Beans Curry

Preparation time – 5 minutes
Cooking time – 10 minutes
Difficulty level – easy

Ingredients to make Thakkali Pachadi– Serves 4

• Tomatoes – 4 (chopped finely)
• Green chilies – 2
• Yogurt (whisked) -1 cup
• Mustard seeds – ½ tsp
• Cumin seeds – ½ tsp
• Asafetida – a pinch
• Oil – 1 tsp
• Curry leaves (optional) – few
• Cilantro – few (finely chopped)
• Salt – to taste
• Sugar – ½ tsp

Procedure to make Thakkali Pachadi –

• Heat oil in a pan and add the mustard seeds and the cumin seeds and let it crackle. Then add the asafetida and curry leaves and let it cook for about 5 seconds.
• Add the chopped tomatoes and green chilies along with the salt needed. Let the tomatoes soften a bit, but make sure that they do not cook completely and become mushy.

• Let the mixture cool down entirely and then add the whisked yogurt along with the sugar and cilantro. The sugar helps in cutting down the acidity.
• Mix well and serve the Thakkali Pachadi. If serving at a later time, add the yogurt just when you are ready to serve or keep the pachadi refrigerated so that it does not become sour.