Green Bell Pepper Chutney

One day when I was looking up bell peppers I saw a chutney made with not red but green bell peppers. It looked amazing and I loved its texture. I was not very sure about the taste. I have a lot of recipes using red bell pepper on this space but I use green bell pepper sparingly. It is not my daughter's favorite so I usually use it with other vegetables, not as the star of the dish. But I knew I had to try this Green Bell Pepper chutney someday. Well, last week I was reading the Blogging Marathon group blogs and I saw this chutney on Nisha's space. She blogs at the Magic Saucepan and has some awesome recipes. I bookmarked it and asked Alexa (Amazon Echo) to add green bell peppers to my grocery list.

On Memorial Day, my daughter and I had to run out for some errands and when I got back it was too late to cook my planned lunch menu. I made a quick mixed vegetable rice and needed something to go with it. This bookmarked chutney seemed perfect and it was done while the rice cooked. I made one change to the original recipe. I added lime juice to it. The taste profile was perfect.

You will need
1 green bell pepper
1/4 white onion
a handful of roasted unsalted peanuts
1 tbsp. tamarind paste or pulp of a quarter sized ball of tamarind
2 dried chili peppers
salt to taste
1 tbsp. oil, I used olive oil
1 tbsp. lime juice

Tempering
1 tsp. oil, I used olive oil
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp urad dal
1/2 tsp asafoetida
1 small dried red chili pepper
2-3 curry leaves, I ran out so skipped them

If using tamarind pulp, soak the tamarind in 1/4 cup warm water for about an hour. Squeeze out the pulp from the soaked tamarind and discard the seeds and skin. Keep aside.

Dice the onion and separately, roughly chop the green bell pepper. Keep aside until needed.

Heat the oil in a pan and add the tamarind and onion. Let it cook for a 4-5 minutes on medium heat until the onion is cooked. Remove the tamarind and onion from the pan and keep aside to cool. Add the dried red chili pepper and return the pan to heat for about a minute or two. Remove the chili pepper and keep it aside with the onion. Add the green bell pepper and roasted peanuts. Let them cook on medium heat for 5-6 minutes or until they change color. Turn of heat and let all the ingredients cool. When cooled grind them all together to a coarse paste. Do not leaves any chunks but do not grind it to a smooth paste. Keep aside.

Heat the oil for tempering in a small pan and add the mustard seeds and urad dal. When the seeds sizzle and urad dal starts to turn color. turn off heat. Add the asafoetida, chili pepper and the curry leaves. Let the pan cool. Add the lime juice and tempering to the dal and mix it well.

Enjoy!