Thoran is a type of stir-fried vegetable dish common in Kerala. Similar dishes are found all over South India. You basically stir fry the vegetables in oil seasoned with mustard seeds, onions, curry leaves, and other spices, and add some grated coconut toward the end. I normally eyeball the proportions, so this is an approximate recipe.
Ingredients
Finely chopped green beans – 1.5 cups
Finely chopped carrots – 1.5 cups
Grated coconut – 1.5 cups (You can get this frozen in most Indian stores)
Finely chopped onions or shallots – 0.5 cup
Curry leaves – 4 – 8
Turmeric – 1/4 teaspoon
Asafoetida – 1/4 teaspoon
Black mustard seeds – 1/2 teaspoon
Dried red chillies – to taste (I used one)
Chopped greed chillies – to taste (I used 4 bird’s eye chillies)
Oil – 3-4 tablespoons
Salt to taste
Method
- Heat the oil with the mustard seeds in a pan or wok.
- When the mustard seeds start popping, lower the heat to medium and add the chopped onions and curry leaves.
- After a minute or two, add the turmeric, asafoetida, red chillies, and salt.
- Fry the onion-spice mix till the onions just start to become translucent.
- Add the beans and carrots. Keep stirring.
- Once the beans and carrots are almost cooked, add the coconut and keep stirring. You can add the green chillies at this stage.
In my experience, the longer you cook the green chillies, the less spicy the dish ends up being. So if you add the chillies only a few minutes before the end, it will be maximally spicy.
Tastes best with rice and dal or sambar, and also with chapatis.
This method works well for all sorts of chopped vegetables — cabbage, beetroot and spinach (done separately) are my favourites.
