Cucumbers In A Spicy Coconut Chutney (Thoushe Sasam Recipe)

Tired of eating cucumbers raw & in salads to beat the heat? Make this spicy Konkani cuisine side dish instead, with cucumbers. 

Crunchy cucumbers in a spicy coconut chutney is a nice combo, with a flavourful seasoning to elevate its taste. 

This cucumber dish is called ‘thoushe sasam’ in Konkani. Thoushe meaning cucumber in Konkani & sasam refers to a coconut chutney ground using mustard seeds. Sasam literally means mustard seeds in Konkani. 

Thoushe sasam is served for lunch & dinner as a side. It is must as a side along with kheeri - a festival dish of Konkani cuisine, prepared by cooking rice in coconut milk. Thoushe sasam goes well with curd rice, with plain rice & pretty much anything too. 

It’s pretty simple & easy to make. Chop cucumbers, grind a coconut chutney, mix them, season the chutney. Hardly, 10 - 20 minutes is all you need to make it. Cucumbers help cool down your body. So, why don’t you give this side dish a try?

Ingredients:

• 1 small sized cucumber
• 3/4 cup grated coconut
• 1/2 lemon sized tamarind
• 4-5 green chillies
• Salt to taste
• 1/4 teaspoon of mustard seeds
• 1 teaspoon of oil

Seasoning:

• 1 tablespoon of oil
• 1 dried red chilli
• 1 leaflet of curry leaves

Serves: 2

Preparation Time: 10-20 minutes

Preparation Method:

1. Peel & finely chop cucumber. Keep it aside.

2. Wash green chillies, wipe them dry & roughly chop them into pieces. Fry them for 2 minutes using a teaspoon of oil in a tempering pan. Fry green chillies, until they change colour slightly.

This step helps get rid of the raw taste of green chillies. You can skip this step if you wish but chutney tastes good when green chillies are fried.

3. Once they cool, grind them along with grated coconut, tamarind, mustard seeds, salt into a smooth paste using just as much water as needed to make a paste.

We need a semi-thick chutney in the end. Do not make it watery.

4. Transfer the chutney into a bowl. Add in chopped cucumbers & mix well.

5. Seasoning: To season the chutney, heat oil in a tempering pan. Once hot, add in mustard seeds. Once they start spluttering, add in dried red chilli broken into pieces, curry leaves & let them sizzle for few seconds. 

6. Add this seasoning to the chutney & mix well. 

7. Serve it as a side for lunch, along with steaming hot rice, along with curd rice or with anything. 

P.S: You can make this chutney using dried red chillies or using both green chillies & dried red chillies. 

You can peel the cucumber or leave the peel on. 

Tags: Chutney, sasam, cucumber, thoushe sasam, side dish, Konkani cuisine, Konkani food, Konkani recipe, GSB Konkani cooking, recipe, vegetarian, vegan dish, festival, festival cooking, ganesh chaturthi, chauthi, Ashtami, Krishna janmastami cooking