Essentially, thogayal is a spicy variety of chutney made with vegetables/greens, dal etc. Tastes heavenly when mixed with rice, topped with a dash of til oil. Or you could have it as a side-dish along with idli, dosa, puris or the heavenly தயிர் சாதம் (curd rice)!
Curry Leaf ThogayalOne great thing about thogayal is that you can use the same basic recipe for any non-starchy vegetable (radish, beetroot etc), coriander, curry leaves or pudina. Even better, you can use it to imbibe in your diet many nutritious parts of vegetables which we would otherwise discard, such as the flesh of the snake-gourd, the peel of chow-chow, orange peel, etc!!
Here is how you make it...
Fry together a few spoons of urad dal, red chillies (according to taste) and asafoetida. Saute the vegetable/greens/peels. Grind both together, a little coarsely (if it's too fine, it will become sticky when you mix it together with rice).
Easy, isn't it?!!