Looking for a simple and comforting side dish for chapati or rotti? This easy onion curry recipe turns everyday pantry ingredients into a flavorful Indian gravy that pairs beautifully with soft rotis, jowar rotti, or phulka.
Made with sautéed onions, basic spices, and a simple tomato base, this curry comes together quickly and delivers bold, homestyle flavor without complicated steps. It's the kind of everyday vegetarian curry that fits perfectly into a South Indian meal.
If you enjoy simple everyday curries, you may also like my Gobi Matar Masala or this Easy Mixed Vegetable Kurma, both perfect for chapati and rice.
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About the recipe and some memories
This Onion Curry is a special dish passed down from Athamma who learnt it from her mom. Her mom used to make this dish when they were kids. So this was a popular dish in Athamma's Mom's kitchen too. Her mom makes it as a side dish for Jowar Rottis.
Ammama makes it for Chapatis as well. This Onion curry is especially a fantastic choice when you are short of time and need a quick dish to serve as side dish for chapatis or Jowar rottis.
I have been wanting to make this curry ever since I heard her speaking about it. So finally when we made it, I got to taste and realized it tastes very delicious with Chapatis. If you are looking for other simple curries to make with chapatis, you can try these simple side dishes for rotis.
Konda's exams got over today, she was so excited about the exams finally getting over. Now the boys have school until the end of this month. Anyway, I need to find ways to keep them occupied.
What is Onion Curry?
Onion Curry is a simple and easy side dish for Chapati, with just onions as the main ingredient cooked with easily available spices. This is an everyday comfort food.
When you are short of ideas on what to make for a quick dinner, this recipe comes to aid.
Why You'll Love This Onion Curry Recipe
- Made with simple pantry ingredients
- Quick and easy to prepare
- Perfect for chapati and rotti
- Customizable spice level
- Great for everyday meals
Ingredients You Need
The main ingredient is only Onions. To enhance the taste, we use copra or dried coconut. We mostly dry the fresh coconut and store it as copra powder, which comes in handy when you came side dishes like this. We simply pulse the coconut powder along with garlic for a flavorsome dish.
- Onions - Onions are main ingredients. You can be liberal in using more onions as per your requirement. Chopped as julienne, the onions give body to the gravy as well.
- Spice - We use Green chilies to spice up this gravy.
- Spices - Roasted coriander power lends excellent aroma to the curry. So do not skip if possible. Else regular coriander powder can be used as well.
- Coconut - We have copra or dry coconut. The dried coconut adds a wonderful nutty flavour and taste.
- Tomatoes - The sourness to balance the curry comes from adding tomatoes. If you use the local variety, it becomes more sour.
How to Make Onion Curry (Step-by-Step)
Prep work
Chop the onions as julienne.
Powder the dried coconut along with garlic, keep it aside.
Step 1: Sauté the Onions
Heat oil in a heavy-bottomed pan over medium heat. Add cumin seeds and let them splutter. Add sliced onions and sauté until they turn soft and lightly golden. Stir frequently to prevent burning.
Step 2: Add chillies and seasonings
After onions are sauteed, add green chilies turmeric powder and salt. Mix well so the onions absorb the spices evenly.
Step 3: Add Tomatoes and Coconut Powder
Add chopped tomatoes along with roasted coriander powder and cook until the tomatoes are soften and blend with the onions. Continue cooking until the oil begins to separate from the mixture. This step builds the base flavor of the curry.
Step 4: Simmer the Curry
Add water to adjust the consistency. Stir well and bring the curry to a gentle boil. Reduce the heat and let it simmer for 5-7 minutes until the flavors combine beautifully.
Step 5: Finish and Serve
Sprinkle fresh coriander leaves. Serve hot with chapati, roti, or jowar rotti.
Tips for the Best Onion Curry
- Slice onions evenly for even cooking.
- Use homemade roasted coriander powder for best flavour.
- Cook the onions slowly for better sweetness.
- Cooking it little longer breaks down the onions and it gives body to the gravy.
- Copra or dried coconut gives more flavour than fresh. If you do not have dried coconut, you can grate the fresh coconut, dry saute on a hot pan, cool and then make a powder with garlic.
FAQs
Tomatoes give that required punch to the gravy as this gravy is make with just onions.
Onions do not stay good for long, so storing it for next day doesn't give good taste. This is a quick and no mess curry that you can make for your meal right now.
No, onions do not stay good for long. So this curry can't be frozen.
Yes, this curry is spicy with a balance of tomatoes and coriander powder. However, you can reduce the green chillies if you don't want that spice level.
More Easy Indian Curry Recipes
Recipe
Onion Curry ~ Easy Side Dish for Chapati
Ingredients
- 3 big Onions approx. 2 cups
- 1 tsp Cumin Seeds
- 4 long Green Chillies
- 2 small Tomatoes
- 1 tsp Coriander Powder roasted
- Salt to taste
- 2 tsp Cooking Oil
- Handful Coriander Leaves
Dry Masala
- 2 tbsp Dry Coconut / Copra
- 4 cloves Garlic
Instructions
How to make Onion Curry
- Cut the onions as juliennes.
- Grind the coconut and garlic into a fine powder. Since the coconut is dried, you will get a powder when you grind.
- Slice onions as juliennes and put it in water as you slice. This is just to wash and make it get cooked faster.
- Heat a nonstick pan with cooking oil, add cumin seeds, then add sliced onions. Saute the onions. After sautéing it for 5 mins, add the slit green chilies, turmeric powder and salt.
- After 5 mins, add the tomatoes, coriander powder. Then, add the coconut garlic powder. Saute well and add water as required.
- Bring to boil and simmer till everything is cooked. This takes about 7 - 10 mins.
- Switch off when the gravy thickens.
- Serve with Chapatis.
vaishali sabnani says
That is surely an interesting dish...Sindhi's use lot of onion in their dishes, but not coconut.I can relate to the flavor of the dish...like the way you have thrown in those green chillies .I would pick and eat all of them.
Suchi Sm says
easy tasty side dish..........
Shella Grover says
I love such an onion side dish. Never seen the addition of coconut. Yummy
Priya Suresh says
Flavourful curry, excellent side dish for rotis,drooling over that last pic.
nayana says
Perfect side dish for chapati must be delicious....
Sapana Behl says
Nice curry for onion lovers like me it will be a hit!
Shobha says
Interesting !
Archana Potdar says
Valli in Goa we have a veggie like this and it is called Tamat bhaji. of course it has a little garam masala but i do agree this is a n amazing tasty dish,
Vanamala Hebbar says
something new to me..nice curry
runnergirlinthekitchen.blogspot.com says
Very easy and interesting side dish, since onions are always there at home its something that can be whipped up asap!
Veena Theagarajan says
easy and tempting dish
Suma Gandlur says
Simple one to put together.We make it without the coconut and garlic and call it tomato gojju.
Pallavi Purani says
Wow... this can be a dish I shall run to when the vegetable shopping has not been done. Love the tomatoes peeking out of the bowl. Super quick and yumm
Saraswathi Tharagaram says
We used to prepare this without onions and will try with tomatoes next time.. Perfect combo..
Foodiliciousnan says
I don't think it was exactly this, but i remember eating an onion curry with Jowari roti in a traditional Bangalorean restaurant. I'm not too big on onions, but the combo was great. I love the looks of this curry!
Manju says
Simple and quick side dish for roti. Sometimes I use to scratch my head bookmarking this.
Rajani S says
The curry would pair so well with rotis!
Pavani N says
Such a flavorful onion curry. Bookmarked!!
Harini-Jaya Rupanagudi says
A good side dish for chapati! Never tried adding coconut though!
Nivedhanams Sowmya says
i always thought onions and coconut do not go together.. this is looking interesting!!!
veena krishnakumar says
This looks very good Valli. I make something very similar and it is so easy to cook in the morning...looks very nice
Devarajan sathya says
Wow it's super dish
Anonymous says
but it couln't be toothsome without salt
Srivalli says
AnonYes this needs salt of course!
Ranjita Hegde says
Can i replace green chilli with red chilli?
Srivalli says
Ranjita Red Chilli powder will not lead the same taste as green chilies. However no harm in trying if you don't have green chilies on hand.
Anonymous says
My Avva (Mother) used to make tasty onion pallya (Curry) only with Onion , Green chillies , oil, turmeric and salt.
Veena says
Excellent dish..very tasty tried it yesterday!!!
Nandu says
Tried it... tasted was different which i cant compare... but it was really good.... both my kids loved it.. Thanks alot...
I just added lime juice at end...
Nancy George says
Can we add fresh coconut instead of dessicated coconut
Srivalli says
Nancy, yes you can use fresh coconut as well.
Anonymous says
The recipe looks easy but i have few doubts. In the first pic which shows the sliced onions, it looks like they've been left in water. Do we need to leave them in water as we slice them? There is no mention of it in the recipe
And in the third pic, the pan with the heated oil, it looks like you've added some cumin seeds to temper but there is no mention of cumin seeds in ingredients or recipe.
Srivalli says
Hi, looks like while updating the post, that step got missed out, thanks for pointing out. Yes we temper with cumins seeds. The sliced onions are added to water just to wash, thats how my mother in law handles onions as she tears very quickly and so she soaks onions in water as she slices them. It also helps in cooking the onions faster. thanks for dropping by..:)