Zucchini Carrot Thoran/ Zucchini Carrot Stir Fry Wth Coconut

Zucchini is one of the vegetables which do not have any taste by its own, you can say it is bland like eggplant; but if you add some spices to it will become delicious. Nowadays you can get 1lb zucchini for about 99cents, so I buy them more often. I also made a zucchini and carrot cupcake which was awesome. 

If you have zucchini in your refrigerator, then every dish you make will contain the zucchini, that is natural isn’t? May be it is pasta, paratha and even cupcakes. I am also doing like that. One thing I don’t like is zucchini in sambar or any other liquid curries. But I love it in dry curries or stir fries. I have plans for experimenting it as fritters, pancakes, bread etc. I will let you guys how it turned out. 

Even though it belongs to the squash family, it cannot be consumed raw like cucumber and requires some cooking to bring out flavor. I decided to make stir-fry/thoran with zucchini and carrot. Earlier I had made a zucchini and carrot cupcake which was awesome. So I decided to make stir-fry/thoran with this combination. It had a nice taste. If you ask any person from the Kerala, they will say, we make thoran with everything except some oozy liquidly vegetables like cucumber, other than that almost everything under the sun whether it is a legumes, root tubers, egg, meat, fish you name it we make throan/stir fry with all of them. 

With a touch of nutty coconut, cumin and a little bit of coconut oil, zucchini and carrot combo become an awesome side dish for our meal. I grated the carrot if you wish you can add them in small pieces. Here goes the easy recipe.

Print recipe from here

What you need

 Zucchini: 4 cup (Chopped into small pieces)
Carrot: ½ cup (Grated)
Onion: ¼ cup (Chopped finely)
Green chili: 1 no (I used Serrano pepper)
Red chilies: 2 no (halved into two pieces)
Cumin powder; 1 teaspoon
Grated coconut: ½ cup
Red chili powder: ¼ teaspoon
Urad dal: 1 tablespoon
Mustard seeds; ½ teaspoon
Turmeric powder: ¼ teaspoon
Curry leaves: 2 sprig
Salt: ¾ teaspoon or to taste
Coconut oil: 1 tablespoon


How I made

Peel the skin of carrot and grate using box grater and set aside. Chop zucchini and onion into small pieces and set aside. 

In a skillet heat oil and add mustard seeds, red chilies and curry leaves. Once mustard starts popping add onion, green chilies  and fry for 3 minutes.

To this add grated carrot, chopped zucchini, turmeric and 1/2 teaspoon of salt and close the skillet with lid and let it cook for about 12 minutes in slow flame. Stir in between to prevent from sticking to the bottom.

Add coconut, cumin and red chili powder and remaining salt mix everything well. Cook for another 3 minutes to get the flavors infused into the zucchini and carrot. Add curry leaves  and mix once again.

Switch off the flame and enjoy with hot rice and curry.

Preparation time: 25 minutes
Yield: 6 serving
Verdict: Yummy
Will you make it again: yes I will