Simple, delicious and nutritious Tapioca recipe of a Kerala style Kappa Puzhukku. This dish is also referred to as Kappa Vevichathu and is basically a seasoned, spiced and mashed tapioca root preparation.
Then peel and chop the kappa. Rinse again in water.
While chopping, you can opt to remove the centre string or remove the strings later after the tapioca is cooked.
Place the tapioca pieces in a pan. Add ½ teaspoon salt or as required.
Add 2 cups water. Cover the pan with lid and cook tapioca on medium heat.
In between do check. Cook chopped tapioca root till fork tender.
A fork or knife should easily pierce through the cooked tapioca pieces.
Drain all the water from the cooked tapioca.
Mash with a potato or vegetable masher to a smooth texture. While mashing, remove any hard strings if you find them.
Keep mashed tapioca aside.
Making Kappa Puzhukku
Heat 1 tablespoon coconut oil in a small pan or tadka pan.
Lower the heat. Add ½ teaspoon mustard seeds. Let the mustard seeds crackle.
Then add the red chilli, and chopped green chilli and 7 to 8 curry leaves. Fry for a few seconds till the red chilies change color and the curry leaves become crisp.
Next add 2 tablespoons chopped pearl onions or shallots. You can even use regular onions.
Mix and begin to sauté pearl onions. Sauté onions till they have softened.
Then add the grated coconut and mix well.
Turn off the heat and add ¼ teaspoon turmeric powder. Mix again very well.
Pour this tempering mixture in the mashed kappa. Mix everything very well again.
Lastly drizzle 1 tablespoon coconut oil and mix again.
Serve Kappa Puzhukku as a side dish with a Kerala main course food or with thick onion chutney or kerala coconut chutney or red chilli chutney. You can even have it as is.
Notes
Instead of cooking tapioca in a pan or pot, you can opt to cook in a stovetop pressure cooker or in an Instant Pot adding water as required.
For cooking tapioca in a 2 to 3 litre stovetop pressure cooker, add 2 cups water or as needed covering the chopped tapioca pieces. Pressure cook on medium heat for 2 to 3 whistles.
Add onions instead of pearl onions or shallots.
You can leave out the coconut if you do not have it.
Do use edible coconut oil and do not swap it with any other oil.