Gongura pachadi

"Gongura pachadi" (or pickle) is the most famous food item of Andhra. It is a very tasty pickle made by elders and most of us wonder how it is made. Only after knowing the recipe from my mom, I realized that it is a very simple and easy recipe.

This leafy vegetable is available mostly in southern India. It is sour in taste and supposedly a very good source of Iron.
This pickle can be kept and used for long term (a year or so).

Procedure:
You need to pick the red stemmed Gongura leaves for the pickle. Clean the leaves properly and dry them for a day,
Cut the leaves from the stems and add salt (as required) , turmeric and grind in a mixer. This paste can be saved and used for atleast a year (salt helps for the preserving).

Whenever you want to use it, you take some amount of the Gongura paste aside.
Dry roast 1 spoon each of coriander seeds, mustard seeds, fenugreek seeds and red chillies. You can add few green chillies also. Grind these in a mixer into a fine powder.
Add the Gongura paste and grind again. Spicy and tangy gongura pachadi is ready to be served.

It is typically consumed with rice, along with raw onion slices to munch with - which is a heavenly combination. It can also be used as chutney for dosa, idli etc.