Coconut Sambol (Grated Coconut Salad with Chili)

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This is a staple dish in Sri Lanka. Thissalad is served with most of the main meals. Sri Lankans eat lot ofrice and food made with rice flour. Typical Sri Lankan main meals are rice,bread, pol roti (flat bread made with wheat flour and grated coconut), stringhoppers (steamed rice noodles), pittu (steamed rice couscous with grated coconut)and hoppers (half moon shaped pancakes made with fermented rice flour)

Although coconut is not as big asCeylon Tea plantations it is also one of the main agricultural crop in Sri Lanka.Hence coconut is used liberally in Sri Lankan cuisine along with locallyavailable spices. All our curries are made with coconut cream and we add gratedcoconut to our vegetable stir fries and raw vegetable salads to addsweetness and texture.


Sambol is made with freshly gratedcoconut and is blended along with onion, curry leaves and chili powder.Traditionally it is blended using a mortar and pestle. It is believed thatusing a stone pestle to blend them gives a special taste.Coconut sambol has been a major hitwith everyone here. (taste testers includes Swiss, British, Americans and German) EveryoneI have served has ended up trying it by themselves and also scraping the dishclean.
Print Recipe hereIngredients
Serves 2-3

200g shredded coconut
1 onion
1” piece of ginger
handful of curry leaves
1 tomato
1 tsp chili powder (reduce or increase chili powder according to your taste preference)
1 tbsp lemon juice
Salt to taste
1 tsp vegetable oil

Method

Heat oil in a pan, add curry leaves and stir fry them till they are slightly crispy. Set them aside.

Reduce heat and roast shredded coconut till they are slightly browned.
Add rest of the ingredients along with shredded coconut and curry leaves blend it together till its well mixed.

You can serve this with bread, roti or even rice. Spread butter and sambol in bread and serve it as a sandwich.

NotesIt is always good to make this salad withfresh coconut, in my case I used frozen coconut due to its availability. If youare using frozen coconut dry roast them to bring in the aroma and sweetness.You can buy frozen coconut from Sri Lankan, Indian or Asian stores.

I sometimes add soy sauce, currypowder, roasted coriander seeds and garlic to this sambol. It purely depends onyour personal taste preference. If you are trying it for the first time Irecommend to try above recipe and gradually you may enhance the flavors according to your preference.
You can use similar method to make Mint Sambol