Serving Size – 5 – 6

Prep time – 10 mins

Coconut sambol is a staple in Sri Lankan cuisine. You will hardly ever find someone who hate this. Among all the difficult and complicated Sri Lankan dishes, this is one of the easiest one you can make and second to frying papadam. It’s golden orange, spicy, tangy and chewy. The aroma of coconut sambol is amazing and it’s a blend of coconut, onion, chilli and lime.

Although we eat coconut sambol almost everyday, we never think of the importance of this side dish. To know more about it check my post on Coconut sambol around Sri Lanka – An underrated, yet a heavenly dish you must try!

Ingredients:

4 dried chillies or 2 tablespoons chilli flakes
1/4 cup red onion / shallots, chopped
1 tablespoon chilli powder
1 to 1 1/2 tablespoon fine sea salt
1 1/2 cups scrapped coconut
1 to 1 1/2 tablespoon lime or lemon juice

Let’s make it:

Grind dried chilli / chilli flakes and onion until it becomes a paste using a mortar & pestle / grinding stone.
Add Salt & chilli powder along with coconut & grind again.
Squeeze Lemon juice into the coconut mixture & mix thoroughly with a spoon or by hand.
Serve it fresh with some steamy rice, bread, string hoppers, boiled manioc (cassava) or sweet potato and anything you like.

Tips for you:

You can use a blender jar/food processor for grinding.
If you don’t have any grinding equipment you can chop chilli and onion as finely as possible and mix with a spoon or by using a hand.
If you’re using frozen coconut, make sure to thaw it before using. You can also, make tempered coconut sambol which will be posted soon. So, stay tuned!
It’s preferable to use non metal bowl and spoon (plastic, glass or wooden) for making this dish as acidity of lemon and metal can cause a chemical reaction.
Since this’s very perishable, if you want to keep it for a day or so, store it in the fridge.