Mint Chutney

I've only tackled Indian food a couple times at home—I've found myself happier picking up from my local restaurant rather than working through ingredient and process heavy recipes. With a little extra time on hand right now, I decided to look into a few Indian sauces and found that my preconceived notion of having to dedicate hours on end to put them together was absolutely wrong. In fact, this mint chutney—which is the standard green table condiment found at a lot of Indian restaurants—took merely minutes and required no additional outing to the Indian grocery for special ingredients.

It starts with a two to one ratio of cilantro to mint which is thrown into a food processor with red onion, coconut, lemon juice, green chilies, garlic, ginger, and water. A set of pulses chops everything finely, and in a minute, the sauce is done.

For such quick work, the flavor is deceptively complex. Mint is no doubt the dominant trait, but there's layers beyond that with the sharpness of ginger, garlic, and onion. The best part was the heat, which was significantly heavier than what I'm used it, satisfying my heat seeking palate immensely.