Salna | Chalna | Parotta Salna (2024)

Salna is a aromatic, flavorful spiced masala curry that is made with onion & tomato base, coconut, spices and herbs. This Salna is commonly made without vegetables & meat and hence also called as Empty Salna. Salna is a great combo with parotta and a popular hotel street side dish. Salna Recipe is explained here with step by step pictures and video.

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Salna Recipe posted here is a hotel style plain salna that is a must try at home. Salna is usually served in excess over parotta & relished. Salna is the right feed for masala & spice lovers.

About Salna

Empty Salna, Parotta Salna, Plain Salna, Chalna, Bucket Salna all mean one and the same. Salna is called by different names like the number of ingredients go for this recipe.

However confusion comes with the name – Empty Salna. Generally in non-veg hotels they add meat to make salna flavorful and remove the pieces later. This is done to make salna more flavorful and affordable. Since the meat is removed, they term the gravy as Empty Salna. So a word of caution for people who wish to try Salna at non-veg hotels and a word of attention for people who feel fortunate with meat pieces. Enjoy Salna at home with this hotel style salna recipe!

Parotta Salna is a popular street food & gravy in hotels at Tamil Nadu. Salna is a gravy of its own and does not resemble Sambar, Kurma, Kuzhambu or any Masala Curry or Vada Curry. The flavor and aroma is completely different for salna.

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Salna tints between Kuzhambu & Kurma in taste & found a place in hearts of South India for savoring with parotta. The base of the gravy is made with freshly ground spices along with coconut and other aromatic spices.

Salna is the solace for people with masala craving & who wants a non-veg flavor in the food. Salna Recipe is a bit lengthy process but I assure you to get the exact street side hotel taste, so do try and enjoy!

Still I remember the salna they served at our college canteen, it was soo yum that we used to visit the canteen even after our lunch to eat parotta – a plate with 2 small parotta costed only 5 Rs with unlimited salna and we used to dunk the parottas into salna and eat it…good old memories. Nowadays, we enjoy salna with ready made wheat parotta.

Experimenting is a continuous process at Sharmis Passions and this Salna Recipe is the best example for it as I tried it so many times to get the exact taste before I posted it here. Do try this and let me know how you liked it!

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Salna 2 ways

You can choose to make salna with vegetables or without vegetables. You can make empty salna and add boiled egg to it too.

• Empty Salna – You can make salna with just onion and tomato, it tastes good too.
• Veg Salna – Also called as Vegetable Salna here vegetables like carrot, potato, peas, beans along with soya chunks is added to salna. Without the extra step of oil float salna looks like this shown below.

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Salna Recipe – Hotel style & Home style

The specialty of Salna in hotels is the oil/fat that floats on top. This makes the gravy look more inviting & craving for parotta. I was successful in reproducing it without adding excess oil or fat. The secret is to add less oil at the beginning and add kashmiri chili powder heated with oil at the final stage to make oil float on top.

Mittu is a crazy lover of salna but she is very choosy. In most hotels the spices are more and hence the masala flavor dominates in the gravy which she dislikes. So this gave me a chance to try the hotel style salna recipe, it took me several iterations to get the perfect taste and here I am with 2 salna variations – hotel style spiced masala salna and home style mild spicy veg salna with goodness of the veggies & soya.

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Other salna and kurma recipes

• Mutton salna
• Potato kurma
• Vegetable kurma
• Chana kurma

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Ingredients

• Veggies: Onion, tomato & fresh coconut make the base. Use prescribed green chilli for medium spicy salna & add more if you want salna spicier. I have added ginger for digestion & garlic for flavor. Use curry leaves for tempering & coriander leaves for garnishing. You can use vegetables like potato,peas, carrot, beans etc.
• Spices: Literally all the spices & spice powders are used in making of salna. You can skip if you do not have any one of spices but spice powders are must for hotel style salna.
• Other Ingredients: I have added cashews for taste & thickening the gravy. You can skip cashews and replace it with roasted gram / fried gram as they do in hotels.

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How to make Salna Step by Step

1.To begin with : get ready with the spices and other ingredients to grind : 5nossmall onion, 1nogreen chilli, one1 inchginger, 2nosgarlic, 1/2teaspoonpoppy seeds, 5noswhole cashews, 1/4teaspoonjeera, 1/4teaspoonpepper, 2noscardamom, 2noscloves, 1one inchcinnamon, 1/2teaspoonfennel seeds

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2.Add all the ingredients listed above , dry roast it for 2 mins until nice aroma comes.

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3.Finally add 1 tablespoon fried gram dal and 1/2 cup coconut give a quick saute and switch off. Cool down.

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4.After cooling, grind it along with little water.

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5.Grind it to a semi fine paste like this. Set aside.

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6.To a kadai : heat oil, temper the ingredients listed under ‘to temper’ : 1tablespoongingelly oil, 1teaspoonstone flower, 1nostar anise, 1/2teaspoonfennel seeds, 1nono green chilli, 1nobayleaf, fewcurry leaves.

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7.Add 2 medium sized onion(chopped finely) along with 1 teaspoon ginger garlic paste and required salt.

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8.Saute until golden.

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9.Add 2 medium sized tomatoes(roughly chopped) saute well.

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10. Cook covered until mushy, also raw smell should not be there.

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11.Add all the spices powders : 1teaspoonred chilli powder, 1teaspooncoriander powder, 1/2teaspooncumin powder, 1/2teaspoongaram masala powder.

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12.Give a quick saute, do not burn the spice powders.

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13.Add 1 cup water, mix well and let it boil for few mins.

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14.Add coconut paste along with mixer rinsed water and mix well.

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15.Make the gravy thin as we are going to boil it for sometime. Boil well.

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16.Boil until oil separates like shown here. Finally garnish the plain salna with coriander leaves. Salna is ready and you can serve it. But for the hotel style look proceed with the below steps.

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17.Now the trick to get the exact hotel style look : Heat oil in a kadai – add kashmiri red chilli powder, mix well let it bubble for few seconds,Switch off. Do not cook for more time otherwise the spice mix will turn to darker shade.

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18.Add the oil mix to the gravy on top. Slightly mix it. Boil for 2 mins, close and keep.

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19.Look at the oil floating on top.

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20.And finally hotel style empty salna ready.

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Plain Salna ready. Serve with parotta or chapathi and enjoy!

Expert Tips

• Make sure not to burn the spice powders, so once you add them just saute for few seconds and proceed to next step
• The dry spices measure is very important to get a balanced flavorful salna so stick to the recipe
• If you don’t want oil to float on top as served in hotels, then skip from steps 17.

• Usually salna we get in hotels is full of spices flavor so to match it I have given the spices like cloves,cinnamon and cardamom accordingly. You can reduce it if you wish too.
• Adjust water quantity according to the thickness of the gravy.
• Adding soya chunks is purely optional but I recommend adding it.
• The consistency should be slightly thick.
• You can serve it with chapathi / idli / dosa too, tastes great.

Variations

• You can make kothu parotta or kothu chapathi using this salna
• You can add a variety of vegetables of your preference. Add it after onion tomato is sauteed
• Non-veg version : Add cooked meat & remove them for other dishes for a more flavorful gravy
• Add cooked mutton or chicken with fat for mutton salna.
• Add boiled eggs to make Mutta Salna or Egg Salna.

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Serving & Storage Suggestions

• Salna tastes best with parotta. However you can pair it up with chapathi, wheat parotta too.
• Salna is a good accompaniment for Biryani, Idiyappam, Ka lDosa, Uttappam, Pulao, Jeera rice and Ghee rice.
• The shelf life in room temperature for the empty salna is only 1 day as coconut is added. But you can extend shelf life to another day if refrigerated. I wouldn’t suggest to store for more than 2 days even in fridge.

FAQS

1.What is Salna?

Salna is a tasty, spiced masala gravy that is made with onion & tomato base, coconut, spices and herbs. Salna is accompanied with parotta, biryani & utappam.

2.How to make oil float in salna without adding fat or excess oil?

Heat oil with kashmiri chilli powder at the final stage and add it to salna to make oil float on the gravy kist the way it looks in hotels.

3.Is Salna non vegetarian?

No – a pure veg dish if made as prescribed above. But be cautious if you are trying at hotels as they add & empty the meat.

4.Is salna perfect for parotta only?

No salna is great for chapati, biryani, pulao, uttappam, kaldosa, idiyappam, jeera rice & ghee rice.I make it for lunch with pulao and use it for dinner with chapati or kothuchapati or parotta.

5.Too many ingredients – can I skip any of them?

Since the empty salna is without veggies lot of masala & spices are added to get its moth watery taste. However, you can skip any of the spices if you not have stock of it but not the spice powders.

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