Photo: Lunu Miris – Sri Lankan Onions and Chili

By Mark Wiens 15 Comments
Making Lunu Miri
Making Sri Lankan Lunu Miri

I loved Sri Lankan food when I visited.

One thing I couldn’t enough of were all the different sauces and fragrant garnishes. This lunu miris, made by crushing onions and chili powder, was wonderful – especially on egg hoppers!

15 comments. I'd love to hear from you!

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  • Vishal

    4 years ago

    Great Recipe. I will try it tonight.

    Reply

  • Andrew Jacksen

    10 years ago

    Hey bro i like to meet you is there any way to meet you?

    Reply

  • Kapila R Jayasooriya

    10 years ago

    Lunu Miris – play huge part of Sri Lankan food tradition. We eating “Lunu Miris” with “Kiri bath” in all our traditional & personal occasions. Such as Sinhala & Tamil New year day (14th April), New year day (1st January), Weddings, Birthdays, Anniversary, etc…. So Lunu miris isn’t just a food for Sinhalease. Thank You Mark Wiens for this info.

    Reply

  • jen laceda

    11 years ago

    It’s remarkable how much you know about world food / street food! I like spicy stuff, so this condiment is something I’m definitely making at home!

    Reply

    • Mark Wiens

      11 years ago

      But you know how to cook everything! I know you’ll be able to make this well. Along with lunu miris, another of my absolute favorite Sri Lankan garnishes is called “pol sambol,” which is shredded coconut, garlic, onions, chili powder, lime juice, and salt – so simple and so delicious!

      Reply

  • Oshan Siriwardena

    11 years ago

    Hi Mark,

    This is one of my favorites, the Chili Sambol (Lunu Miris). Lunu means slat and Miris means Chili. This sambol is made from dried chili, salt, red onions and some pepper. This is better when you use chili peaces instead of chili powder. Then put all these things together and grind them in the grinding stone to get the best taste.

    If you add scarped coconut to this then you can get the famous coconut sambol in Sri Lanka.

    This Nunu Miris (Chili Sambol) is a very good side dish for Milk Rice, Hoppers and Parata (plane roti). Also there are two types of this sambol which is Lunu MIris (little wet) and Katta Sambol (dry) also. If you fry this katta sambol with some oil, then you can get the chili paste for fried rice.

    Reply

    • Mark Wiens

      11 years ago

      Wow, thank you so much for sharing Oshan! I learned a lot from what you just wrote. The entire world of chili sauces and sambol pastes is amazing, so many delicious ingredients that add such great flavor to cuisine. So if you add some coconut to the lunu miris, would it be similar to pol sambol?

      Reply

  • sully86

    11 years ago

    mark: aiyaya!!! looks good senor!!

    Reply

  • Ali

    11 years ago

    Wow, that looks so good! I live in Germany now, and they’re not big on spicy food. I miss spicy, and this photo is making my mouth water!

    Reply

    • Mark Wiens

      11 years ago

      Thanks Ali, hope you can find some good spicy food soon!

      Reply

  • Caanan @ No Vacation Required

    11 years ago

    I love the colors in that shot!

    Reply