Dahi Vada

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend!

Like I said in my previous post, this was a great potluck weekend for me. Back to back parties on friday and saturday. Our Saturday party was kind of a like a chaat party. My menu item was Dahi Vada. Everyone in my family loves Dahi Vada except me...I just don't like dahi at all. Love plain vadas though! I think it was all the bad sour stinking dahi's in my hostel - I got an aversion towards dahi and stopped eating it totally. I do still eat raitha - that has little dahi and lots of veggies!

Let's get started with our dahi vadas.

You will need to soak about 1-2 cups of Urad daal 4-5 hrs before preparation time.

Before you start making the vadas, you will need to grind these ingredients below in a nice smooth paste.

Green Chilli - 4-5
Red Chilli - 1-2
Coconut - about a cup
Coriander seeds - roasted - about 2 tsp
Jeera - roasted - about 2 tsp



Make sure you have fresh dahi - I make a whole batch of fresh yogurt at home and use that. Make sure the dahi is not too sour.

Mix the ground paste with the fresh curds and set aside in the fridge.

Here is urad daal that I had washed well and soaked.

Grind this to a fine paste. Add salt and black pepper before grinding.

Here's how it looks after the grind -

Before you are ready to fry the vadas, fill a pan with water and boil it. Switch it off. Make sure when you are frying, that this water is still hot. We will be soaking the vadas straight from the oil into here to make them soft.

To make vadas, have another bowl of water next to the batter. Wash your hands in them - make sure your palms are completely wet. Now, with wet fingers, pick up some batter and make a small round. Dip your fore finger back into the water and make a hole in the vada. If your hands are not wet, the batter will stick completely in your hands and the whole thing will be a mess.

Drop the vadas in hot oil. Make sure the flame is in medium - you want the center to cook. Fry it till you get the golden color on top.

When the vadas are done, strain the oil out.

Move the vadas directly from the oil to the pan of hot water on the side and soak the vadas in the hot water. This step is neccessary to make soft vadas.

Leave the vadas in here for a few mins or until you are ready to soak the next batch. You can see that the vadas will sink to the bottom - that means they are ready to be moved into the dahi.

Pick up the vada one by one and squeeze out the water. I use another strainer and the back of a spoon to do this. Once all the water is out, move the vadas straight to the dahi.

When all the vadas are done and soaked in the dahi, fry some curry leaves in the same oil and crush them when done. Add this to the dahi. Chop up some cilantro leaves finely and add on top for garnish.

Dahi Vada is ready. Enjoy it cold or at room temperature.

If you like it, you can even add chopped cucumber or grated carrots on top for garnish. That would also be good.