Recipe: DAHI VADA (North Indian style)

Dahi Vada

While I have eaten Dahi Vada a number of times, I have never made it before. Thayir Vadai in South Indian style is what I know how to make and have done a number of times. Venkat said that he would like to have Dahi Vada - the North Indian way, a few days ago and that’s when I decided to give it a try on Independence Day as it was a holiday for everyone. It was quite yummy and not too difficult to make.

INGREDIENTS

For Vada:

Urad Dal – 250 gm (soaked for 2-3 hours)
Red Chillies – 3
Curry Leaves – 6-8
Salt to taste
Oil for frying
Curd – 4-5 cups
Sugar – 3 tbsp

Chutneys:

Green Chutney
Khatta-Meetha Chutney
Chaat Masala

For Garnish:

Kara Boondi – 50 gm
Kotmir – 2 tbsp (chopped)

1. The dough for the vada; 2. Frying vadas; 3. Vadas soaking in curd & water; 4. Vadas in sweet curd

METHOD

1. Drain the water completely from the soaked urad dal.
2. Add the dal, red chillies, salt and curry leaves to the mixer. Adding water little by little, grind the mixture into a smooth and thick dough. You need to be careful while adding water as a watery dough will not make proper vadas.
3. Take a couple of spoons of curd and beat it in a large bowl. Add 3-4 cups of water to it and mix well. This is for soaking the fried vadas to make them soft.
4. Heat the oil in a kadai. Keep the flame on medium once it’s hot. Now wet your hand and shape the dough into small balls the size of lemons and deep fry till golden brown.
5. Remove the vadas from the oil and put them directly in the curd mixed water. Turn them around a couple of times to make sure that they fully wet. You will find that the vadas sink down in a few minutes.
6. Beat the rest of the curd along with the sugar in a large bowl.
7. Add the water-soaked, softened vadas to the sweetened curd. Take spoonfuls of curd and pour over the vadas to ensure that they are fully coated.
8. Refrigerate the Dahi Vadas for about half an hour before serving.

For serving:

Take 3-4 vadas in a serving bowl. Pour some sweetened curd over them. Add a few blobs of Green Chutney over this. The next layer will be a couple of spoons of Khatta-Meetha Chutney. Take a pinch of Chaat Masala and spray over the Dahi Vada. Spread some Kara Boondi over all this and then some chopped kotmir. Now the Dahi Vada is ready to eat. It looked lovely and tastes absolutely delicious, I promise you!