South Indian Style Dahi vada recipe. Delicious Dahi Vada. Perfect as a snack or even as an appetizer for a party.
My Two Left Feet
I walk clumsily, so, shouldI even mention how I dance?
The only dance I do these days is to dance to Sonshine's tune - and even he is not satisfied! 😉
I can actually count the number of times I have danced - it's less than number of fingers on your hands.
One such occasion happened to be when I was in elementary school. I took part in a group dance. The function was organized by the local GSB Gram Sabha (Gowda Saraswat Brahmin community). Because the organizing committee had a "all-the-girls-in-the-community-should-take-part-in-the-dance" policy, I was forced to perform in front of a HUGE crowd. I was a nervous wreck.
The dance teacher was a great Mohiniyattam dancer and a wonderful teacher. She choreographed the dance in simple steps to accommodate the varying skill sets of the girls in the community. There were good dancers and bad dancers and then there was me.
Since there were many girls in the group, and the dance teacher knew my skill set, she "allowed" me to be in the last but one row. Now, it's good to remember that I was not in the last row. There were others with more than two left feet!!!
We used to meet at the teacher's house on weekends and spend a few hours learning and practicing the Kolaatta (a South Indian folk dance where you dance with sticks in hands) and diya dance (a South Indian folk dance where you dance with lighted diyas/lamps in hands). Practicing Kolaatta was fun but tricky. If you are not careful, you might hit your partner's hands with the stick. My poor partner 😉 . Dancing with diyas/lamps should be done under strict adult supervision. For our dance, the dance teacher suggested that we use lighted candles instead of the actual diyas.
Since we had only very limited number of days to learn and perfect the dance, we used to have long practice sessions with breaks in between. Our dance teacher used to give us a snack whenever we took a break. One such weekend, I had the privilege of tasting dahi vada (lentil fritters soaked in spiced yogurt mixture) for the first time in my life and I am a big fan of the snack ever since.
After a couple of sessions, I realized that I was actually looking forward to more practices - yummy snacks that my dance teacher used to give, time away from studies and (may be) dance lessons - definitely in that order.
And it was time to perform. On the day of the dance, as we were getting ready to go on stage, we realized that instead of candles we were to use actual diyas for the dance. My hands and legs started dancing shaking out of control. Dancing while holding the candles was kinda OK - the candles did not burn our hands. We just had to make sure that the movements were gentle enough to keep the flame burning.
I could do gentle, clumsily.
On stage (with no practice at all) we had to hold the lighted oil diyas (in both hands); make sure the oil does not spill and the flame keeps burning while doing the gentle dance. As the oil burns, the diyas become very very hot making it difficult to hold them in your hands. It was not easy, but, we did it.
Hope you understood that the recipe that follows the post is for a Dahi vada recipe. This recipe is from Chechema (this is what Sonshine calls his aunt's mom-in-law). Chechema is a wonderful cook and she makes the best phulkas in my extended family. She has been using this recipe to make Dahi Vadas for a long time now.
The only change I made from her recipe is that I added some sugar while making the yogurt marinade. For the garnish, I used grated carrots and chopped cilantro along with some Khara Boondi . The addition of Khara Boondi adds a little crunch to soggy vadas.
Dahi Vada
South Indian Style Dahi vada recipe. Delicious Dahi Vada. Perfect as a snack or even as an appetizer for a party.
Ingredients
For Vada
- 1 cup Udad
- ½ tsp Pepper Powder
- ⅓ tsp Asafoetida
- 2 tbsp Upma Sooji
- Salt to taste
- Oil for deep frying
- For the Marinade
- 2.5 cup Yogurt
- ¾ cup Coconut You can go up to 1 cup.
- 1 Serrano Pepper to taste
- 1.5 tbsp Sugar You can go up to 2 tbsp
- Salt to taste
For Tadka/Tempering
- 1 tsp Canola oil
- ¼ tsp Mustard Seeds
- 2 Whole Red Chilli halved
Garnish
- 2 tbsp Chopped Cilantro
- 2 tbsp Grated Carrot
- 2 tbsp Boondi optional.
Instructions
To prepare vadas
- Soak udad for 4 hours to prepare for grinding.
- Soak upma sooji with just enough water for 10 minutes prior to grinding.
- Drain water from the udad and grind the udad and upma sooji with as little water as possible, scraping the sides of you food processor or mixer-grinder while grinding. Transfer the ground batter to a big mixing bowl.
- Add asafoetida, salt and pepper powder to the batter.
- Beat this batter using an electric beater for 10 minutes. This makes the batter very airy and fluffy.
- Heat Oil in a deep frying pan on stove over medium high heat. You will know that oil is hot enough when you drop a small ball of batter, it immediately sizzles and rises to the top. There should be enough oil to immerse the vadas and there should be space left in your pan for the oil to rise when it heats up and when you drop the vadas.
- Drop spoonful of batter into the hot oil.
- When the vadas are golden brown, flip it over using slotted spoon and fry the other side. Drain on a paper towel.
Prepare the marinade
- Grind coconut, green chilli, salt and sugar to a very smooth paste in your food processor/mixer-grinder.
- Add yogurt to the ground coconut paste and beat well.
- Assemble
- Soak the vadas in a bowl of water for 4- 5 minutes.
- Gently squeeze the water out of the vadas.
- Arrange the vadas in a single layer in a tray. Make sure that the vadas are tightly packed.
- Pour the yogurt marinade over the vadas. The vadas should be fully immersed in the yogurt marinade.
Prepare Tadka/tempering
- Heat oil in a small pan and add mustard seeds.
- When the mustard seeds splutter, turn off the heat. Add the halved red chilli into the oil. When the red chillies start to change color, pour the seasoned oil along with the spices over the vadas. Refrigerate till ready to serve.
Garnish and serve
- Transfer two vadas into a serving bowl. Pour some yogurt marinade over the vadas. To garnish, sprinkle grated carrots, chopped cilantro and boondi on the vadas.
Notes
1. Soaking time for dal is separate.
2. When you grind the coconut to prepare the marinade, make sure you grind it to a very smooth paste.
3. The yogurt used should not be tangy.
4.Time saving idea: You can prepare the yogurt marinade while you wait for the vadas to soak in the water (the first step in the "To assemble" section).
Dahi Vada
Ingredients
For Vada
- 1 cup Udad
- ½ tsp Pepper Powder
- ⅓ tsp Asafoetida
- 2 tbsp Upma Sooji
- Salt to taste
- Oil for deep frying
- For the Marinade
- 2.5 cup Yogurt
- ¾ cup Coconut You can go up to 1 cup.
- 1 Serrano Pepper to taste
- 1.5 tbsp Sugar You can go up to 2 tbsp
- Salt to taste
For Tadka/Tempering
- 1 tsp Canola oil
- ¼ tsp Mustard Seeds
- 2 Whole Red Chilli halved
Garnish
- 2 tbsp Chopped Cilantro
- 2 tbsp Grated Carrot
- 2 tbsp Boondi optional.
Instructions
To prepare vadas
- Soak udad for 4 hours to prepare for grinding.
- Soak upma sooji with just enough water for 10 minutes prior to grinding.
- Drain water from the udad and grind the udad and upma sooji with as little water as possible, scraping the sides of you food processor or mixer-grinder while grinding. Transfer the ground batter to a big mixing bowl.
- Add asafoetida, salt and pepper powder to the batter.
- Beat this batter using an electric beater for 10 minutes. This makes the batter very airy and fluffy.
- Heat Oil in a deep frying pan on stove over medium high heat. You will know that oil is hot enough when you drop a small ball of batter, it immediately sizzles and rises to the top. There should be enough oil to immerse the vadas and there should be space left in your pan for the oil to rise when it heats up and when you drop the vadas.
- Drop spoonful of batter into the hot oil.
- When the vadas are golden brown, flip it over using slotted spoon and fry the other side. Drain on a paper towel.
Prepare the marinade
- Grind coconut, green chilli, salt and sugar to a very smooth paste in your food processor/mixer-grinder.
- Add yogurt to the ground coconut paste and beat well.
- Assemble
- Soak the vadas in a bowl of water for 4- 5 minutes.
- Gently squeeze the water out of the vadas.
- Arrange the vadas in a single layer in a tray. Make sure that the vadas are tightly packed.
- Pour the yogurt marinade over the vadas. The vadas should be fully immersed in the yogurt marinade.
Prepare Tadka/tempering
- Heat oil in a small pan and add mustard seeds.
- When the mustard seeds splutter, turn off the heat. Add the halved red chilli into the oil. When the red chillies start to change color, pour the seasoned oil along with the spices over the vadas. Refrigerate till ready to serve.
Garnish and serve
- Transfer two vadas into a serving bowl. Pour some yogurt marinade over the vadas. To garnish, sprinkle grated carrots, chopped cilantro and boondi on the vadas.
Notes
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Namaste.
Deliciously Your’s.
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Bharathi Sasidharan says
Looks Yummy..nice presentation....thank you Sreelatha for giving an idea of garnishing with boondi...good work...keep going...:)
Framed Recipes says
Thanks Aunty. I am glad you liked it.
ramya says
Yummy..will try this!
Framed Recipes says
Sure Ramya. Let me know how you like it.
ramya says
Yummmm
Deepti Anand says
Looks sooo yummy!!!