Recipe: Dahi Wada

A popular north Indian dish of lentil dumplings soaked in Yoghurt.

Preparation time: 30 minutes + 3 hours soaking time

Cooking time: 20 minutes

Serves: 4

Recipe Ingredients:

1 cup husked black gram lentil (urad dal without skin)

1tsp Salt

½ tsp baking powder

Oil for deep frying

2 cups thick fresh yoghurt

1tsp Sugar

Dahi Bada Masala:

1/2tsp Red chili powder to taste

2tbsps cumin seeds

2tbsp Coriander seeds

¼tsp black salt

1tbsps Chat masala

To serve:

2″ piece of ginger

2-3 green chilies

chopped coriander leaves to garnish

Sweet Tamarind chutney

Recipe Method:

Wash and soak the lentils (dal) for 3 hours and grind to a fine paste adding very little water. The batter should be like a cake batter.

Beat the batter very well till light and fluffy. Add the salt and the baking powder and beat well again. To test whether the batter is ready or not, slowly drop a drop of the batter in a glassful of still water. If the batter floats on the top, it is ready, if not you need to beat it more.

Pre-heat oil in a deep frying pan, place a plastic sheet in your palm. Wet the plastic sheet and place a little batter and shape like a big lemon sized ball. Flatten the top of the ball with wet fingers and drop slowly into the hot oil. Deep fry on medium heat for sometime and then fry on low heat till golden brown.

Remove these deep fried wadas into a bowl of water and let them soak for 15-20 minutes.

Remove and gently press between your palms so that excess water oozes out. Keep them aside. Finish making wadas with the rest of the remaining batter and put them in water like you did for the earlier batch.

Pass the yoghurt through a sieve to ensure that there are no lumps. Add in the sugar and tsp salt and mix well.

To make the dahi wada Masala, Dry roast the cumin and coriander seeds till lightly browned and fragrant. Mix all the ingredients and grind to a smooth powder.

Finely chop the green chilies and coriander leaves. Scrap the ginger clean. Wash and cut into juliennes.

To serve, place the wadas in a serving bowl and pour the curd mixture evenly all over the wadas, covering them completely.

Chill the wadas for sometime before serving. To serve, sprinkle some Dahi Wada Masala and garnish with coriander leaves, green chilies, ginger juliennes and tamarind chutney.