Delish Dahi-Vade
Dahi means Yogurt, and Vade, or Vada (vada is a single deep fried lentil ball and vade or vadas is the plural of vada) are the deep fried lentil balls shaped differently according to the recipe in which you are adding them. Different kind of vade are added in different dishes. In this particular recipe the vada are shaped like little doughnuts and added to the Yogurt relish. Dahi-Vade are one of the most favorite snacks enjoyed by Indians. And Muslims in Hyderabad usually prepare it in Ramadhan for Iftaar, when they break the fast.
My version of the Dahi-Vade is simple. I combined the recipes of my Mother and Mother In Law here. Soak the dal a day ahead, then then I go to the kitchen an hour before the Iftaar time to prepare it so that they are just ready before the Iftaar time.
Dahi-Vada – Lentil cakes in Yogurt Sauce
Ingredients:
For the Yogurt Relish-
Yogurt – 500 gms
Water – 1 1/2 cups
Salt – 1/4 tsp
Green Chilli paste – 1 tsp
Sugar – 1/2 tsp
For the Vade-
Urad Dal/Black Gram dal – 1 cup
Green chillies – 2, very finely chopped
Salt – 2 tsp
Water
For the Baghaar
Dry Red Whole Chillies – 2, broken in half, and seeds removed
Mustard seeds – 1/2 tsp
Turmeric powder/Haldi – 1/4 tsp
Canola Oil – 2 tbsp
Cilantro – 1 tbsp, finely chopped
Method:
1. Wash and soak the dal in 2 glasses water overnight.
2. In a large and wide tray, pour in the yogurt, add salt, sugar, water, and green chilli paste. Whisk to mix the yogurt for 5 minutes till the mixture is well blended. Keep in the refrigerator.
3. About 30-40 minutes before you plan to serve the Dahi-Vade, drain the water from the dal and grind them into a smooth and fairly thick batter along the salt and water. Add water drops, as little as possible at a time, just to assist in grinding the dal. The grinded mixture should be fairly thick in consistency as you will be shaping them into vada. Pour the grinded mixture into a bowl. Add the chopped green chillies and mix well.
4. Heat oil to deep fry the vadas in a pan or a kadai. (Never deep fry in a non stick pan)
5. Wet your palm with a few drops of water and spoon about a heaped tablespoon of the mixture onto your wet palm. Wet your index finger and insert it into the centre of the batter to form a hole so that they look like doughnuts. Gently and carefully slip/drop this shaped doughnut into the hot oil and deep fry the vadas in hot oil on both sides until they are nicely golden brown in colour. Remove with a slotted spoon to a plate lined with paper towel. The vadas are ready.
5. Once all the vadas have been fried, drop them in a bowl of warm water. Let them soak for 2 minutes. Gently squeeze excess water from the vadas carefully pressing them lightly between your palms. This is done to soak out the oil. Transfer the soaked and squeezed vade into the earlier prepared cooled yogurt relish. Arrange the vade in the yogurt relish so that each one is nicely dipped into it. Cover the tray and transfer it into the refrigerator. Leave it to soak for 10 minutes.
6. Just before you serve, prepare baghaar. In a small pan, pour the oil and add the ingredients under the heading ‘for baghaar’ except cilantro. Let the spices splutter. Pour this onto the Dahi-Vade all over. Also garnish with cilantro, Serve immediately.
Some Tips:
- For this recipe the lentils are to be soaked before hand, preferably overnight, and grinded. People usually grind the lentils and store the mixture some time ahead of preparing the Dahi-Vade. Here, I suggest NEVER to do so, because I have learnt from my experience, that if you grind it beforehand and keep the mixture at room temperature or in the fridge and you fry the vada out of the mixture later on, they tend to absorb more oil, it becomes thirsty for oil. I have noticed it every time I tried to simplify my work and grind and keep the lentils, when I am free, to deep fry it later on. So I have stopped doing it since and grind it only just before I plan to fry and serve the Dahi-Vade. Or you can grind and deep fry the vadas then and there, ahead of time, and store the fried vadas in the freezer for upto 3 months in an air tight container. When you want to prepare the Dahi-Vade, you simply will have to soak the vadas in warm water for the specified time and then in the yoghurt relish.
- If you end up with many vadas, some people put all the vadas in the yoghurt relish even if they know they will all not be eaten up by your loved ones in home, which results in soggy Dahi-Vadas the next time you feel like having the left over Dahi-Vadas. Instead.. Count the number of people at home whom you are going to prepare and serve this dish, and the number of vade prepared. Do not soak all vade in water and then put them into the yoghurt, instead, store the excess vadas in the freezer. The next time you want to have them, make the yoghurt relish again, and dip the vadas, now in warm water for the specified time, and then in the yoghurt relish. Also NEVER prepare the yoghurt relish before hand too as it turns sour. Always prepare everything fresh for best results and good taste.
Asha of Foodie’s Hope has requested me to send this recipe for RCI Karnataka Cuisine because she says this recipe is very similar to Mosaru vade, which they prepare in Karnataka, So, here’s my recipe Asha, all the way to you!
Luv,
Mona
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
September 16th, 2007 at 2:35 pm
Beautiful! I haven’t made it in a long time. We call them Mosaru vade in K’taka. You could send it to RCI K if you like!:)
September 16th, 2007 at 4:50 pm
Yummy n same pinch i making these today too. will let ya knw how mine cm out.
September 16th, 2007 at 7:54 pm
Mona what a lovely recipe! I enjoyed reading it although I don’t have the daals in that you used so I can’t make it 🙁 I love the pictures they are great, thanks for the recipe . 🙂
September 16th, 2007 at 8:01 pm
I love Dahi vada.. havent made it for a long long time…
September 16th, 2007 at 8:52 pm
Delicious and mouth watering dahi wade!
I am a new blogger.
September 16th, 2007 at 9:18 pm
Mona, I have been learning so much about Indian since I have started reading your blog. This recipe is so interesting! Keep them coming!
September 16th, 2007 at 11:55 pm
Mona, Dahi wade looks delicious. The last photo is very beautiful.
September 17th, 2007 at 3:27 am
Yummy…. Dahi vada looks delicious!!!
September 17th, 2007 at 4:48 am
Wow, such perfect round holes and perfect round vadas – my vadas always lose their shape when I try to slide them into the oil…
September 17th, 2007 at 8:24 am
They remind me of my ‘Maa ke haath ka bana hua dahi wada” simply mind blowing and the last pictures stole away the show. I am still wondering how did you get that perfect round wada, how did you drop it when they stick to the board?…
Padma, you can buy Anjali brand Wada maker. One of my friends owns it and I intend to buy one too. ~Mona
September 17th, 2007 at 10:49 am
Yumm Dahiwade looks realy delicious. Woudn’t mind to have few of them.
September 17th, 2007 at 12:13 pm
Mona, those dahiwadas look fabulous and I love all your tips. I never pre-prepare (now that’s a word!) the lentil mixture because I find they get soak up a lot of oil, too. And I use the freezing thing , too. That way, I always have them at hand. But, I find the frozen ones are good only for dahi wadas and not for eating the wada-s with chatni only (which we tend to do a lot of).
It was good finding your blog, will keep coming back.
September 17th, 2007 at 12:38 pm
Oh wow!! these look so very very good!
nice tip too!
September 17th, 2007 at 1:32 pm
Faint! you make perfect shaped vadas! My batter somehow gets looser whenever I try making vadas. So end up with bondas 🙂
September 17th, 2007 at 9:46 pm
I love your blog, and I thank you so much for including some hard to make Ramadhan recipes, like Dahi Wade, especially with so much detail and observations like not grinding before making, etc.!! Please keep providing us with such delicious recipes! I also wanted to ask you, what is your method for frying onions, and do you keep them for a while, like ginger and garlic? If you do keep them for a while, could you please tell us how to do it? Thank you so much. 🙂
September 18th, 2007 at 4:04 am
Nicely shaped vadas Mona. Viji
September 18th, 2007 at 9:10 am
Mona! These are absolutely fantastic!
September 19th, 2007 at 8:22 am
Lovely entry…vadas look perfect in shape n consistency…I can never make such good looking ones..
September 19th, 2007 at 12:48 pm
hi mona
the wadas are perfect n look so delicious
my mom used to make this a lot, i only make the plain wadas wil surely try ths
September 19th, 2007 at 4:30 pm
so yummy. I like the way you make the holes in the wada!
September 24th, 2007 at 3:46 am
Salaamz, got here thru google. thanks for this recipe, I have just started making dahi bhalle myself and have now made them a few times, i was so intimidated by it before and don’t know why!…i find that you need to allow the ground bhalla (wada) paste to rest for about 30 minutes and not fry immediately after grinding, but if you wait too long (or if you soak the beans too long and also if you don’t change the bean soaking water) the bhallay come out too heavy.
This is a beautiful recipe with clear steps. I like the Hydro twists, some times I cook Hydro style food just for variety so I’ll do your recipe with bhallay next time! Hope you give us more.
September 26th, 2007 at 2:22 pm
Essalam Alaikum,
Ramadan Mubarak Sister! Masha’Allah you have a lovely blog. I will add it Insha’Allah to the list of blogs I like. 🙂 Barak Allahu Feekum!
February 1st, 2008 at 6:50 am
hi mona!
thanks for ur recpie. it’s really very tempting in looks. I have one query, in ur recipe u haven’t used moong dal for batter, whereas i red lot other recipe where they wrote to include moong dal. 1cup urad dal and 1/2 cup moong dal. shall i use it, or it’s not require…..
Sheetal, I never use moong dal for preparing ‘Dahi Wade’. I only use Urad Dal, and sometimes I prepare Hyderabadi style ‘Besan DahiBada’. ~Mona
August 14th, 2009 at 9:47 pm
hi mona,
can we bake the wadas ,for dahi wade?
did you ever try baking them?
my husband is a health-freak,and he doesn’t like deep fried food.
can you post any healthy tips for iftar and sahoor,easy ideas?
i have a 5- month old baby ,and i just dont know how to manage
Leena, you can use several options to prepare a healthier version of the usual dahi-wada. However you can use Canola oil which is safe for deep frying when compared to all the other oils.
Healthy Tips for Dahi-Wada:
1. Use low fat yogurt instead of the regular full fat yogurt.
2. Add a little bit of yogurt to the wada batter when frying, the wada will absorb lesser oil.
3. You can shallow fry the vada in little oil, just like you shallow fry shaami.
4. Try using non-stick toaster that you use for preparing sandwiches to make wadas. Pour wada batter into the cavities of a heated toaster. Close the lid and let cook. The wadas are toasted to triangular pieces. Dip the toasted wadas in water for 5 minutes. Squeeze them gently and add to the yogurt.
4. You can use this pan just like Bee has used it here with minimal use of oil.
5. Or you can go ahead and try this zero oil method. ~Mona
September 16th, 2009 at 4:48 pm
salaams, mona……i love ur site….lot of good old recipes…..wish u all the best. well i tried making the wada exactly ur way but even after soaking the wada…they were not soft….but had become hard …is it coz i used v little water to grind….i m not too sure……pls do reply back…..waiting looking forward too make it again
Wa-AlaiKum-AsSalaam Jabz, did you soak the dal overnight in surplus water? While grinding you can about 1/2 cup water, not more than that. Make sure the grinded dal is not very watery, it should be fairly thick. After you fry the wadas, you should soak them in a bowl of water before you add them to the dahi to make them soft. Once soaked squeeze them gently and add to the dahi to soak again for 5 -10 minutes before you serve. This way the wada in the dahiwada will be very soft. ~Mona
September 19th, 2009 at 2:42 pm
Thank u mona, tried it again…this time they were perfect. EID MUBARAK TO U …..and all the ladies on this site.
Jabz, Eid Mubarak to you too! ~Mona