Kadhi is a very common dish in every Indian household. There are different variations of Kadhi that are more popular in certain parts of the country. I posted one such variety “Sindhi Kadhi” in past and received great feedback. Today, I am going to present “Kadhi-Pakoda” which is another variation of Kadhi and is more common in the northern region and in the eastern region it is popular with the name of “Kadhi-Bari”. Adding pakora in the kadhi multiplies the fun. The core ingredients of making Kadhi are besan and curd/yogurt and the engrossing fact is that there is no besan in this kadhi instead of that I’ve used chana dal for making both kadhi and pakoras which enhances taste. Daal gives pakoras a very soft and melt in mouth texture and I used appe pan for making pakoras without deep-frying which reduces the calories. Let me know how it comes out in the comment section. Enjoy!
Kadhi pakora- Plated with rice and Fryms
Ingredients:
1 cup- Soaked Bengal gram lentil (Chana daal)
Note: Soak daal for at-least 2 hours
4 to 5- Garlic cloves (Lehsun) (optional)
1 to 2- Green chilies (Hari mirch)
1 teaspoon- Cumin seeds (Jeera)
1 ½ teaspoon- Mustard seeds (Rai)
½ teaspoon- Fenugreek seeds (Methi dana)
1 to 2- Whole red chili dry (Khadi laal mirch sukhi)
Take chana daal in grinder, garlic cloves, green chilies, salt and 1 or 2 table spoon water. Grind it into a fine paste.
Divide the paste into two parts. Take one part of daal paste in a bowl. Add 1 teaspoon turmeric powder, 1 teaspoon coriander powder, 1 teaspoon red chili powder, a pinch of asafoetida and 1 teaspoon salt (or as required). Mix spices with paste, now heat an appe pan and brush it with some oil. Put the paste in appe mold to make pakora. Check after few minutes if the pakoras are cooked from one side then flip them and cook it from the other side. Now take them out in a plate and keep it aside.
Kadhi pakora- Process
Note: I’ve used appe pan to make pakoras to make it healthier/ less oily but you can also deep fry them as regular pakoras if you don’t have appe pan.
Take another part in a big bowl. Add 2 teaspoons of turmeric powder, asafoetida and yogurt/curd. Mix everything with a whisk and add 4 to 5 cups of water. (consistency should be watery as shown in picture)
Heat 2 tablespoons of oil a deep pan. Add whole red chili and splutter fenugreek seeds, cumin seeds and mustard seeds in hot oil. Now add sliced onion sauté it for 2 to 3 minutes. Add 2 teaspoons red chili powder, 4 teaspoons coriander powder and 2 teaspoons salt (or as required) and now mix spices with onions. Slow down the flame and slowly add daal and yogurt mix in the pan and keep stirring to avoid forming lumps.
Cook kadhi on medium flame for 5 minutes and now cover the pan with lid and let it cook on low flame for at least 20 minutes.
Now add pakoras which we have made earlier to the kadhi, stir it and cook it covered for few more minutes.
Heat a tablespoon of heat in a tadka pan, now add whole red chili dry, 1 teaspoon red chili powder and 1 teaspoon coriander powder and turn off the flame. Put this tadka over kadhi.
