Yellow lentil fritters in a yogurt sauce, topped with tangy chutneys; sweet, spicy, sour, a burst of flavors in each bite!
Dahi Vada or Dahi Bhalla is a popular colorful and flavorful appetizer/street food found in the Indian subcontinent. Its a type of chaat which are small appetizers enjoyed as a quick snack in between meals. In this case, a lentil fritter is made and then dipped in a yogurt sauce topped with chutneys. Sweet and sour Tamarind chutney along with spicy green chutney for a kick, its a burst of flavors dancing in your mouth! Yummmmm
I have been making these for years, its a favorite in my home. However I have to admit, for many years I used the ready made Gits boxes and they turned out great! I have tried other brands but prefer Gits. (This is not an advertisement, I do not get paid by Gits). For beginners, I would still recommend using the premade box mix which turns out really well and is less time consuming to make. Now of course I do make them from scratch which is not hard, just takes a little longer to make the batter. Both methods from scratch and from the box are shown below.
The great thing about this dish is that you can easily do some prep work ahead of time. I don’t fry often, so when I do I make large batches. In this recipe, the fried fritters can be frozen. When ready to use them thaw them and finish the second part of the recipe. For entertaining it is really convenient to have the fritters already done ahead of time. Then you just make the yogurt and soak them on the day of.
Makes: 12 small ones, or 6 large ones
Difficulty: Medium
Time: 4 hour to soak lentils, 20 mins to fry them, 20 mins to assemble and serve
Ingredients for the Fritters:
- 1 cup of Urad Dal
- 1/4 cup of Moong Dal
- 1/2 tsp Adu lasen (Ginger Garlic) Paste
- 1 green chili diced small
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/8 cup chopped fresh coriander leaves
- Oil for deep frying
- Water for soaking
- 2 cups of plain whole milk yogurt
- 1 cup of water
- 1/2 tsp salt or black salt (kaala namak)
- 1/2 tsp red chili powder
- 1/2 tsp of Chaat Masala (I like the MDH brand)
- 1/2 tsp toasted cumin seeds powder
- 4 tbsp Imli -Tamarind Chutney
- 4 tbsp Green Chutney (coriander, mint, chilis)
- Pinch of red chili powder
- Pinch of Chaat Masala (I like the MDH brand)
- Pinch of toasted cumin seeds powder
- In a bowl cover the lentils with water and let them soak for 4 hours.
- Drain out the water. Grind the mixture to a fine smooth paste. Use 1 or 2 tbs of water if needed, but avoid adding too much liquid. The paste should be smooth, thick, and sticky consistency.
- Now we need to beat some air into the mixture. You can either use a hand blender or a whisk and mixing the batter for 5 mins till its fluffy and airy.
- In a frying pan, heat up oil on medium high temperature.
- Using your hands, or a spoon drop in small lumps of batter into the hot oil each about 2 tbsp worth. If the batter is sticking to your hands, dip your hands in water in between. I make these often enough that I had to get a small ice cream scoop used for cookie dough similar size to melon baller. This makes consistent size round fritters.
- Turn them and fry them for 10 mins till lightly golden on all sides.
- Pull out on paper towel and drain them. Be sure to cut one open and check the inside is fully cooked . (Once cooled, you can store these in an air tight container in the freezer for later use. Or in the fridge for next day use). If using immediately, continue to the next part.
- In a small dry pan on medium heat, add cumin seeds, toast them for 4 mins till you smell the cumin and it slightly gets darker. Once cooled, grind to a fine powder. For this recipe, freshly toasted cumin seed powder make a HUGE difference rather than using pre-ground stuff.
- In a bowl, mix the yogurt ingredients together including the spices. Use a whisk to get it smooth.
- Heat up 1 litter of water in a wide pot till boil and then turn off the heat. If you have a tea kettle you can use it to get the water hot and then pour into a wide dish.
- Add the fritters to the hot water (be sure the stove is off). Let them soak for 10 mins. If straight out of the freezer, let them soak longer, ideally thaw them first.
- Gently squeeze some of the water out of each fritter, without crushing or break them.
- Lay them in a flat serving dish in a single layer. Avoid double stacking them.
- Add the yogurt sauce on top covering all the fritters completely.
- Sprinkle on top Chaat Masala, Red chili powder and roasted cumin powder.
- Top with imli and green chutneys to your taste, more if you like it spicy.
- Finally sprinkle some chopped fresh coriander leaves on top.
- Your colorful Dahi Vada is ready to devour!
Tips:
- If using the box mix, follow the instructions on the box to make the fritters, then jump to the steps for making the sauce and assembling the dish as shown above. This will eliminate the entire lentil soaking and grinding step which is a huge timesaver.
- For other veg and nonveg appetizer ideas click here for more recipes