Posted on by Sindhu Vinod Narayan

Lip smacking vadacurry

Dosa with vadacurry

Vadacurry is a South Indian dish that can be paired with idly, dosa and poori. A tomato onion based gravy wherein you find bits and pieces of lentil/Dal vada soaked gives you a perfect compliment taste to the idlis or dosas. In most hotels this is made with leftover vadas. But you can choose to make fresh vadas for this recipe as well. You could keep some for snacking and add in the remaining into the gravy , so it serves two purpose.

Popularly paired with set dosa you can see this combination on most hotel menus in South India as set dosa vadacurry.

I will share my age old recipe that has been passed over generations. Read till the end where I give you a quick tip.if you are lazy to make vadas but still would want to relish vadacurry.

Ingredients :

For vada:

Channa Dal – 1 cup soaked 2 hours
Fennel seeds -1 tbsp
Green chilli or red chilli – 2 numbers
Garlic – 2 cloves

Curry leaves – 1 sprig
Coriander leaves -1 tbsp chopped
Salt – as required

Gravy :

Bay leaf -1

Cloves -1

Cinnamon -1/2″ inch
Ginger garlic paste or ginger and garlic crushed – 1 tbsp each
Chilli powder -2 tbsp
Turmeric powder -1 tbsp
Coriander powder -3 tbsp
Tomato -3 chopped

Onion -2 chopped
Mustard seeds -1 tbsp
Oil- for tempering
Fennel -1 tbsp

Salt – as required
Asafoetida – 1/4 tbsp
Curry leaves -1 sprig
Green chilli – 2 slit
Coriander leaves – for garnish
Coconut milk (optional) – 1/2 cup

Method

To make vada

Once the channa Dal is soaked grind with the rest of ingredients. Grind coarsely and not as smooth batter. Deep fry in oil or cook in appe pan. If I’m pairing with idlies I steam it along so it gets cooked and then mixed with gravy. This gives a unique taste go the dish than the deep fried vadas.

Gravy

1. Temper mustard seeds, fennel seeds, curry leaves , asafoetida , cinnamon, clove , bay leaf and green chillies.

2. Add in chopped onion and ginger garlic paste and saute for two mins until onion turns pale.

3. Add in chopped tomatoes and saute until tomato gets mushy. You could also add in some salt or sugar to speed up the process.

4. Once this is mushy start adding the spice powders one by one. Mix well and add some water for maintaining consistency.

5. The vada already has salt so adjust salt in gravy accordingly. After about 7-8 mins the gravy is well cooked. You can choose to pour in some coconut milk if you want else it’s completely fine.

6. Gently mix and when it starts to mildly bubble turn off add the vadas give a stir and close.

7. Let the vadas soak in the gravy. Remove lid and garnish with coriander leaves.

Absolutely lip smacking vadacurry is ready and can be had with idlies, dosa or pooris.

So and yes for the little secret tip, if you want to relish vadacurry but not in mood to make vadas or have any leftover vadas you can choose to add Kara boondi in place of vadas. They work amazingly well as replacements.

Variations to the vada would be steaming along with idly or cooking in appe pan and then crumbled to be added to gravy.

This blog post is part of the blog challenge ‘Blogaberry Dazzle’ hosted by Cindy and Noor Anand Chawla, and happily SPONSORED BY RRE Studios and SHOWCASE Events.

24 Replies to “Lip smacking vadacurry”

  4. This is really to me. though I made many south Indian recipes but never heard about it. sounds interesting to me. will try for sure.

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  7. While I was working one of my colleague used to bring this and I totally relished it. Never tried making on my own but now as you have shared the detailed recipe I would love to give it a try.

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  11. I love having south Indian food but have never heard of vada curry. Seems like a variant of the vadas in sambhar that I love. Thanks for sharing the recipe. Sure going to try it out.

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  12. Wow! Something very new to me, Chana dal Bhajjiya. I have tried many times, but vada curry never thought of. I find Your recipe so easy, and the images shown prove the pure temptation of vada curry, definitely going to try this. Kara boondi I am not sure if it is a simple boondi that we use for raita or something else.

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  15. I will try this vada curry recipe. I think my kids will love this. We always have vada with sambhar but never with the curry.

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  18. Vada is always a treat! now with the curry it is a complete meal, Will surely try this! With Urad daal, I make medu vada, and then add it in a curry. This too is an addition to my curries! One more dish added to the daily routine!

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  19. This is an interesting and flavoured fusion curry recipe made with tomato and onion gravy base, with deep fried toppings. it is a popular south indian curry or gravy and is mainly served with poori, idli or dosa. the taste and appearance is very similar to other south indian delicacies,but still, this recipe is unique by itself.

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