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    Home Β» Recipes Β» Accompaniments

    Vada curry recipe | Side dish for idli dosa

    December 10, 2012 by Raks Anand 42 Comments /

    vada-curry-recipe-2  Vada curry – The name itself tempts us a lot right? But I have tried this only once before. The reason is fennel. My family does not like fennel, so kept postponing trying this. But When Raji told this recipe it sounded simple to try. I have not tasted vada curry before, so was very clueless about the taste and outcome. But the garlic, fennel in the curry with the vada along with the flaovur of coriander leaves and curry leaves is simply superb. You can make use of the left over masala vadai too. The next day it can make you a side dish for your breakfast.


    vada-curry-recipe

    Vada curry recipe

    Recipe Cuisine: Indian  |  Recipe Category: Side dish
    Prep Time: 3 hours soaking time    |  Cook time: 20 mins    |  Serves: 3

    Ingredients

    Channa dal/ Kadala paruppu - Β½ cup


    Onion - 2


    Garlic - 6 flakes


    Sambar powder - 2 tsp


    Turmeric - β…› tsp


    Green chilli - 2


    Curry leaves - 1 sprig


    Coriander leaves - 1 tblsp


    Salt - as needed

    *Left over masala vadas can be used, use 6 vadais

    To temper

    Oil - 1 tbsp


    Cinnamon - 1 small piece


    Cloves - 2


    Fennel seeds - Β½ tsp


    Bay leaf - 1

    Method

    1. Soak dal for 3 hours, drain water and grind to a paste. Add little water while grinding if needed. Cube onion and peel garlic and cut into two, slit the green chillies and keep aside.
    2. 1-vada-curry

    3. Mix salt accordingly in this and mix well. Make bite sized pakodas/ vada out of it, no need to worry about the shape. Deep fry in oil until cooked.
    4. 2-vada-curry-recipe

    5. Heat a pan with oil and season with the items given under β€˜To temper’ table. Add fennel seeds lastly and wait until it splutters. Add cubed onion, garlic and fry till golden brown here and there.
    6. 3-vada-curry-recipe

    7. Add 1 and Β½ cups of water, turmeric, sambar powder, required salt and bring to boil.
    8. 4-vada-curry

    9. Add the prepared vadas and simmer and boil for 5-8 minutes in medium flame.
    10. 5-vada-curry

    11. Boil until the vadas gets soft and gets absorbed well in the gravy. Stir in such a way to mash it if needed to get a thick curry. Garnish with coriander leaves and curry leaves.
    12. 6-vada-curry

    Notes
    • Adding half the salt in the vada and half in the gravy is must. Otherwise the taste wont be homogenous.
    • The key is to get the vadas soaked well in the gravy and get soft. The vada should not be hard. So make sure the vada batter is soft and if you want can add a pinch of cooking soda in the vada batter.
    • Simmer and cook to get the soft texture.
    • Left over vadas works great for this recipe. You can also steam the vadas instead of deep frying. The result wont be changed.

    Serve hot with Dosa the best. Idli also gets matched with this well. I can even eat as such Cool.
    vada-curry-recipe-1

    « Puli aval recipe, tamarind aval, South Indian breakfast
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    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. prathibha Garre

      December 10, 2012 at 5:16 am

      As u said the name itself even tempts me..When ever we go to Kanchi or Chennai we do not miss ordering the vada curry to pair with our idli n dosas...looks yumm

      Reply
    2. Sangee

      December 10, 2012 at 5:19 am

      Superb..... But when i use to do it, the vadas are not absorbed by the gravy. Do i need to half fry the vadas?

      Reply
    3. Divya Kudua

      December 10, 2012 at 5:20 am

      I've tasted it once at a friend's place with dosa.Never knew what the ingredient was but I absolutely loved the taste.I somehow always thought vada curry was made with Medu vada:)

      Reply
    4. Kalpana Sareesh

      December 10, 2012 at 5:29 am

      i love this so much.. earlier many hotels served this dish.. but now its out of the menu..looks so good..

      Reply
    5. APARNARAJESHKUMAR

      December 10, 2012 at 6:00 am

      instead of frying πŸ™‚ just steam it as we do it for oosli ! its also delicious !

      Reply
    6. Nagalakshmi V

      December 10, 2012 at 6:21 am

      one of my fave chettinad dishes πŸ™‚

      Reply
    7. Aruna Manikandan

      December 10, 2012 at 6:48 am

      vada curry looks perfect and tempting dear...
      I steam it instead of frying, will try this way πŸ™‚

      Reply
    8. Vijayalakshmi Dharmaraj

      December 10, 2012 at 6:48 am

      This comment has been removed by the author.

      Reply
    9. WeR SAHM

      December 10, 2012 at 6:50 am

      mouth watering dear

      Reply
    10. Premalatha Aravindhan

      December 10, 2012 at 6:51 am

      Yummy vada curry,sleeping in my draft for all...luks tempting:)

      Reply
    11. Jeyashrisuresh

      December 10, 2012 at 6:57 am

      Though i have tasted this, never tried at home and i don't know how to make it too. Sounds interesting. Nice clicks

      Reply
    12. Priti S

      December 10, 2012 at 8:57 am

      I love this, can eat everyday and now that you tempted me I should make again ...looks yum

      Reply
    13. Shreem

      December 10, 2012 at 10:20 am

      My favourite with idly or dosa. I steam it instead of frying. We also add tomatoes to the gravy.

      Reply
    14. revathi

      December 10, 2012 at 10:25 am

      Vada - curry ... an absolute classic..:)
      The best combo dish for idlis and dosais.. beautiful preparation and presentation..:)
      Reva

      Reply
    15. RAKS KITCHEN

      December 10, 2012 at 10:48 am

      Sangee ... You should cook it. So you have to fry it till it gets cooked properly. try Boiling for long time and simmer it to get it juicy. The vada should not be hard. Grind it not too coarse, not too fine. That will work. Make/ break the vada to small pieces.

      Reply
    16. Vimitha Anand

      December 10, 2012 at 11:10 am

      Hubby loves this with dosa... Its been a long time since I made it. Looks so tempting

      Reply
    17. Shama Nagarajan

      December 10, 2012 at 11:31 am

      delicious and inviting

      Reply
    18. Chitra

      December 10, 2012 at 12:38 pm

      I too have in archive , i add tomatoes too and make it slighlty watery as sen loves tat way.. tempting cliks as always πŸ™‚

      Reply
    19. uma shankar

      December 10, 2012 at 2:01 pm

      have been wanting to make this good you posted the recipe!will try soon!

      Reply
    20. Tamilarasi Sasikumar

      December 10, 2012 at 2:15 pm

      Yummy side for puris...I love this so much...tempting clicks...

      Reply
    21. lata raja

      December 10, 2012 at 2:33 pm

      Yummilicious! I grind the onions and have it with a bit of thinner gravy. but I would like this semi dry as you have shown too, got to make this sometime.

      Reply
    22. divya

      December 10, 2012 at 2:57 pm

      Looks absolutely mouthwatering!!

      Reply
    23. Priya

      December 10, 2012 at 9:27 pm

      Makes me nostalgic, havent had since a long.My grandma's signature dish.

      Reply
    24. Sudha Sabarish

      December 10, 2012 at 9:50 pm

      Thought of tasting for a long time but never tried till now.Mouthwatering.

      Reply
    25. Sangeetha

      December 10, 2012 at 10:02 pm

      Your pics makes me hungry now...loved ur version...once i tried Revathy Shanmugam's recipe...will try this soon!

      Reply
    26. Maha Gadde

      December 11, 2012 at 2:35 am

      luks wonderfully done..yummy.
      BTW plz viist my space n check out my new FB page.Thanks in advance..
      Maha

      Reply
    27. Pranavi

      December 11, 2012 at 7:04 am

      My Favourite dish. Wonderful clicks πŸ™‚

      Reply
    28. Sanoli Ghosh

      December 11, 2012 at 9:30 am

      Curry looks delicious and mouthwatering.

      Reply
    29. vijiraja

      December 11, 2012 at 9:18 pm

      my all time favorite for idli...:)wonderful pics

      Reply
    30. Janani

      December 12, 2012 at 1:40 am

      I have been thinking of doing this for the past few months till time hasn't come for me looks lovely raks.

      Reply
    31. Vardhini

      December 12, 2012 at 4:29 am

      My favorite side dish for idli. Looks inviting.

      Vardhini
      Event: Bake Fest

      Reply
    32. vilasini

      December 12, 2012 at 2:07 pm

      Hi

      This is vilasini. There is another option too, instead frying you make it steamed in idly pot. add red chilly and sombu with that dal grind it and make balls. Steam that and mash it

      add oil in kadai, add seasoning items like patta, krambu, birinji leaves, and sombu, add onion, ginger garlic paste, tomato one by one fry it, add chilly powder, dania powder and still fry it as it for gravy. add cups of water let it boil and mashed balls and make it sim for ten minutes until become thick gravy.

      add pudina leaves, coriander leaves finaly

      Reply
    33. Sharmilee! :)

      December 12, 2012 at 2:34 pm

      Looks absolutely yum....mouth waters now πŸ™‚

      Reply
    34. raaji

      December 12, 2012 at 11:14 pm

      nice leftover recipe for a curry

      Reply
    35. Anonymous

      December 13, 2012 at 4:39 pm

      Hi Raks,

      How are you doing? This dish looks very lovely..I am guessing it must taste yummy with khichdi also and with dosas. Lovely clicks!!

      Shobha

      Reply
    36. Amina

      January 21, 2013 at 6:47 am

      vada curry looks perfect and delicious... mouth watering...

      Reply
    37. VijiJayaKkjvg

      July 12, 2013 at 12:03 am

      Iam from Saidapet ,which is the place famous for vadakari.this is the favorite dish in my inlaws house.
      We steam the grinded channadal paste and powder it like we do for Ukarai .we also add ginger garlic paste
      While sauting onion.redchilli powder in place of sambar powder improves the taste.my co sister used to add very finely chopped mint leaves in the final stage and allow to boil for 2minutes.add adequate amount of water as the channadal will absorb more water

      Reply
    38. harini

      February 17, 2014 at 1:30 pm

      hi raks, nice clicks.i am a great fan of vada curry.going to try today with appam.its a great side dish for aappam.its made for each other.

      Reply
    39. umar

      May 03, 2015 at 2:13 am

      supert

      Reply
    40. Sathish K

      November 21, 2015 at 6:03 am

      Can we try it with Pakodas instead of Vadas ? Will it taste the same ???

      Reply
    41. Lavanya Raja

      May 18, 2018 at 11:07 pm

      Haven't tried yet. Didn't think it will be so easy in making after seeing your receipe.

      Reply
    42. Lavanya Raja

      May 18, 2018 at 11:07 pm

      Haven't tried yet. Didn't think it will be so easy in making after seeing your receipe.

      Reply

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    Hi, I'm Rajeswari Vijayanand! I am the person behind Rakskitchen, sharing recipes with pictures & videos.

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    Raks anand

    Hi, I'm Rajeswari Vijayanand! I am the person behind Rakskitchen, sharing recipes with pictures & videos.

    More about me β†’

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