Dahi Vada - Andhra Style

Dahi Vada - Andhra Style

Dahi vada is made differently in the north and the south. I am not sure if its made this way all over south India or only in Andhra, but this is how its made in Andhra for sure.
I can eat dahi vada for breakfast, lunch or dinner. I always been a fan of dahi vada, but my luck, no one eats dahi vada in my house, not my sons nor my husband. They will eat plain vadas or sambaar vada but not dahi vada. So I very rarely make this. I made this for pot luck a few months back and it has been sitting in the archive waiting to be posted.
I found another easy trick to make a few for only myself when ever I make vadas at home :).
To make dahi vadas, the plain vada is soaked in water with lemon and salt for a few minutes before putting into the tempered yogurt. This makes the vadas very soft and succulent.
So, when there were a few plain vadas left over the next time and I got to them before anyone else did, this is what I did -- microwaved it for 15-20 secs, just to get them hot, soaked in some water with some salt and lemon, let them sit in it for 5 mins, tempered little bit of yogurt and added the vadas to that. It was that simple, easy and instant too...
Therefore I recommend this idea to anyone who want instant dahi vada! :) and I love eating it with boondi and chilli powder sprinkled on the top, crunchy, soft and soury :)

You can find the vada recipe here.

Ingredients for tempered yogurt:

1 cup of plain yogurt (sour one would be better, but if thats not available, just add lemon or amchoor powder to make it sour)
some water to make it into semi-thick buttermilk
salt to taste

1 small onion, chopped
2-3 green chillies, chopped
1 tbsp chopped coriander

1/2 tbsp oil
1/4 tsp mustard seeds
1/4 tsp jeera
pinch of hing
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
2 dry red chillies, broken
4-5 curry leaves, chopped or whole

Method:

Take sour yogurt and add water to make it into a semi-thick buttermilk. If you don't have sour yogurt available then simply add lemon or amchoor powder to the yogurt to make it sour. Add salt and mix well.
In a tempering pan, heat oil, add mustard seeds and jeera. Let them splutter. Add red chillies, curry leaves, turmeric powder and hing. Saute for a few seconds and then add the onions and green chillies. Saute for a minute or two and add it to the sour buttermilk. Add the chopped coriander leaves and mix well. Put this mixture in a wide bowl which will fit all the vadas too.
In another bowl, add water, little salt and little lemon.
After frying the vadas, remove them directly into the water mixture. I usually leave the hot vadas in the water mixture until I am ready to remove the next batch of vadas from the oil. By this time, the vadas soak some water and swell up. Take the vadas from the water mixture and add them to the yogurt mixture. Spoon some yogurt mixture on the top. Make more water mixture as it gets used up.
Serve cold with boondi or anything crunchy and chilli powder sprinkled on the top for extra spice. Enjoy!!!