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Vada curry recipe | Chennai style Vada curry recipe

Sangskitchen
Vada curry, a popular side dish served in Tamilnadu for dosa, idli, and poori. Vada curry is prepared by cooking coarse dal mix in spicy coconut based gravy.
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Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Total Time 50 minutes
Course Breakfast, Main Course, Side Dish
Cuisine Indian
Servings 4
Calories 200 kcal

Ingredients
  

Ingredients:

    To soak & grind:

    • 1 cup gram dal
    • ½ tsp fennel seeds/sombhu
    • ¼ tsp turmeric powder
    • ½ tsp salt

    To temper:

    • 4 tbsp oil
    • 1 bay leaf
    • 1 cardamom
    • 2 cloves
    • 2 small cinnamon sticks
    • 1 Green chilli

    Other ingredients:

    • 1 Big onion
    • 6 garlic pods
    • Few Curry leaves
    • 1 Tomato
    • 1 tsp Chili powder
    • ¾ tsp coriander powder
    • ¼ tsp turmeric powder
    • 1 tsp salt

    To grind:

    • 2 tbsp coconut
    • 1 tsp fried gram
    • 1 tsp Jeera

    To garnish:

    • Few coriander leaves

    Instructions
     

    Preparation:

    • Wash and soak gram dal for a minimum of 2 hours (you can soak overnight also).
    • After soaking, gram dal usually increases in volume. Hence add water accordingly.
    • Drain the water completely. Take a mixer, add soaked drained Dal, sombu/fennel seeds, turmeric, and salt.
    • Grind into a coarse mixture as shown. Keep aside.
    • Chop onions, tomatoes, and crush garlic.
    • Grind coconut, jeera and fried gram into a fine paste.

    Recipe:

    • First in a broad pan, heat 3 tablespoons of oil. Fry the coarsely ground dal mixture in medium temperature.
    • Do not worry about lumps. Fry the mixture until the raw flavor completely goes off. By this time you will get the aroma of masala vada.
    • After around 5 to 7 minutes of continuous frying, you will get the texture as shown below.
    • Remove from stove and keep it aside.
    • Now heat oil in a kadai, add the whole spices, green chillies and roast until you get a nice aroma.
    • Add chopped onions and fry in oil. Put some curry leaves.
    • Now add crushed garlic. Crushed garlic gives nice strong curry flavor than chopped garlic.
    • Saute for 2 minutes and add chopped tomatoes.
    • Cook until tomatoes become soft.
    • Now add chilli, coriander and turmeric powders and mix with the masala.
    • You can add some water to cook the spices.
    • Add the fried gram dal mixture into the masala and mix well.
    • Sprinkle some water, so that the dal mixture incorporates well with the curry masala.
    • You can close and cook for 5 minutes in low flame.
    • Finally add the ground coconut, fried gram paste into the masala and mix well. Add a cup of water to adjust the consistency.
    • Close with a lid and cook the coconut paste for 5 minutes until the froth settles down.
    • Add the required salt for the curry.
    • This Vada curry should have a thick curry consistency and not thin.
    • Garnish with coriander leaves and the yummy vadacurry is ready to serve.
    • Serve this with hot crispy dosa or set dosa or Idli or Pooris.

    Notes

    Tips/Notes:
    1. Use gingelly oil for better taste.
    2. Use a half teaspoon of garam masala if you like.
    3. Instead of coconut paste, you can use coconut milk also. But coconut gives the better taste.

    Nutrition

    Calories: 200kcal
    Keyword chennai vada curry, vada curry, vadacurry, vadakari
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