Here is the tasty, crispy, aromatic vadakari. It is a popular side dish of Tamil Nadu. Bengal gram is soaked and prepared like masala vadai. It is then crushed and mixed in a spicy curry. The spices used slightly differ from home to home.
It suits well with Idli, Dosa, Poori or with any snacks. We love to have this with Idiyappam. As the preparation time is little more (comparing to chutneys), this dish can be prepared on a holiday or when you have enough time.
This dish is known with slight variations as Vadakari/Vada Kari/Vadai Curry.
Ingredients
- Bengal gram – 1 cup
- Onion – 2 no
- Tomato – 3 no
- Green chilli – 3 no
- Red chilli – 3 no
- Fennel seeds – ½ tea spoon
- Ginger small piece – 1 no
- Garlic – 5 cloves
- Red chilli powder – ½ tea spoon
- Turmeric powder – ¼ tea spoon
- Garam masala powder –½ tea spoon
- Coconut milk – ½ cup (optional)
- Mint and coriander leaves – few strings
- Salt – as per taste
- Oil – for deep frying and seasoning
- For seasoning
- Cinnamon sticks – 2 no
- Cloves – 5 no
- Fennel seeds – ½ tea spoon
- Mustard – ½ tea spoon
- Curry leaves – few
Method
- Preparation of Vada: Soak Bengal gram for 2 hours; grind it with salt, fennel seed, red chilli and turmeric powder to a coarse paste.
- Deep fry as small vadas.
- Crush them into few pieces; now crispy masala vadai is ready for mixing in spicy curry.
- Preparation of spicy curry: Chop onion, green chilli, ginger and garlic finely; chop tomato, mint and coriander leaves; extract half cup of coconut milk and keep (here is How to Extract Coconut Milk (Thengai Paal) ?)
- Heat a pan with oil and do the seasoning; add chopped onion, garlic, green chilli and fry well till onion is transparent.
- Add chopped tomato and fry till soft; add red chilli powder, turmeric powder, garam masala powder, salt and fry for few seconds.
- Add mint leaves, coriander leaves and fry till oil separates from it.
- Add two cups of water and let it boil for few minutes.
- Vada Kari: Now add crushed vadas and boil for few seconds only.
- Lastly add coconut milk, mix gently, keep for few seconds and remove.
- Now tasty Vadakari/Vada Kari/Vadai Curry is ready. Serve hot.
- Here it is served with Idiyappam.
Tips
- Vadas will absorb some water from vadakari. Quantity of water to be added, can be varied accordingly.
- Adding coconut milk is optional. It makes the dish creamy and rich in taste.
{ 15 comments… add one }
I want to grab that plate full of idiappam’s n vada curry…yummy
Never say no to this vada curry, truly tempting..
wow what a vadaikari,my husband like this vadaikari very much.awesome picture
wow its really tasty and my husband liked it very much…and the pic is really superb
vadakari is very tasty to eat and the picture is very nice
hi, can u plz change the look and feel of htis blog… it is cluttered and the page tabs are overflowing in my browser… i find it hard to locate the recipe index from the drop down menu…
i’ve tried out many recipes from this and they came very well… recommended it to my mom as well… thank u…
this is too good. You should even share the idiyam recipe .The idiyappam is very inviting .. slurrp …
really Tempting lip smacking taste i love this a lot
I had several times this dish at restaurants, but after seeing this I really wanted to try preparing at home. Thanks.
Viswa
Garam masala ingredients for vada kari? Important I thought!!
This dish is truly tempting to see…also, the onions are finely chopped in the picture…would like to know what brand is your chopper??
@ Brinda
I used ‘Prestige’ brand food processor to chop onion.
wow…what a dish.yummmmmy…..
with pictures load, it is really very easy to follow, i will prepare this dish at home. thank you.
Very awesome dish!!!!!! Got good applause from my hubby!!