An Indian Main Course that is a favourite amongst everyone. Gluten Free Flour Fritters that are non fried dunked into a gorgeously thick yoghurt based gravy to be best enjoyed with a steaming bowl of rice.
Kadhi Pakora / No Fry Pakoras
Thank God for planning, I am able to post some pending recipes on the blog while I still organize the kitchen and the rest of the house and gear up for the next months list of dishes to be blogged. Shifting a house is no piece of cake and the only lesson I learnt during the entire process is to remain slightly unattached to things and let go of the unnecessary stuff. While we do make it a point to sort out our wardrobe once in 3 months and donate it religiously, this has to be done on a large scale from every part of the house now on priority. Okay! Enough sulking and let’s get to the interesting topic here – Kadhi Pakoras!
Kadhi Pakoras! Everyone loves it? I consume kadhis like soups and sip it piping hot from a nice tall mug and enjoy the pakoras as croutons. Ofcourse, by now you are already aware of my aversion to deep frying so yes, as always, these pakoras are made in an appe pan so yes, can be indulged like the croutons on a rainy afternoon.
Kadhi or Karhi has so many variations across regions in India. In Rajasthan, they prefer having the Kadhi with a Khichdi that is usually a mix of pulses namely moong dal or dhuli moong dal with some rice cooked and served with dollops of ghee or clarified butter. While in Punjab or North, they prefer having Kadhi with pakoras along with long grained rice like Basmati, a side of vegetables and some salads. In Gujarat, Kadhi is served in two ways, a savoury and a sweet version. The sweet version uses whole spices like cloves, cinnamon and cumin seeds for flavor and is usually eaten with Khichdi too that is either made with dhuli or green whole mung. I love all the varieties
Kadhi pairs best with rice and only rice! The sour yoghurt / buttermilk and gram flour gravy needs to be enjoyed with a steaming bowl of Steamed Basmati Rice, Jeera Rice or my personal favourite, Green Peas Pulao. You absolutely don’t need any side to go along with this. May be some raita or roasted papads or some sliced sliced onions, cucumbers and tomatoes with a splash of lime juice, generous sprinkling of rock salt and chaat masala and you are done. Minimalistic pleasures of life! A bowl of this is a perfect comfort food and is enough to pep your mood, get you out of your Monday blues and keep you satisfied. Although this can be consumed anytime and any season, I prefer this for afternoon lunches strictly as it gets slightly heavy (with the pakoras) for a dinner option. Also, let me tell you, I always end up making extra as nothing tastes better than leftover kadhi pakoras.
In general, I am a big fan of buttermilk or yoghurt gravies rather than Sambar as these are light on your stomach, refreshing for the palate and less spicy, apt for everyday meal ideas. Also yoghurt or dahi is an excellent coolant and great for your gut. We South Indians have an array of yoghurt based gravies and have a dish called Mor Kozhumbu which looks somewhat like kadhi but has grated coconut for thickening instead of the besan or gram flour. Also we use variety of vegetables in our version of kadhi that include pumpkin, ash gourd, lady finger etc instead of fritters.
This recipe is not an authentic Punjabi Kadhi Pakora that uses onion, garlic while sautéing with the tempering. This is more my version which is loved by us at home and guests included. I make the pakoras with methi leaves or fenugreek leaves and finely chopped onions. An array of pakoras or fritters can be tried like palak, onion, urad dal wadas, coriander garlic pakoras etc. Sky is the limit so I leave it to you to decide what suits best and most important, what is available in your refrigerator or pantry.
Recipe for Kadhi Pakora
Prep Time 30 mins (both pakoras and kadhi included)
Cook Time 30 mins
Serves 4 people
Measurement Cup Size is 200ml
Ingredients for the Kadhi or the Yoghurt Gravy
- 3 heaped tblsp Gram Flour or Besan
- 4 cups thick Curd or Yoghurt
- 3 cups of water + ½ cup water to make a thin paste with besan
- 2 tsps Oil
- ¼ tsp Mustard seeds
- ¼ tsp Jeera or cumin seeds
- 1 tsp Green chilli paste
- ¼ tsp Turmeric powder
- A pinch of asafoetida or hing
- Few Whole red chillies
- Salt as per taste
Ingredients for the Pakoras or Fritters
- 3 cups of Gram Flour or Besan
- 1 tblsp of Rice flour
- ½ cup Finely chopped Coriander leaves
- ½ cup finely chopped fenugreek leaves
- 1 medium onion finely chopped
- A pinch of asafoetida or hing
- A pinch of turmeric powder
- A pinch of baking soda
- ½ tsp red chilli powder
- 1 tsp coriander seeds
- Salt as per taste
- Water as required to make a thick batter (like idli batter) to cook the fritters or pakoras
- Oil as required to cook the pakoras in appe pan
Ingredients for the final tempering
- Whole red chillies as per taste
- A tsp of coriander seeds or sabut dhania
- ½ tsp of mustard seeds
- ½ tsp of jeera or cumin seeds
- A pinch of Kashmiri lal mirch or Kashmiri red chilli powder
- A small pinch of asafoetida
- 1 tsp of Oil
Method to cook the Kadhi or the Spiced Yoghurt Gravy
- Whisk the yoghurt until there are no lumps.
- Mix the besan, 1/2 cup of water and whisk it well for few seconds and keep aside.
- Heat a kadhai, add oil and hing, followed by mustard seeds. Once they crackle, add jeera or cumin seeds and roast them until brown.
- Now add turmeric powder and the minced green chilli paste, whole red chillies and saute for few minutes.
- Now add the whisked yoghurt and the besan mixture and keep stirring it over medium heat.
- Use the 4 cups of water to adjust the thickness of the kadhi. As the kadhi cooks, it will thicken and the water can be used to adjust the thickness, as required.
- When it comes to one boil, lower the flame and cook it for few minutes.
- Add salt and simmer for few more minutes until the gram flour has cooked and you achieve a silky thick texture of the kadhi.
- Switch off the flame and move towards making the pakoras.
Recipe Notes
- In case you don’t want to make and add pakoras, you can switch off the flame and just pour the tempering before serving.
- The additional tempering adds the glamour and the taste factor to the dish so don’t skip it.
- In case of consistency, many people have their own preferences. While we prefer thick kadhi so don’t add too much water, there are others who prefer a slightly thin consistency so choose to add water according to your preferences.
Method to cook the Pakoras or Fritters
Ideally the fritter batter is thicker and lumpy with chunks of veggies and herbs ideal to be dropped into the hot oil and flash cooked in seconds. Since we are using appe pan for cooking, have made a thick batter consistency so that they can cook easily and not remain raw in the centre (in case of thick batter) and use less oil too.
- In a bowl, add all the ingredients as mentioned for the fritters or pakoras except oil.
- Make a thick batter (pouring consistency) using required amount of water.
- Heat an appe pan and pour few drops of oil.
- Now slowly fill the appe pan with the batter, drizzle few drops of oil, cover and cook over medium heat for few minutes.
- Open the lid, turn the appes and drizzle some oil again, close and cook for few more minutes on the other side until the pakoras turn brown and are cooked well.
- Repeat the process with the rest of the batter.
Assembling the Kadhi Pakoras
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- Add the pakoras in the kadhi only 30 minutes before serving so that they don’t turn extremely soggy.
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- Prepare the tempering (ingredients listed above) and pour over the kadhi mixture just before serving followed by garnishing of finely chopped coriander leaves.
- Serve Kadhi Pakoras Piping hot with a side of vegetables and Steamed Rice, Jeera Rice or Pulao / Pilaf.
Vidya Narayan
One of the beautiful curry and love the use of appe pan for frying pakoras?
Appe pan is a blessing and why deep fry when we can choose an alternative right? Thank you dear and glad you liked it.
Lip smacking dish ?
Thank you Ramya
Such an awesome share, love this wonderful dish and fantastic clicks !
Thank you so much for the lovely words
Looks lovely
Thank you so much
Gorgeous pic! Nothing elevates a dish like good tadka.
Tadka is always a killer be it any cuisine and I think as Indians we have a major weakness for it. Makes us hungry and also a reminder that food will be served any minute. ha ha Thank you Aruna!
🙂
Lovely Color ? Yummy ?
Thanks a ton!
Having Kadhi pakora with hot steamed rice is a fantastic combo?.. Do we need anything else????
Absolutely not Praneetha and so so true dear! Thanks a ton
Yummy kadhi.. perfect for the monsoon season. I just now had kadhi for lunch but minus the pakodis.
Thank you dear and I so love your Sindhi Kadhi with loads of veggies in it.
Droolicious presentation of kadhi pakora. This is an all time favourite lunch. Just like you, even I like to have a big bowl of kadhi and eat it as such with pakoras.
Thank you so much and so glad we share the same preference towards Kadhi.
Ahh this is so so tempting I just wish to have that right now !!! I love It and as u said I too enjoy it like a soup pipping hot !!Lovely share Vidya.
Yay Paarul, soup sounds so much fun right? Glad we share the same thought. Cheers to piping hot Kadhi!
Havent prepared Kadhi Pakora since a while, and you are torturing me with your terrific clicks. Ultimate, fingerlicking kadhi. Cant take my eyes from your clicks. Super delicious dish.
Thank you so much Priya dear for that lovely compliment and trust me I am dancing with joy!
Your photos of kadhi pakora are torturing me Vidya ...and you also have that papad roll to tease me more 🙂 Love the fact that your pakodas are made in the aape pan.
Didnt mean to torture you at all my dear but yes kadhi pakodas with the tempering on top really gets your taste buds flowing. ha ha. thank you so much. Really wish I could treat you some day in India.
I am not a big fan of deep fried food and your aape pan fried pakora version is just my kinda food. The Kadhi pakoda with gorgeous tadka looks like so so delish !! Loved your presentation too Vidya !!
Thank you so much Poonam for the kind words and why deep fry when you have so many alternatives available right?
Two things that caught my eye was - the thick khadi, with the ever drooling aromatic tadka on top.
The second was the bowl itself... that bowl looks super cool.
Thank you dear Seema and so glad you liked it. It is a mud bowl I picked up in Kerala on the highway along with many other mud pots and small bowls. Seriously I wish I had more space in my carry on luggage else I would have raided the shop big time as there were plates etc but unfortunately, very delicate to carry. My heart was in my mouth the whole time while returning back as I had packed half of these in my other luggage tucked in mounds of clothes. Things we do for props. Call us crazy!
This kadhi pakora recipe is similar to my style of version ya few differences but I loved your style too..even I didn’t used garlic or green chilli paste in kadhi. I just loved your style of pakoda methi with onion that’s really tempting me to try this style in my next time making kadhi pakoda. Awesome share Vidya 🙂
Thank you so much, every kadhi preparation I feel is unique. With many comments on social media about the kadhi, I feel I can do a variety of posts on only this. haha.. Indian food can be magical with all the variety, variations and use of masalas to elevate the dish. Thank you partner for all the kind words and now I look forward to seeing your kadhi version in the blog soon. Will check soon.
I absolutely love kadhi! I usually make either Punjabi-style kadhi with pakoras or the sweet Gujarati kadhi. 🙂 Love your version of kadhi with non-fried pakoras! 😀
Thank you so much. Kadhi is comfort food indeed.
Such a beautiful looking kadhi. The appe pan is surely a life saver to enjoy guilt-free pakoras 🙂 These days, I've also started air frying them, looks just like the fried ones 🙂
Freda, Air fryer is on my mind too and will be surely purchasing that soon as I prefer such guilt free options. Thanks dear so much.
Ah! Kadhi Pakora and monsoon - a match made in heaven! Just yesterday I was thinking of making this rainy day special and now looking at your post, I'm sure what I'll be cooking today. Aesofetida makes a wonderful substitute for onion and garlic. Will try making kadhi with your recipe this time.
That sounds great and hope you enjoyed the kadhi. Cheers my friend.
Kadhi is one of my favourite dishes, love it any day. The pakoras made in appe pan sound so good and guilt free. Nice share.
Thank you so much and glad you liked it.
As u know we first eat through our eyes and this is a perfect example. The tadka looks so so droolicious.
Also love the appe pan version here vidya 🙂
Thank you so much Sasmita for the kind words. Appe pan is such a blessing.
Absolutely drool worthy dish, one of my favourite with jeera rice. Love the addition of coriander seeds in vaghar.
Thanks so much and I agree.
Even while commenting I am eating kadhi pakora chawal for my breakfast. I totally love it to the core.
Haha.. That sounds amazing. Thanks Sapana
Vidya you cooked this kadhi pakora so nicely. Looking very tempting and being a kadhi lover I am drooling over the screen. I too add whole coriander seeds. It gives a great taste. Lovely clicks.
Thank you so much and I agree the tadka with the coriander seeds made a great difference to the flavour. Cheers!
Such a delicious kadi pakoda. besides your post (which is an eyeopener to me ) next time you are donating props let me know. I will rush to Mumbai come rain or sunshine. The pot is amazing and the kadi will be delicious I just know it . BTW love the tadka.
I cracked up big time on the donation of props line ha ha .. The kadhi pot is a mud pot I picked in Kerala from a highway. I could not get much as we were travelling back by air so baggage issues, else would have raided the entire place considering how low the cost was. Thank you dear so much and I wish I could treat you to some of this.
Hope you have settled well in your new abode. I dread shifting everytime.Well Kadhi Pakora looks so inviting .Especially the tadka and i am in love with the bowl too.Fab share.
Thanks a ton Preethi and yes, settling in progress. Its been a month now.
Kadhi pakoda is one of the most loved Indian dish. This recipe with no fry pakoras is surely a big hit ! Re-blogging it.
Thank you so much for the kind words.
Kadhi...looks absolutely yumm and inviting with no-fry pakoras!! Had it on this weekend only, again carving for this delicious bowl of comfort with rice!!
Kadhi is my favourite too Swati, especially in winters. I might make some this weekend too now.