As I posted last in the breakfast menu11, here I am with the vada curry recipe . This is perfect for dosa for me, loved it a lot with soft spongy dosa. Some suggest this for appam, poori or chapati too. I tried with chapati, it was good. Yet to try with poori and appam. I can eat vada curry as such even though its a side dish. It gives so much volume, so its perfect when you have get-togethers or have guest at home. You follow the same recipe and make with left over masala vadais too. Again thanks to Vilasini & Viji for the recipes.
Steamed vada curry recipe
Recipe Cuisine:Indian | Recipe Category:Side dish
Prep Time: 3 hrs soaking time | Cook time: 30 mins | Serves: 6
Prep Time: 3 hrs soaking time | Cook time: 30 mins | Serves: 6
Ingredients
| Channa dal | 1/2 cup |
| Red chilli | 4 |
| Fennel / Spambu/ Saunf | 1 tsp |
| Onion | 2 |
| Tomato | 3 |
| Ginger garlic paste | 1 tsp |
| Red chilli powder | 1 & 1/2 tsp |
| Coriander seeds powder | 1 tsp |
| Turmeric | 1/8 tsp |
| Salt | as needed |
| Mint leaves | 10 |
| Coriander leaves, chopped | 2 tblsp |
| Curry leaves | 1 sprig |
To temper
| Oil | 2 tblsp |
| Cinnamin | 1 inch piece |
| Cardamom | 1 |
| Cloves | 1 |
| Bay leaf | 1 |
| Jeera/ cumin seeds (optional) | 1 tsp |
Method
- Soak channa dal for 3 hrs. First grind chilli, fennel and salt.
- Then add the drained channa and grind coarsely. Do in batches to ensure even grinding. Do not grind smoothly.
- Grease idli plates and fill the moulds with the ground mixture, make a dent at the middle to ensure easy cooking. Steam cook for 8 minutes.
- Once cooled, break it roughly. I forgot to add curry leaves before steaming, so added after breaking. Heat a pan with oil and temper with the items given under ‘To temper’ table in order.
- Add finely chopped onion and fry till transparent. Add ginger garlic paste and fry for a minute in medium flame. Add finely chopped tomatoes and all the powders – red chilli powder, dhaniya powder (coriander powder) and turmeric powder. Add required salt for the gravy.
- Fry for a minute or until the masala blends and becomes mushy. Add 3 cups water.
![6-masala-cook]()
- Bring to boil and add the crumbled dal and simmer for 10 minutes.
- Once the oil floats on top and the gravy becomes thicker, garnish with chopped coriander and mint leaves.
Notes
- Add enough water as it requires lots of water.
- Min leaves adds very nice flavor to the gravy.
- If using masala vada, use 8 vadais.
- You can add 2 slit green chillies if you want extra hot gravy.
Serve hot with hot set dosa - the dosa you see below is nothing but soft thick dosas, made from idli dosa batter.
