Thayir Vadai (Curd Vadai)

My 59th recipe, “Thayir Vadai (Curd Vadai)”, a cool South Indian appetizer. There are 2 things that I repeatedly order when I visit a restaurant in Chennai. One is the lovely Paneer butter masala for main coarse and the second one is this cool, tangy and delicious Thayir vadai for appetizer. My favorite appetizer, whenever I visit Saravana Bhavan / Balaji Bhavan.

After moving to US, I saw thayir vadai being served in the buffet menu of one of the Indian restaurants here. Just that sight made me super excited. However, that excitement did not last for long. It was one of the worst foods I had ever tasted. The curd was extremely sour and the vadai was tasting very old, maybe from the last century 🙂 Ever since the bad experience, I wanted to prepare thayir vadai at home.

So this time when I was grinding my weekly Idli/Dosa batter, I made sure that I ground some batter to prepare vadai. It is very simple to make and yet it tasted so divine. So, starting from now, I am going to make this every week, until I get bored, probably it might never happen 😉

Thayir Vadai (Curd Vadai)

Thayir (Curd) Vadai

Revathi Palani

Thayir Vadai is a delicious, cool and famous South Indian appetizer. Made using homemade yogurt and medhu vadai, perfect as a evening snack too.

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Prep Time 15 mins

Cook Time 10 mins

Total Time 25 mins

Course Appetizer

Cuisine Indian

Ingredients

  

• 1 Cup Whole Urad Dal (Skinless)
• 1 Tbsp Raw rice
• 1 tsp Asafoetida
• 1 tsp Salt
• 4 Cups Butter milk (thin)
• 2 Cups Curd | Yogurt
• 1 tsp Oil + For frying
• ½ tsp Mustard
• ½ tsp Jeera
• 3 small Green Chilli (finely chopped)
• 4 Curry leaves (finely chopped)

For garnish

• 1 Cup Kara Boondi
• 2 Tbsp Coriander leaves (finely chopped)
• 2 Tbsp Carrots (finely grated)
• ½ tsp Red Chilli Powder

Instructions

 

• First wash the urad dal and rice and soak in water for a minimum of 2 hours. Then drain them from water and grind them into fluffy batter. Transfer the batter into a clean mixing bowl. Refer to my Medhu Vadai recipe.
  
   
  
   
• To the batter, add ¾ tsp salt and ¾ tsp asafoetida and mix nicely. Heat a pan with oil for frying and fry the vadai and drain them on a paper towel. Refer to my video on "How to make Thayir Vadai"
  
   
• After draining the excess oil from the vadai, drop them into the buttermilk. Leave it to soak in the buttermilk for about 2 hrs. Use a wide bowl, since the vadai will increase in size after soaking.
  
   
  
   
• Take the curd in a mixing bowl and beat it nicely with the remaining salt.
  
  
• Heat a separate pan with 1 tsp oil, add the mustard. Once it splutters, add the jeera, remaining asafoetida, green chillis and curry leaves. Once jeera turns golden brown, turn off the flame and add it to the beaten curd. Mix well.
  
   
  
   
• Finally, before serving the thayir vadai, remove the vadai from the butter milk. Slightly squeeze to remove excess liquid and place it in a bowl. Add the curd mixture on top of the vadai. Garnish with crispy, crunchy kara boondi, grated carrot, coriander leaves, red chilli powder.
  
   
  
   
  
   
• Serve chilled.
  
  

Notes | FAQ

- Refer to my Medhu Vadai recipe for tips and tricks for grinding batter and preparing vadai.

- If you do not have time to soak the vadai in buttermilk, you can instead immerse the vadai in hot water for a couple of seconds. Squeeze out the excess water and follow the remaining steps.

- The buttermilk should be thin, so that the vadai will soak nicely.

Submitted this recipe to the event Come, join us for Breakfast, hosted by Cooking4AllSeasons.