Kadhi Recipe | Punjabi Kadhi Pakora
Kadhi is a tasty food from North India made of crispy onion bites soaked in a flavorful yogurt sauce. It's also called Kadhi Pakora, and it's most delicious when you eat it with plain rice.
Ingredients
For curd slurry
- 1.5 cups sour curd
- 3 cusp water or add as required
- ½ tsp turmeric ground turmeric
- ½ tsp garam masala
- 1 pinch hing (Asafoetida)
- 1 tsp salt adjust as per taste
- 8 tbsp besan (gram flour)
For onion pakora
- 1 cup thinly sliced onions or 2 medium to large onions
- 1 cup besan (gram flour)
- ½ tsp red chilli powder
- ½ tsp garam masala
- ½ tsp ajwain (carrom seeds)
- ¾ tsp salt adjust as per taste
- ¼ cup water or add as requiired
- oil for shallow frying or deep frying
For kadhi
- ⅓ cup chopped onions 1 small to medium onion
- 1 tbsp chopped ginger
- 1 tbsp chopped garlic
- 8 to 10 Methra (fenugreek seeds )
- 2 green chillies chopped
- 2 dry red chillies broken and seeds removed
- 1 tsp jeera (cumin seeds)
- 1 pinch hing (asafoetida)
- 1 sprig curry patta (curry leaves)
- 2 tbsp mustard oil or any neutral oil
Instructions
Making curd slurry
- In a bowl, put the sour yogurt and stir it really well until it's nice and smooth.
- Mix gram flour, red chilli powder, turmeric powder, garam masala powder, and salt into the whisked curd. Give it a good stir to blend everything.
- Now, add 3 cups of water and stir some more. Keep stirring until the mixture becomes smooth without any lumps. If you see any lumps, use a whisk, spatula, or your fingers to break them apart. Put this mixture aside for later.
- If you decide to use a blender, be careful not to blend it for too long. If you do, you'll end up with butter instead of the smooth curd mixture you want.
Making pakora for kadhi
- Put gram flour in a bowl.
- Add carom seeds, red chili powder, garam masala powder, and salt.
- Put in 1 cup of thinly sliced onions.
- Mix everything well and cover it for 30 minutes. During this time, the onions will release their water.
- Depending on how wet it gets, add some water to make a thick batter. I added ¼ cup of water.
- Heat some oil in a pan for frying.
- Once the oil is hot enough, carefully drop spoonfuls of the pakora batter into the oil.
- Cook them until one side is partly done, then flip and cook the other side.
- Fry until the pakoras are crispy and golden.
- Take them out of the oil and let them drain on a paper towel to remove excess oil.
- Fry the pakoras in batches like this. Once they're all done, set them aside.
Making kadhi
- In a different pot or pan, warm up some mustard oil. Be sure to use a big pot with a wide base so that the kadhi doesn't spill over when it boils.
- Put in cumin seeds, fenugreek seeds, and asafoetida. Let the cumin seeds pop and the fenugreek seeds change color. Cook on low heat to avoid burning these spices.
- Add chopped onions and stir-fry for 3 minutes on low to medium-low heat.
- Next, add chopped ginger, chopped garlic, and chopped green chilies. Stir-fry for a minute.
- Now, add curry leaves and dry red chilies (split and with seeds removed). Stir-fry for a minute on low heat.
- After that, pour in the curd mixture. Stir it really well.
- Turn up the heat to medium and bring the kadhi to a boil. Keep stirring occasionally to prevent it from sticking to the bottom. It will take around 14 to 16 minutes for the kadhi to cook.
- Once it's boiling, reduce the heat and simmer for an additional 6 to 7 minutes. The kadhi will thicken. If it gets too thick, you can add some hot water.
Making kadhi pakora
- Put the onion pakora into the kadhi and give it a gentle stir.
- Cover it with a lid and let the onion pakora soak in the mixture for 8 to 10 minutes.
- Lastly, sprinkle some garam masala powder on top.
- You can enjoy the kadhi pakora with steamed rice or cumin rice. You can also eat it with roti or paratha.
Notes
- For the kadhi recipe, you should use full-fat sour curd or sour yogurt made from whole milk. If the curd isn't sour, the kadhi won't have a tangy taste, but it will still be delicious. To make the curd sour, leave it at room temperature for a few hours. Another option is to add ½ to 1 teaspoon of amchur powder (dry mango powder) or a little lemon juice when the dish is ready to give it that sour flavor.
- If you can, try using mustard oil to fry your onion pakoras and make the kadhi. Mustard oil has a strong and sharp taste that adds lots of flavor. But if you don't have mustard oil, you can use a plain oil like sunflower oil instead.
- You can try making pakoras in the oven instead of frying them. Just preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Mix 1 to 2 tablespoons of oil into the batter, but don't make it too runny or too thick. Then, bake the pakoras until they become crispy and turn a nice golden color.
- Don't forget to use curry leaves in your kadhi pakora recipe, because they add a special flavor. But if you don't have any, it's okay to leave them out.
- Use high-quality gram flour, also known as besan. You can also substitute it with chickpea flour if you don't have gram flour.
- You can make the onion pakora ahead of time and keep them ready.
- When making kadhi pakora, it's important to use a big pot with a wide bottom. The kadhi bubbles and might spill over if you cook it in a small pot.
- To make the pakoras softer, you can put more water in the batter. But be careful! If you put the pakoras in the kadhi too early, they'll become too soft and mushy, and some people don't like that. If you want the pakoras to be a bit harder, you can add only a little or no water to the batter.