This is not exactly a Holi recipe but will happily star in a  spicy, authentic menu on the festival day and will win many palates with its mouth-watering, flavourful goodness.

The world is abundant with different types of  Kadhis. There’s Punjabi Kadhi, there’s Gujarati Kadhi, Sindi Kadhi, even Rajasthani Kadhi. There are different names too, such as Dahi Kadhi, Vrat Ki Kadhi and more. However, this particular kadhi is my own concoction. How is it different and why should you make these Kadhi Pakoras?

Because it’s summer and often, you want to eat something that’s tasty but not too heavy…and you want to use ingredients that can help you beat the heat without compromising too much on taste. This kadhi pakora has limited usage of garam masala uses nice cooling things like cumin seeds and powder, coriander powder, a good amount of yogurt or dahi too.

Name: Kadhi Pakora

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cooking Time: 5 minutes for the yogurt mix, 10 minutes for pakoras, 10 minutes for the final kadhi
Recipe Source: Me
Serves: 2

You need:

For yogurt mix:
1/2 cup yogurt / dahi, nicely whisked smooth
2-3 tbsp besan / gram flour / garbanzo flour
1 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp red chilli powder
Water
Salt

(Blend in all this together and keep aside – make sure the besan is nicely blended and leaves back no lumps – using a balloon whisk for beating helps. I used about 2 cups of water – it thins out a lot but that is okay because once you boil it, the whole thing will thicken.)

For pakoras:
6-7 tbsp besan / gram flour / garbanzo flour
1 tsp dhania / coriander powder
1 tsp jeera / cumin powder
1 tsp turmeric powder
1/2 tsp jeera seeds
1 tsp ajwain / carom seeds
1 green chilli chopped fine
1 medium sized onion chopped fine
Salt
(Some people add baking soda but that’s skippable entirely)

(Mix all these well with a dash of water – the batter should be dropping consistency when you use a spoon – if you add too much water, the batter risks jumping out when dropped in hot oil so be careful. Make sure no dry pockets of besan remain.)

1 onion sliced
1 tbsp ginger garlic paste
1 tsp jeera / cumin seeds
1/4tsp methi / fenugreek seeds
1 green chilli chopped fine
1/2 tsp garam masala powder
1/2 tsp red chilli powder
Coriander leaves chopped

Salt
Oil

– Here’s how your yogurt mix looks.
– Here’s how your pakora mix looks.

Deep fry the pakoras. I have never understood people who shallow fry pakoras because shallow frying a pakora leaves the thing uncooked inside and you then get a tummy ache. Also, the pakora, in a vain attempt to cook itself, pulls in all the oil it can reach so technically, its absorbing more oil during shallow frying than it is absorbing during deep frying. Deep frying oil is hotter and cooks faster and makes sure the pakora doesn’t eat up oil to get cooked. You know, our ancestors had brains – ask yourself sensible questions before trying to go healthy according to popular misconceptions you may have gathered over the years.

Here’s how my pakoras looked. They are small, each is the result of a dessert-spoonful of batter. So they are not going to be heavy because they are bite sized. I made ten.
– Now heat some oil in kadhai. Add jeera seeds, methi seeds, ginger garlic paste, green chillies and onion. Saute well.
– Now pour in your yogurt mix. Smell that divine aroma.
– Now drop the pakoras in. Add a tiny dash of garam masala. Mix. Cover and cook for another 3-4 minutes.
Serve hot, garnished with coriander leaves and a sprinkle of red chilli powder.  Eat it with rice. Look at all the colours. Happy Holi!
Reema Prasanna is a personal and corporate baking coach from Mumbai, blogs about her experiments in the kitchen, records recipes from India, and in another parallel dimension, she is also a Search Engine Marketing Professional, fiction writer and maniacal utensil & kitchen tool collector.