Thayir Vadai or Dahi Vada is a popular South Indian style tiffin recipe prepared by soaking crispy lentil vadai or vada in a spicy yogurt mix.
Thayir Vadai or Dahi Vada
If it was sambar vadai yesterday, obviously it has to be thayir vadai today. :-) Yet another popular South Indian tiffin recipe – prepared by soaking the crispy lentil vadai or vada in spicy yogurt mix. Unlike sambar vadai, this is super simple to prepare. Once you have the vadai ready, this can be whipped up in less than 30 minutes.
As I already posted my Dahi Bonda recipe with chutneys, today I am presenting the traditional south Indian style thayir vadai. For thayir vadai, we usually don’t add onions. So as I mentioned yesterday, I divide the batter into two and for the thayir vadai, I add chopped ginger and few broken curry leaves and fry them in usual way. Peppercorns can be added too, but I usually skip them.
The yogurt mix is also easy to prepare. All you need to do is beat the yogurt, add the tempering, salt, and sugar. That’s it.
I don’t add green chilies in my tempering and also I add sugar so that I can serve vaandu too. I do sprinkle paprika generously on our plates.
Thayir Vadai or Dahi Vada Recipe
Ingredients:
- Vadai prepared as mentioned below – 6 to 8 or as required
- Yogurt – 1.5 cups (I used greek yogurt) + ½ cup of water
- Paprika to drizzle on top of the vadas – as required
- Boondhi – about 1 tbsp for each plate
- Salt – ½ tsp
- Sugar – ½ tsp (optional)
- Oil – 2 tsps
- Mustard Seeds – 2 tsps
- Hing – 1 tsp
- Curry leaves – 5 to 6 leaves
- Chopped Cilantro – to garnish
- Hot water – 2 cups
Steps:
Preparing Vadas for Thayir Vadai:
For thayir vadai, we usually don’t add onions. I soaked 1 cup of urad dal and ground it along with 2 chilies and divided the batter into two portions. To one, I added onion and used it for sambar vadai and to the other, I added 1 tbsp of chopped ginger and a few curry leaves broken into small pieces. I mixed them well and prepared the vadas in a regular way. You can find the detailed vadai recipe in this post.
Preparing the yogurt mix:
- Beat the yogurt along with ½ cup of water. I beat the yogurt in my blender. You need a semi-thick yogurt mix.
- Now add the sugar and salt and mix well.
- Heat a tadka pan and add oil.
- Once the oil is hot, add the mustard seeds and hing.
- As they start to splutter add the curry leaves. (I broke into small pieces)
- Add this tempering to the yogurt and mix well.
Assembling Thayir Vadai:
- Add the hot water to the prepared vadas and soak them nicely for about 15 minutes.
- Now take these vadas to the serving plate and add the prepared yogurt mix to each plate. Make sure the vadas are soaked nicely.
- Now drizzle the boondi and paprika.
- Garnish with chopped cilantro and serve.
That’s it. Yummy thayir vadai is ready.
Notes:
- Sugar is optional in thayir vadai.
- The water that you pour on the vadai should be piping hot so that the vada soaks well.
- Green chilies can be added to the tempering.
- Adjust the salt as per your preference.
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📖 Recipe
Thayir Vadai | Dahi Vada
Ingredients
- 8 Vadai prepared as mentioned below or as required
- 1.5 cups Yogurt I used greek yogurt + ½ cup of water
- 1 tbsp Paprika to drizzle on top of the vadas as required
- 1 tbsp Boondhi approximately, for each plate
- ½ tsp Salt
- ½ tsp Sugar optional
- 2 tsps Oil
- 2 tsps Mustard Seeds
- 1 tsp Hing
- 5 Curry leaves or as required
- Cilantro chopped to garnish
- 2 cups Hot water
Instructions
Preparing Vadas for Thayir Vadai
- For thayir vadai, we usually don’t add onions. I soaked 1 cup of urad dal and grinded it along with 2 chillies and divided the batter into two portions. To one I added onion and used for sambar vadai and to the other I added 1 tbsp of chopped ginger and few curry leaves broken into small pieces. I mixed them well and prepared the vadas in a regular way. You can find the detailed vadai recipe in this post.
Preparing the yogurt mix
- Beat the yogurt along with ½ cup of water. I beat the yogurt in my blender. You need semi-thick yogurt mix.
- Now add the sugar and salt and mix well.
- Heat a tadka pan and add oil.
- Once the oil is hot, add the mustard seeds and hing.
- As they start to splutter add the curry leaves. (I broke into small pieces)
- Add this tempering to the yogurt and mix well.
Assembling Thayir Vadai
- Add the hot water to the prepared vadas and soak them nicely for about 15 minutes.
- Now take these vadas to the serving plate and add the prepared yogurt mix to each plate. Make sure the vadas are soaked nicely.
- Now drizzle the boondi and paprika.
- Garnish with chopped cilantro and serve.
- That’s it. Yummy thayir vadai is ready.
Notes
- Sugar is optional in thayir vadai.
- The water that you pour on the vadai should be piping hot, so that the vada soaks well.
- Green chillies can be added to the tempering.
- Adjust the salt as per your preference.
Nutrition
I am not a nutritionist. The nutritional information is provided as a courtesy and is an estimate only. It varies depending upon the product types or brands.
Oh Wow! Love the clicks and they are making it even more tempting.
:-) Thanks Sandhya.
Yummy love thayir vada or masur amobodi. Wish I can have some now.
Thanks. :-) I wish I could send some.
Thayir vada looks delicious! Wish I could just grab it off the screen
:-) Thanks Sowmya
South Indian thayir vada looks so tempting.
Thanks Sapana.
What an inviting dish. Love your presentation.
Thanks a lot Pavani. :-)
Dahi Vada looks like the most popular dish for this Carnival! So many of us posted it! I loved your version!!
oh yeah very true. Thanks Smruti.
Yummy looking Thayir vadai, looks gorgeous..
Thanks a lot Nalini.
Wow Vidya, you are on a roll dishing out all these yummy street food one after another. Those are some yummy and tempting dahi vada.
Thanks :-)
I have always loved these yogurt dunked dumplings, specially with that tempering..the clicks are tempting me to pick that bowl.
:-) Thankooooo
Excellent looking dahi vadas. The boondi on top makes it even more appealing.
Thank you so much Harini.
I’m going to pick that big bowl myself….thode se mera kya bnega??
:-) Thanks Ritu.
Read the recipe thrice coz I was drooling over the pics :)) I love thayr Vada and make one version the same way, the other version has a aruchavitta coconut – ginger – chilli masala paste in the curd :) we love both versions, ESP with the boondi on top ! Yummmy
Thanks a lot for the second version kalyani. That does sound super interesting. Sounds like out thengai araicha pachadi. yummy
Another yummy dish..
Thank you…
Thanks :-)
I love this south Indian thayir vadai, which is topped with crispy kara boondi. Looks so yum..
Thanks a lot Gayathri.
We usually don’t add peppercorns to Vada and I don’t like them either. Whenever we eat out, I weed out all the peppercorns. Dahi Vada looks yum and can have it anytime.
yup for the very same reason, I skip them. ;-) Thanks Usha.
Drooling pics!! Lovely presentation. Looking super delicious! ..
Thanks a lot Deepa.
Please adopt me, cant take my eyes from those catchy thayir vadais, lipsmacking here Vidhya.
he he.. sure ;-)
Vada looks very yummy
Thanks Beena.
Looks yum!!
Thanks Anu.
Just what I would love to eat today… yummy…..
:-) Thankoooo