A Kadhi recipe that is a family heirloom recipe and tastes super delicious. This fabulous Kadhi Pakora is my mother-in-law’s treasured recipe of making the traditional Punjabi Kadhi with onion pakora. Here the crispy onion fritters are dunked in a spiced, savory, tangy yogurt sauce. A recipe she has been making for ages and loved by all of us.
About Kadhi Recipe
The Hindi word “Kadhi” denotes a yogurt sauce that has been slow-cooked for quite some time. The word “pakora” means fritters made from gram flour (besan). In this recipe, the fritters are made with savory, spiced batter made with onions, gram flour and seasonings.
There are many variations of making kadhi in North and Western Indian cuisines. Even though the spices or herbs added are different, but the yogurt sauce is mostly thickened with gram flour (called besan in Hindi).
Gram flour is made from skinned black chickpeas and has a nutty flavor. The curd that is used to make kadhi is sour curd. As a result, this dish has a sour, spiced and creamy taste.
You will find that each state and region have their own ways of making dahi besan kadhi. So we have Maharashtrian Kadhi, Rajasthani Kadhi, Gujarati Kadhi, Sindhi Kadhi and so on.
The Punjabi Kadhi is different from the other regional variations of kadhi. It is thicker and creamier than other variations which have a slightly thinner consistency.
The herbs and spices used in the recipe are also different. The onion pakora offers a lot of texture and balances the creaminess of the yogurt sauce.
I often make Kadhi pakora, but I just could not manage to take step-by-step photos and that is why it took me so long to share this delicious Punjabi kadhi recipe.
We love kadhi, be it with or without pakora. When we serve Punjabi kadhi pakora with steamed rice or jeera rice, we call it kadhi chawal – where chawal is the Hindi word for rice.
You can also have kadhi with roti but we prefer to have it with rice. Kadhi Chawal and Rajma Chawal are a staple and much-loved food in Punjabi homes.
How to make Kadhi Pakora
This is again one of those recipe posts, where there are maximum pictures. Since I am presenting a step-by-step photo guide, I will first begin with making the curd slurry, then making the onion pakora and then finally with the making of the kadhi pakora.
Make Curd Slurry
1. In a bowl take 1.5 cups sour curd or about 375 grams of curd. Whisk it well till smooth.
2. Add 8 tablespoons of gram flour (besan), ½ teaspoon red chilli powder, ½ teaspoon turmeric powder, ½ teaspoon garam masala powder and 1 teaspoon salt to the whisked curd.
3. Stir and mix everything again.
4. Add 3 cups water and stir again.
5. Stir very well to make a smooth mixture without lumps. If there are lumps, then break them with a wired whisk or a spatula or with your fingers. Set the curd slurry aside.
You can use a blender to make this mixture, but make sure you don’t over do it. You will get butter instead of a smooth blended curd.
Make Pakora For Kadhi
1. Take 1 cup gram flour (besan) in a bowl and add the following ingredients:
- ½ teaspoon ajwain (carom seeds)
- ½ teaspoon red chili powder or cayenne pepper
- ½ teaspoon garam masala powder
- ⅔ teaspoon salt or as required
2. Add 1 cup thinly sliced onions. About 2 medium to large onions, sliced, approx 150 grams of onions.
3. Mix everything well and keep aside covered for 30 minutes.
4. This will allow the onions to release their water in the mixture. Depending on the water content in the onions, the mixture will become very moist or just about moist. Here’s a photo of the onions after 30 minutes. Mix again.
4. Then accordingly add water as required to make a thick batter. I added ¼ cup water. You can also skip adding water if the mixture is too moist.
6. Heat oil for deep frying in a pan or kadai. You can use any neutral-flavored oil with a high smoking temperature or mustard oil.
When the oil becomes medium hot, with a spoon drop the pakora batter in the oil.
7. When the pakora are partly cooked, then turn over with a slotted spoon and continue to fry the other side.
8. Fry till the pakora are crisp and golden turning over a couple of times for even cooking.
9. Remove the fried pakora and place them on a kitchen paper towel so that extra oil is absorbed. Fry the pakora in batches this way. When done keep all of them aside.
Make Kadhi Recipe
1. In another pan or kadai, heat 2 tablespoons of mustard oil. Make sure to use a large bottomed pot so that while cooking, the kadhi does not spill.
If you don’t have mustard oil, feel free to use any neutral-flavored oil. But the traditional Punjabi kadhi has mustard oil.
2. Add 1 teaspoon cumin seeds, 8 to 10 fenugreek seeds (methi seeds) and a generous pinch of asafoetida (hing).
Allow the cumin seeds to crackle and the fenugreek seeds to change their color. Fry on a low flame, so that these spices do not get burnt.
3. Add ⅓ cup chopped onions. Stir and saute for 3 minutes on low to medium-low heat.
4. Then add 1 tablespoon chopped ginger, ¾ to 1 tablespoon chopped garlic and 2 green chillies, chopped. Stir and sauté for a minute.
5. Now add 8 to 10 curry leaves, 2 dry red chilies (halved or broken).
6. Stir and sauté for a minute on a low heat.
7. Then add the curd slurry.
8. Stir very well.
9. Increase the flame to medium and bring the kadhi to a boil. Keep on stirring often so that the bottom does not get browned. Time taken to cook kadhi will be around 14 to 16 minutes.
10. After it comes to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer it for a further 6 to 7 minutes. Do stir at times.
The kadhi will thicken as it cooks and simmers. If it becomes too thick, then add some hot water.
11. In the below photo, the kadhi is ready.
Make Kadhi Pakora
12. Now add the onion pakora to the kadhi. Stir gently.
13. Cover with a lid and let the onion pakora be soaked in it for 8 to 10 minutes.
14. Lastly, sprinkle some garam masala powder on the Punjabi Kadhi.
15. Garnish with coriander leaves and serve Punjabi Kadhi Pakora hot with steamed rice or jeera rice, topped with few teaspoonfuls of ghee.
You could also serve with roti or paratha. However, the combination of Kadhi Chawal (kadhi served with steamed rice) is very popular and tastes very good.
Expert Tips
- Curd (yogurt): Use full fat sour curd or sour yogurt made from whole milk. If the curd is not sour, then the kadhi will not be sour, but will still taste good. To make the curd sour, keep the set curd for a few hours at room temperature. Another way is to add ½ to 1 teaspoon amchur powder (dry mango powder) or a bit of lemon juice to the dish once its cooked.
- Fats: Use mustard oil if possible to fry the onion pakora and for tempering. Mustard oil lends a pungent sharp taste and flavor to the kadhi. If you do not have mustard oil, then use a neutral oil like sunflower oil.
- Baking Pakora: You could also bake the pakora instead of deep frying them. Bake in a preheated oven at 180 degrees Celsius until the pakora are crisp and golden. For baking pakora add 1 to 2 tablespoons oil in the batter and do not make the batter very moist but keep it a bit wet.
- Curry leaves: Don’t skip on curry leaves, as you will know that something is missing from the kadhi pakora recipe. But if they are not available to you then omit adding them.
- Besan: Use good quality gram flour (besan). In a pinch you could also use chickpea flour.
- Prep work: The onion pakora can be prepared earlier and set aside.
- Cooking kadhi: Use a large bottomed pot for making the kadhi pakora recipe. The kadhi froths while cooking, thus can overflow and spill if you use a small pot.
- Pakora texture: To make softer pakora, add some more water than mentioned in the recipe below. In this case, add the pakora to the kadhi, just before serving. If added much before serving, then the pakora become too soft and mushy.
Some folks do not like the mushy and soft pakora in the Punjabi kadhi. In this case the pakora can be a little hard. Add little or no water to the batter.
In this recipe I have not made the pakora soft. Just added enough water to make the batter smooth but not runny. Thus you could well add the pakora just after the kadhi is ready. The pakora won’t break when the kadhi is served later.
More Awesome Punjabi Recipes!
Paneer Recipes
Paneer Recipes
Dal (Lentils) & Legumes
Chickpea Recipes
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Kadhi Recipe (Punjabi Kadhi Pakora)
Ingredients
For curd slurry
- 1.5 cups sour curd (full fat) or sour yogurt, 375 grams
- 3 cups water or add as required
- ½ teaspoon red chilli powder or cayenne pepper
- ½ teaspoon turmeric powder (ground turmeric)
- ½ teaspoon Garam Masala
- 1 generous pinch asafoetida (hing)
- 1 to 1.5 teaspoon salt or add as required
- 8 tablespoon gram flour (besan), 40 grams
For onion pakora
- 1 cup thinly sliced onions (tightly packed) or 2 medium to large onions or 150 grams
- 1 cup besan (gram flour)
- ½ teaspoon red chilli powder
- ½ teaspoon Garam Masala
- ½ teaspoon carom seeds (ajwain)
- ⅔ to ¾ teaspoon salt or add as required
- ¼ cup water or add as required
- mustard oil or sunflower oil or any neutral oil – for shallow frying or deep frying
For kadhi
- ⅓ cup chopped onions or 1 small to medium onion
- 1 tablespoon chopped ginger
- ¾ to 1 tablespoon chopped garlic
- 8 to 10 fenugreek seeds (methi seeds)
- 2 green chillies – chopped or 1 teaspoon serrano peppers
- 2 dry red chillies – broken and seeds removed
- 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
- 1 generous pinch asafoetida (hing)
- 8 to 10 curry leaves or 1 sprig curry leaves
- 2 tablespoons mustard oil or sunflower oil or any neutral oil
Instructions
Making curd slurry
- In a bowl take the sour curd and whisk it well till smooth
- Add gram flour, red chilli powder, turmeric powder, garam masala powder and salt to the whisked curd.
- Stir and mix everything again.
- Add 3 cups water and stir again.
- Stir very well to make a smooth mixture without lumps. If there are lumps, then break them with a wired whisk or a spatula or with your fingers. Set the curd slurry aside.
- You can use a blender to make this mixture, but make sure you don’t over do it. You will get butter instead of a smooth blended curd.
Making pakora for kadhi
- Take the gram flour in a bowl and add carom seeds, red chili powder, garam masala powder and salt.
- Add 1 cup thinly sliced onions.
- Mix everything well and set aside covered for 30 minutes.
- This will allow the onions to release their water in the mixture. Depending on the water content in the onions, the mixture will become very moist or just about moist.
- Then accordingly add water as required to make a thick batter. I added ¼ cup water.
- Heat oil for deep frying in a pan or kadai. Let the oil become medium hot. Then with a spoon carefully drop the pakora batter in the oil.
- When the pakora are partly cooked, then turn over and fry the other side.
- Fry till the pakora are crisp and golden.
- Remove the fried pakora and place them on a kitchen paper towel so that extra oil is absorbed. Fry the pakora in batches this way. When done set all of them aside.
Making kadhi
- In another pan or kadai, heat mustard oil. Make sure to use a large bottomed pot so that while boiling, the kadhi does not spill.
- Add the cumin seeds, fenugreek seeds and asafoetida. Allow the cumin seeds to crackle and the fenugreek seeds to change their color. Fry on a low flame, so that these spices do not get burnt.
- Add chopped onions. Stir and sauté for 3 minutes on a low to medium-low heat.
- Then add chopped ginger, chopped garlic and chopped green chillies. Stir and sauté for a minute.
- Now add curry leaves, dry red chilies (halved or broken and seeds removed). Stir and sauté for a minute on a low flame.
- Then add the curd slurry.
- Stir very well.
- Increase the flame to medium and bring the kadhi to a boil. Keep on stirring often so that the bottom does not get browned. Time taken to cook kadhi will be around 14 to 16 minutes.
- After the kadhi has come to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer for more 6 to 7 minutes. The kadhi will thicken.
- If the kadhi becomes too thick, then add some hot water.
Making kadhi pakora
- Now add the onion pakora to the kadhi and stir gently.
- Cover with a lid and let the onion pakora be soaked in it for 8 to 10 minutes.
- Lastly sprinkle some garam masala powder.
- Serve kadhi pakora with steamed rice or cumin rice, topped with few teaspoonfuls of ghee. You could also have kadhi with roti or paratha.
Notes
- Curd (yogurt): For the kadhi recipe, use full fat sour curd or sour yogurt made from whole milk. If the curd is not sour, then the kadhi won’t be sour, but the taste will still be good. To make the curd sour keep the curd at room temperature for few hours. Second alternative is to add ½ to 1 teaspoon amchur powder (dry mango powder) or a bit of lemon juice when the dish is cooked.
- Fats: Use mustard oil if possible for deep frying onion pakora and for the kadhi. Mustard oil gives a pungent sharp taste and flavor. If you do not have mustard oil, then use a neutral oil like sunflower oil.
- Baking Pakora: You could also bake the pakora instead of frying them. Bake them in a preheated oven at 180 degrees celsius until the pakora are crisp and golden. For baking Add 1 to 2 tablespoons oil in the batter and do not make it very moist but keep it a bit wet and not dry.
- Curry leaves: Don’t skip on curry leaves, as you will know that something is missing from the kadhi pakora recipe. However if it is not available then skip adding them.
- Gram flour: Use good quality gram flour (besan). You could also use chickpea flour in place of gram flour.
- Prep work: The onion pakora can be made earlier and set aside.
- Cooking kadhi: Use a large bottomed pot for making the kadhi pakora recipe. The kadhi froths while cooking and can overflow if you use a small pot.
- Pakora texture: To make softer pakora, add some more water in the batter. In this case, add the pakora to the kadhi, just before serving. If added earlier to the kadhi, then the pakora become too soft and mushy. Some folks do not like mushy and soft pakora in the Punjabi kadhi. In this case the pakora can be a little hard – so add little or no water to the batter.
Nutrition Info (Approximate Values)
This Kadhi Recipe post from the blog archives first published in January 2012 has been updated and republished on July 2021.
Amazing recipe …. always turns out delicious !!
thank you shiwani.
Hi dassana,
Thankyou for d recipe. It turned out awesome as usual.
U r always a blessing to people like us.
Thanx once again.
Keep doing the good work.
Welcome Deepa. Thanks for your positive feedback and kind words.
Hi please tellme.. can i use buttermilk instead of curd for making the kadhi.. please reply soon.. i m looking forward to make it today..
yes sana you can use buttermilk.
hi i tried ur kadhi receipe…it came out very well thanku . ..everyone in my home liked it….but one doubt i felt it s little bit sweet ..may be because i prefer more spicy ..can i increase the red chilli powder and green chilli ..? and ur way of writing and explaining things is very good .and step by step procedure is very easy to adapt and time saving …
yes pavithra, you can increase red chilli powder and green chili. punjabi kadhi has a sour taste. if sour curd is used, the taste is very good. with fresh curd, the taste changes and has a bit of sweetness. thanks pavithra.
this is fantastic. It turned out really well. thank you for sharing this.
welcome. glad to know that you liked punjabi kadhi recipe.
8tbsp of besan? I think you meant 8 tsp. 8 tbsp would require much more water. Otherwise it was delicious.
it is 8 tablespoons besan. punjabi kadhi is on the thicker side and so works well with 3 cups water (750ml). plus there will be some whey in the curd too.
It’s perfect I just loved the way it looked and tasted thanku so much for sharing the recipe
Welcome Amina. Thanks for your positive feedback on Punjabi Kadhi.
hello dassana,
this recipe looks really delicious! as a vegan however, i was wondering if you think this recipe would work with cashew curd or coconut curd? i look forward to hearing back from you, thank you!
coconut curd works very well. i remember one vegan friend making kadhis with coconut curd. i have made gravy based dishes with cashew curd, so i guess even cashew curd will work well.
First, I just want to tell you how much I appreciate your recipes and the step by step pictures! My husband is from India and I am good with recipes, so I have been able to learn to cook many Indian dishes from your website. Your kadhi recipe is excellent and my husband says it tastes really authentic. I have a question for you regarding what to do if you have a large group to cook for and you need to double or triple the recipe. Do you then double the spices as well or will that make it too spicy? Also for something that needs to be pressure cooked liked rajma masala or dal, do you double the water and the number of whistles required to pressure cook the beans or dal? I am not sure if you still reply to comments on this site, but if you do I would appreciate your suggestions! Thank you in advance and thank you again for all of the wonderful recipes!
thanks marissa for this lovely feedback. when i need to double or triple any recipe, i use the system of approximation when adding ingredients. its called as ‘andaaz’ in india. basically just feeling and eyeballing the ingredients and then adding it. i do not double the spices or other ingredients. i rely on my feeling and intuition when cooking for crowds. doubling the ingredients works where there is a set proportion of ingredients like sweets or in baked food. but in curries or dals, the balance of the flavors and taste can go awry if ingredients are doubled.
for pressure cooking, there is a proportion that is used. so yes double the amount of water. the number of whistles will increase and so the time will also increase, but these won’t be doubled. just some more whistles and time.
i reply to all comments that we get ????. i hope i have managed to reply to all your queries.
Hello mam I m going to try this…. 8 tbsp besan ,Tablespoon means the spoon with which we eat
sonia, its not that tablespoon. there are specific measurement spoons available and both teaspoon and tablespoon are part of this set. instead just add 1/2 cup of besan. here the cup is also a measuring cup and not the cup in which we have tea or coffee.
Dear Dassana I am in love with all your recipes. I am a great fan of your app and always suggest it to anyone who wants Indian vegetarian recipes. You have made me enjoy and love cooking. Wish you all the best. God bless.
Thanks Leah for your positive feedback and best wishes. Glad to know that you liked the app and the recipes.
When would you add the amchur powder if you needed to sour the curd?
you can add when you add the curd mixture.
I tried this recipe today and it turned out to be the yummiest Kadhi ever. This is the first time I have tried making kadhi and Thanks to you for such easy and yummy recipe ???? Loved it
Welcome Sakshi. Glad to know this. Thanks for sharing your positive feedback.
I have been thinking for a while now to thank u for the well crafted meticuluously pictographic recipes.Having never entered in a kitchen before and a sudden transfer to New York might have been a catastrophe but u are my saviour.I have already earned a lot of accolades and I know many more are underway.All thanks to you????????
thanks ekta for this lovely comment. wish you all the best in a new city. happy cooking.
Hello dassana,
I love your recipes, especially this kadhi recipe and the restaurant style rajma curry are my favourites. I learnt cooking mostly by reading your blogs. Thank you so much for sharing such wonderful recipes.
I would really appreciate and be grateful if you would-
1) share some soya nuggets based recipes
2) share some low calorie recipes for fitness freaks and weight watchers
Looking forward to hearing from you. 🙂
thanks geetha and welcome. i do use soy nuggets as they are over processed and do not have any nutritive value. some years back i had read an article on the way soy nuggets is made in india and the article went into detail as to how they are made. i am not able to trace this article online as many readers have asked me to share soy nugget recipe. in fact any recipe from soy nuggets is one of the most requested recipes that i get.
i will try to add low calorie recipes. i have shared some already. you can check them here at this category of low fat recipe. though the recipes have less fat in them but calories are there ???? – https://www.vegrecipesofindia.com/recipe/low-fat-recipes/
When I googled this recipe,i don’t know why I didnot see you at the too and for a sec I thought that”ok if this recipe is not by Dasanna,then I am not going to cook!”immediately I saw this recipe and now I am heading out to prepare it…Thankyou so much for such amazing recipes.It is a lot of work to maintain all this ..Thankyou for what you are doing and keep up your work.Thankyou once again
thanks a lot raji. thats a sweet comment from you. i hope you liked the punjabi kadhi recipe. thanks again ????