I have grown up eating kadhi chawal, rajmah chawal, cholle chawal since childhood. Still remember my mom cooking for us one of the rice dishes every Sunday, Punjabis are largely wheat eaters and rice is not prepared as part of their daily meals though I am an exception and so are my kids, I am a total rice eater and can live on rice forever. I can eat rice with anything. Just give me boiled rice and I can play with it and convert them into nice yummy meal in itself! Mainly rice is only cooked in our families on special occasions. Kadhi chawal is one of my favourite meals though my kids prefer Rajmah Rice more than anything if given an option.
Ingredients:
- Sour curd - 1kg
- Gram flour- 1 cup
- Water -1 litre
- Onions-2 chopped
- Garlic Ginger paste - 1 tablespoon
- Pinch of hing
- Salt - 2 tsp.
- Garam Masala ÔÇô 1 teaspoon
- Cooking oil- 3 tablespoons
For Tadka (tempering) ÔÇô
- Mustard (Rai) -1 teaspoon
- Fenugreek (Methi)-1/2 teaspoon
- Cumin seed (Jeera)- 1/2 teaspoon
- Dry red chillies
- 6-7 curry leaves
Pakoras (Dumplings) -
- Gram flour - 250 grams
- Sliced onions, green chillies
- fenugreek or spinach chopped
- salt -1 teaspoon
- red chilli powder -1/2 teaspoon
-  oil to fry
Method
Heat oil in a pan. Add mustard, fenugreek and cumin seeds. Add paste of
garlic and ginger. Add dry red chillies to it. Fry the paste till it gets brown.Keep aside.
For pakoras - Make batter with gram flour, add water, salt and spices. Beat well till it is light and fluffy. Add onion, chopped chillies and fenugreek or spinach leaves. Heat oil in a Kadai. Make pakoras.
In a mixer add curd, add gram flour and hing, water and blend it well , ensure no lumps in it. Add this to the fried ginger garlic paste mixture you prepared and kept aside. Add salt and spices to it. Bring it to a boil on low flame, cook for at least 35- 40 minutes, stir frequently in between, many a times on boiling the mixture tends to overflow from the vessel so please keep a watch on it too. You will see the mixture getting little thick or till it coats the back of the ladle,(in panjabi kadhana means cooking on low flame for a real long time, and kadhi also needs the same..cooking on slow flame for long) , now add the pakoras and curry leaves. Cover and keep it aside.
Kadhi goes well with boiled rice and also along with tandoori rotis with dollops of desi ghee on the tandoori roti.
Enjoy!!
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
first time to your blog… and you have a nice space here.
this recipe reminds me that soon i have to make kadhi chawal…. one of my favorite recipes…
Thank you for visiting my site too. You have a beautiful blog, mine is just an infant trying my best to learn, experiment and share.. I am still at a learning stage as a food blogger ..will follow you via facebook!
Looks yummy.. But doesnt adding curry leaves give it a more South Indian flavor..? I thought Kadhi Chawal is a punjabi dish..!. Just curious..
Use of Curry leaves is purely by choice, I have been adding curry leaves most of the time only with an exception when I donÔÇÖt have them in my kitchen & in many Punjabi kadhi recipes it is used. You can omit this if you donÔÇÖt want curry leaves and can simply add coriander leaves a little for garnishing. Even if you add curry leaves in your kadhi it wont give a typical south indian flavour becasue besan and curd are dominating the recipe and topped by the pakodas :).
In India different states have different forms of Kadhi recipe; South Indian Kadhi does not include Pakodas and turmeric. Also it is cooked real fast, and then we also have the famous Sindhi Kadhi where all the vegetables are used so beautifully to complement each other in taste, colour and texture. Whereas Punjabi Kadhi is cooked on low flame and is with pakoras (you can experiment in making pakodas too, I at times make spinach pakodas and add to my kadhi).
Kadhi chawal has been my favourite comfort food! My mom usually makes a very minimalist type of kadhi, and I like it because of that… my mom-in-law on the other hand follows a very involved recipe and I like that too
Have been looking for different type of Kadhi recipes! Adding your Panjabi Kadhi recipe to my list of ‘to try’ 
Thanks for sharing!
Same here Ashima, me too love eating kadhi chawal. Glad you liked it, do try it out and share with me. Kadhi recipe can be really innovated with various ingredients and can be adjusted to personal taste! It can be made as a comfort food on one hand and a really spicy tangy rich dish on the other hand!