Madras Special Vadai Curry & Set Dosa!

Ten years back my Dad made vadai curry at our home. That was the first time I tasted it.
And after that this is the second attempt in our home and I’m eating this for the second time!
Yeah we have forgotten this awesome dish for quite a long time..I have to thank my friend Shravan who reminded me of vadai curry..He being a Chennaite, has so much affinity for this particular dish. And he insisted me to give this a try. So finally I tried it and it became a massive hit in our home! I promised my folks that it would be a frequenter in our home..
This dish is particularly very popular in Chennai….Typically vadai curry is served with 2 or 3(in Sets) spongy dosas or idlis.The basic idea of Vadai curry is to use the left over masala vadais (lentil fritters)..But today I exclusively prepared the masala vadais for making this curry. We always have a good stock of dosa/idli batter in fridge, as most of the tamilians do..So we had the vadai curry with thick,spongy ‘kal dosas ‘..It harmonized to a hearty dinner!




Part 1: For making Vadai

You will need:

1/2 cup Bengal gram and 1/4 cup Tuar dal soaked in water for 2 hours
6 dried red chillies
1/2 tablespoon saunf / fennel seeds
10 curry leaves
1/2 cup small onions
Oil for frying
Salt to taste



Part 2: For making curry

You will need:
3 onions
4 tomatoes
6 cloves of garlic
1 tspoon of ginger-garlic paste
few sprigs of coriander for garnishing
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
Salt to taste
Ground the following:
1/4 cup grated coconut
5 green chillies
1 tablespoon poppy seeds
3 cloves
1 cinnamon stick



Coarsely ground soaked lentils of the Part 1 ingredients.Finely ground the chillies,fennel seeds and curry leaves and mix with the lentils.Add salt and finely chopped onion and combine.



Make patties/vadais and deep fry them in oil until golden brown..You can also steam the vadai/patties in idli moulds..



Drain the excess oil in a tissue paper..


Cut/break the vadais into equal sized chunks..


In a deep frying pan,heat 1 tablespoon oil and saute the onion,garlic and ginger-garlic paste for a min..


Add the grounded paste of Part 2 ,tomatoes,salt and turmeric powder and cook for few mins..


Add 1 cup of water and bring to boil..


Add the vadai chunks into the curry and cook till the gravy thickens ..Turn of the heat and garnish with chopped coriander..


For making spongy dosa, make a thick circle of dosa batter in a hot griddle and drizzle some oil.Cover with a lid and cook till you see spots as you see in the picture above.Then flip the dosa upside down and drizzle few drops of oil .Cook for a min and transfer to a serving plate.


Spicy vadai curry is perfect with spongy dosa..Just try it,you will feel it.Words barely can explain what a joy it is to savour this for a weekend!

Have a great Sunday !

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