Dahi Tadka: Quick & Easy Comfort Food


It’s that time of year again – the kid’s are back-to-school & enrolled in fall activities, my work is getting super busy with year end stuff, and we are about to head into the festival season full force. In the midst of all this, I still have to feed the kids and myself, and maybe the hubby if there are leftovers. (I kid, there are never leftovers at our place ;))

Whenever we are time starved the first thing to start slipping is home made meals. School lunches are never the problem for us, it’s dinner and lunch for the office that are the hardest to keep up with. This is why having some staples in the pantry and fridge, and a few go-to 15 minute recipes are a must for moms and dads. A few of our must-haves are – frozen paranthas or rotis, rice, and dahi (Indian style yogurt). These three things have saved us time and time again.

dahi tadka recipe, pink chai(Scroll down to see the step-by-step recipe for this quick and easy ‘kadhi hack’)

I used to be a stickler for homemade roti and dahi, but lately I’ve really come around to healthy store-bought alternatives recently. Earlier this year we had a chance to try Hans Dairy Dahi, and we were instantly hooked. It totally tastes homemade with a little bit of ‘khatai’ (a really good type of tart) that you don’t usually get in store bought dahi, and it’s 100% natural. It’s a favourite with the kids when paired with jeera rice or paranthas, but they love it in a quick dahi tadka too. 

If you aren’t familiar with dahi tadka, it’s the busy weeknight version of kadhi. Rather than giving the chickpea flour and dahi dish time to really boil and become thick, this version takes about 15 minutes and is a bit thinner. We love whipping up a quick dahi tadka on busy weeknights, and I’ll batch up so I have something for lunch the next day. 

I’m sharing the recipe below, but I really want to stress the importance of choosing a good quality dahi for this, because it is the star of the show. The reason I love Hans dahi beyond the texture and taste is that fact that all of their products are free of any artificial sugars, flavourings, colourings, and preservatives … go ahead, grab a second helping!

[wc_box color=”secondary” text_align=”left” margin_top=”” margin_bottom=”” class=””]

DAHI TADKA RECIPE

[/wc_box]

dahi tadka recipe

Ingredients:

4 cups of dahi / yogurt
2 tablespoons besan /chickpea flour
1 tablespoon ghee or oil for tempering
1 small red onion chopped
1 tablespoon chopped ginger
1 tablespoon chopped garlic
bunch of chopped cilantro for garnish
1/2 tablespoon cumin seeds
1/2 teaspoon red chili powder*
1 teaspoon cumin powder
1 teaspoon turmeric powder
salt to taste

*this is a dish that does quite well with spice and you could easily add more red chilli powder if your kids are into it. I do about 2 teaspoons in my dish, and sometimes garnish with chopped green chillis.

Directions (see slideshow for step-by-step photos):

1. Heat ghee or oil in the pan. Toast cumin seeds (30 seconds), add onions and lightly fry.

2. Add ginger, garlic, and tomatoes while onions are still crunchy. You don’t want to cook this tadka (tempering) as much a regular sabzi, just lightly. It’s meant to have some bite when the dish is ready.

3. Add salt and red chilli.

4. To the dahi (yogurt) add chickpea flour, turmeric, and cumin powder – whisk together until smooth.

5. Turn the heat down to low and add the dahi mixture to the tempering. Keep stirring to prevent the dahi from splitting.

6. Slowly raise the heat and bring the yogurt mixture up to a boil. After one boil, take it off the stove.

7. Garnish with fresh cilantro and enjoy!

dahi tadka recipe

Now that you’ve nailed this quick and delicious fall dinner, the awesome folks at Hans Dairy are giving you the chance to win a $500 back-to-school shopping spree! If your kids are anything like mine they are probably already outgrowing their ‘new school shoes’, so we both know you need this win.

Hans Dairy Back to School Giveaway

**********************************************

Disclosure: I’ve partnered with YMC and HAns Dairy and have received compensation for this post. All opinions in the post are my own.

As always, thank you for supporting the brands that support Pink Chai. Cool sidebar on Hans Dairy, they are a family run business owned by two sisters (yay for #bossbabes!) Show them some love on Instagram.

Share:

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.