Oats Pakora Kadhi

I wanted to try something new with oats for my Day 3, Blogging Marathon’s “Whole grain dishes” theme. As its so hard for me to just follow a recipe without adding a personal spin to it, I was searching for many oats recipes where I can personalize, and ended up with nothing interesting to make. I wondered if there were recipes for oats pakora kadhi. After seeing there weren’t such a recipe I decided to give it a try. Pakora Kadhi is a Punjabi specialty and my husband’s favorite North Indian gravy. It’s traditionally made with besan(gram flour) and buttermilk. It’s very easy to make and yet very delicious. I made the pakoras not just with besan but also with oats. The oat pakoras were so crunchy and tasty and I deliberately didn’t add salt to the pakora batter for two reasons, one it will absorb less oil, and two it will finally end up in the kadhi. But to my surprise, my daughter didn’t mind the unsalted pakoras and was munching them as I was frying with ketchup and I had to rush making my kadhi so I can take pictures of the kadhi with the pakoras. To make this dish even more healthier, I substituted the regular buttermilk with Kefir. I know many of you must be wondering what is Kefir. It’s cultured yogurt but has about 14g of protein in just 1 cup. I found this in my local whole foods store and have tried substituting kefir for recipes that call for sour buttermilk like rava dosa, rava idli etc. It’s super yummy in these recipes and I’m sure will taste good with other recipes that requires buttermilk. For more information about Kefir and its benefits click here. The oat pakora kadhi was super tasty and liked by my entire family and I personally felt really good converting the regular kadhi in to a very healthy version.

Ingredients :

Besan –1 1/2 cups

Oats — 1/2 cup

Kefir/Sour Butter milk — 4 cups

Potato — 1 small

Cumin seeds (Jeera) — 1 tsp

Fenugreek seeds (Methi seeds) –4 nos

Asafetida (hing) — 1/4 tsp

Water — 2 cups

Whole red chillies –3

Baking soda — 1/8 tsp

Kalonji (nigella seeds) — 1/2 tsp (optional, I didn’t use it)

Onion –1 medium (finely chopped)

Green chillies –2

Ginger — 1/4″ piece

Red chilli powder — 1/2 tsp

Turmeric powder — 1/2 tsp

Mustard seeds — 3/4 tsp

Coriander leaves –finely chopped for garnishing + 2 Tbsp for pakoras

Curry leaves — few (cut in to bits)

Kasoori Methi (dry fenugreek leaves) — crushed for garnishing

Ghee –1 Tbsp

Oil for frying

Salt to taste

Procedure :

1. Wash oats in water and drain the water. Leave the drained oats in a bowl for about 30 minutes. In a bowl, add 1 cup kefir/buttermilk, pinch of chilli powder, pinch of turmeric powder,1/2 of chopped onions, finely chopped potatoes, cumin, coriander leaves, oats, 1/2 cup of besan and mix in to thick paste. (Note: I didn’t need water but if your batter is too thick by all means add very little water to make it a thick paste.)

2. Heat oil for frying. When the oil is hot, with a spoon make pakoras with a tbsp of batter for each pakoras. The pakoras will puff up and start floating on top. Flip once in a while for even frying on both sides. Once they turn golden brown, strain them in a paper towel to remove excess oil.

3. Fry onions in oil till golden brown, transfer in to a bowl and keep aside. Grind green chillies and ginger in to fine paste. In another bowl, add 3 cups of kefir/buttermilk, 2 cups of water, 1 cup of besan and ginger-green chillies paste. Whisk well without any lumps.

4. In a kadai, add a tbsp of ghee add mustard seeds and let it splutter. Add 3 red chillies, Jeera (cumin seeds), fenugreek seeds, asafetida(hing), curry leaves and the buttermilk mixture. Add turmeric powder and whisk well till the besan cooks. Once the mixture froths up and doesn’t bubble in the sides then the mixture is cooked. Add salt and turmeric powder and adjust the consistency with water.

5. Add the pakoras in to the buttermilk mixture. Garnish with coriander leaves and Kasoori methi (dry fenugreek leaves) and before serving sprinkle fried onions on top. Serve hot with rice or roti, I prefer it with rice.

Mix all the ingredients to make pakoras in to a thick paste.

Fry the pakoras in oil. Make the kadi as per steps 3 and 4. Enjoy with roti or rice!!!

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM#14 http://spicingyourlife.blogspot.com/p/blogging-marathon.html”

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