Dahi Bhalla Recipe (Dahi Bhalle)
Dahi Bhalla, also known as Dahi Bhalle, is a popular North Indian chaat made with soft lentil fritters served in chilled yogurt and topped with classic chaat ingredients. The fritters are soaked in water, gently squeezed and then layered with thick curd, sweet tamarind chutney, green chutney and spice powders. What makes this dish special is the addition of papdi, boiled potato cubes and cooked chickpeas, which give it more texture and flavor. With its mix of sweet, tangy and mildly spicy tastes, Dahi Bhalla is often served during festivals, parties and festive gatherings.
About Dahi Bhalla Recipe
Dahi Bhalla is a classic North Indian chaat dish where soft lentil fritters are soaked in water, squeezed gently and then served with thick yogurt, chutneys and spices. The fritters are made from a batter of urad dal and moong dal, which gives them a light and soft texture.
Unlike the simpler Dahi Vada, this chaat-style dish also includes Papdi (crispy chaat puris), boiled potato cubes and cooked chickpeas along with yogurt and chutneys. These additions give Dahi Bhalla a fuller chaat-style presentation with a mix of soft, creamy and crunchy textures.
I usually make this recipe during festive occasions like Holi or Diwali, or when we have guests at home. The recipe yields about 20 to 22 servings if each person is served two bhallas, though you can easily halve the quantities.
For the best taste, I use thick homemade curd and prepare the fritters with a mixture of urad dal and moong dal. This is also a no-onion, no-garlic version, including the green chutney.
Since this dish takes some time to assemble, it helps to plan ahead. The chutneys and chickpeas can be prepared a day earlier, and the fritters can also be made in advance, soaked, squeezed and refrigerated. The dish is usually served chilled as a snack, starter or alongside a North Indian meal.
More Tasty Snacks With Curd
How to make Dahi Bhalla (Stepwise)
Make Batter
1. Rinse ½ cup urad dal and 4 tablespoons moong dal in water a couple of times. Then, soak both the lentils overnight or for at least 4 to 5 hours.
2. Drain them very well.
3. Add the lentils to a grinder jar along with ½ teaspoon cumin seeds and a generous pinch of asafoetida (hing). You can also add 1 teaspoon roughly chopped ginger, if you want.
4. Add water in parts and grind all the ingredients to a smooth fluffy batter. On touching the batter, it should not feel grainy. I added 6 to 7 tablespoons water.
Depending on the quality of lentils and the capacity-volume of grinder, you can add less or more water. Don’t add too much water as then the bhallas become too crispy and soak a lot of oil.
5. Take the batter in a bowl.
6. Add salt.
7. Stir the batter briskly for a couple of minutes. This brisk stirring makes the batter more light and fluffy.
8. The test to a correct consistency of this batter is the floating test. Take some water in a small bowl. Add 1 teaspoon batter in the water.
The batter should float. If it does not float, the consistency is thin. Add some sooji or rice flour to the batter to thicken it.
Fry Bhalla
9. Heat a kadai or pan with oil for deep frying.
10. When the oil becomes medium hot, add a small amount of batter in the oil. It should come steadily and quickly on the surface.
This means it is the right temperature to fry. Too cold oil will make the bhalla soggy and too high will brown them faster from outside, leaving the center uncooked.
11. Add spoonfuls of the batter in the oil.
12. Add according to the capacity of the pan or kadai.
13. When bhallas are pale golden, turn them.
14. Fry the bhallas till golden and crisp. Turn a couple of times for even frying. Remove with a slotted spoon.
15. Drain on kitchen paper towels. Fry all the bhallas in the same way.
Soak In Water
16. Once all the bhallas are fried, take 2.5 cups water in a wide bowl or pan. Add the bhallas to the water.
17. Soak them for 20 to 25 minutes.
18. Take each bhalla, flatten and press between your palms to remove excess water.
19. Do this with all the bhallas.
Make Dahi Bhalla
20. Take 2 cups fresh chilled curd in a bowl.
21. Beat the curd till smooth.
22. Now, gently place the bhallas in the curd.
23. Gently mix if you have used medium sized bowl, like how I have used. Now you can keep the bhallas with the curd in the refrigerator and assemble when you want to serve. Or use them right away as the curd is chilled.
24. Gather all the other ingredients – boiled potato cubes, boiled white chickpeas, green chutney, tamarind chutney, fresh pomegranate arils and the spice powders.
Assemble
25. To make individual portions of Dahi Bhalla, place 4 to 5 papdis on a plate.
26. Place 2 to 3 Dahi Bhalla on the plate. Add more curd, if required.
27. Top with some boiled potatoes and chickpeas.
28. Now, add the green chutney and tamarind chutney.
29. Sprinkle red chili powder, roasted cumin powder, chaat masala powder, black salt as per taste and fresh pomegranate arils.
30. Serve Dahi Bhalla immediately. You can garnish it with some chopped coriander leaves or fine sev.
My Recipe Tips
- While making the batter for bhalle, you can also add 1 teaspoon roughly chopped ginger in it for an earthy taste.
- The quantity of water that needs to be added to grind the batter depends on the quality of lentils and the capacity or volume of the grinder. But make sure that you don’t add too much water as then the bhalle become too crispy and soak a lot of oil.
- Once the batter is ground, stir it briskly for some time as this will make the batter lighter and fluffier.
- Check the correct consistency of the batter with the floating test: add a teaspoon of batter in a small bowl of water. If it floats, it is perfect. It if doesn’t, it means the consistency is thin. To rectify this, add some sooji/rava or rice flour to the batter to thicken it.
- The oil for frying the bhalle should be at the right temperature. If it is too cold, bhalle will be soggy and if it is too hot, then the bhalle will brown faster from the outside and the center will be left uncooked.
- Use fresh curd for best results. To veganize this dish, use cashew curd. Also, keeping the bhalle dunked in curd for a longer time (atleast for 2 hours) makes the dish taste better.
- For toppings, you can use chopped coriander leaves, fine sev and finely chopped onions.
Step by Step Photo Guide Above
Dahi Bhalla Recipe (Dahi Bhalle)
Ingredients
For bhalla
- ½ cup or (125 grams) urad dal
- 4 tablespoons moong dal
- 1.25 to 1.5 cups water – for soaking the lentils
- 6 to 7 tablespoons water – for grinding lentils or add as required
- ½ teaspoon cumin seeds
- 1 pinch asafoetida (hing)
- salt as required
- oil as required for frying
Other ingredients
- 2 cups curd (ogurt) or curd made from 500 ml milk
- ⅓ cup pomegranate arils
- ⅓ cup Tamarind Chutney
- ⅓ cup Green Chutney
- 20 to 25 Papdi
- ½ cup cooked white chickpeas or ¼ cup raw chickpeas – pressure cooked until softened
- 1 potato – large-sized, boiled, peeled and chopped
- chaat masala as required
- roasted cumin powder – as required
- red chili powder – as required
- black salt as required
- 2.5 cups water – for soaking bhalle
For green chutney
- 1 cup coriander leaves (cilantro)
- 1 or 2 green chilies
- 1 inch ginger – chopped
- ½ teaspoon lemon or lime juice
- salt as required
- 1 to 2 teaspoons water – for grinding
For tamarind chutney
- ½ cup tamarind – seedless & tightly packed
- 1.75 cups water
- ½ teaspoon ginger powder (saunth)
- 1 pinch asafoetida (hing)
- ½ teaspoon cumin seeds
- ¼ teaspoon red chili powder
- 7 to 8 tablespoons jaggery or as required – adjust as per your taste
- salt as required
- 1 teaspoon oil
Instructions
Making sweet chutney
- Soak tamarind in water overnight or for 4-5 hours in a small bowl or pan.
- With your hands, squeeze the pulp from the tamarind in the same bowl or pan.
- Strain the pulp and keep aside.
- Heat oil in a small pan. lower the flame & add cumin seeds and let them crackle.
- Add ginger powder, red chili powder, asafoetida. Stir and add the strained tamarind pulp. cook for 2 to 3 minutes.
- Add the jaggery and salt and cook for 4 to 5 minutes more. the mixture would thicken.
- Let the saunth chutney mixture cool.
- When cooled, store the saunth chutney in an air-tight dry jar or container.
Making green chutney
- Grind all the ingredients mentioned under the green chutney list with little water.
- Remove and keep aside in a small bowl.
Making batter
- Rinse the urad dal and yellow moong dal in water a couple of times. Then soak both the lentils overnight or for at least 4 to 5 hours.
- Drain them very well. Add the lentils to a grinder jar along with ½ teaspoon of cumin seeds and a generous pinch of asafoetida. You can also add 1 teaspoon of roughly chopped ginger if you want.
- Add water in parts and grind all the ingredients to a smooth fluffy batter. On touching the batter, it should not feel grainy. I added 6 to 7 tablespoons of water.Depending on the quality of lentils and the capacity-volume of grinder, you can add less or more water. Don't add too much water as then the fritters become too crispy and soak a lot of oil.
- Take the ground batter in a bowl and add salt.
- Stir the batter briskly for a couple of minutes. This brisk stirring makes the batter more light and fluffy.
- The test to a correct consistency of this batter is the floating test. Take some water in a small bowl. Add 1 tsp of a batter in the water. The batter should float. If it does not float, this means the consistency is thin. Add some sooji or rice flour to the batter to thicken it.
Frying bhalla and soaking in water
- Heat a kadai or pan with oil for deep frying.
- When the oil becomes medium hot, add a small amount of batter in the oil. It should come steadily and quickly on the surface. This means it is the right temperature to fry. Too cold oil will make the fritters soggy with oil and too high will brown them faster from outside, leaving the center uncooked.
- Add spoonfuls of the batter in the oil. Add according to the capacity of the pan or kadai.
- When they become pale golden, then turn them.
- Fry the fritters till they become golden and crispy. Turn them a couple of times for even frying.
- Fry till golden and crisp. Remove with a slotted spoon.
- Drain on paper towels. Fry all the bhallas in the same way.
- Once all the bhallas are done with frying, then take 2.5 cups water in a wide bowl or pan.
- And add the bhallas to the water. Soak them for 20 to 25 minutes.
- Take each bhalla and flatten and press between your palms to remove excess water. Do this with all the bhallas.
Making dahi bhalla
- Take 2 cups fresh chilled curd (yogurt) in a bowl and whisk it till smooth.
- Now gently place these bhallas in the curd.
- Gently mix if you have used medium sized bowl, like how I have used. Now you can keep the bhallas with the curd in the fridge and assemble when you want to serve. Or use them right away as the curd is chilled.
- Gather and assemble all your other ingredients like – boiled potato cubes, boiled white chickpeas, green chutney, tamarind chutney, pomegranate arils and the spice powders.
- To make individual portions of dahi bhalla, place 4 to 5 papdis in a plate.
- Place 2 to 3 bhalla with the the curd in a plate. Add more curd if required.
- Top up with some boiled potatoes and chickpeas.
- Now add the green chutney, sweet tamarind chutney as required
- Sprinkle red chili powder, roasted cumin powder, chaat masala and black salt as per taste.
- Serve Dahi Bhalla immediately garnished with some chopped coriander leaves. You can also garnish with fine sev.
Dassana’s Notes
- To veganize dahi bhalla, use cashew curd.
- The recipe can be halved.
- You can add finely chopped onions as a topping, if you want.
Nutrition
Dahi Bhalla recipe from the archives was first published on March 2015.
Excellent recipe.
Thank you.
I made these Dahi Bhalla for holi party and they turned out awesome. Everyone was asking for the recipe.
Great and thanks for sharing this feedback.
this is my favorat dish thanks
IT IS MY FAVOURITE DISH THANK YOU FOR THIS RECIEPE AND OTHER RECIPE
welcome and thanks.
Dahi Bhalla is one of my favorite,,,, Thanks for sharing…
Welcome Priyanka
vry nice recipe
Yammiii recipe, i am always trying your receipies
thanks tejal, also do share your views when you try the recipes.
Thanks a lot dassana.we tried ur dahi bhalla recipe first time and it turned out to be awesome.
pleased to know this thank you naveen 🙂 and you are welcome.
i made it but bhallas turned hard
can you explain a bit more in detail as to what exactly went wrong.
If I make them in advance, how long can i store them in the freezer?
bhawna, you can store them in refrigerator and not freezer for one day.
Thx for d yummy bhallas recipe..i hv tried ur other recipes …all turned out well.
Can i use..only urad dal for bhallas
thanks ila. yes you can use only urad dal for bhallas.
Sorry Miss Amit,
the recipe which you are showing here is called ” Chat Papdi” because you are using Papdi with Pakodi and not Bhalla’s. Bhalla’s are flat and oval shaped almost equal to 4-5 pakodi’s volume.
When you use only the Bhallas ( without Papdi) with Channa, Dahi, Saunth and Hari Chatney etc. then it is called ” Dahi Bhalla “.
no problem. i have had bhallas in north and they had papdi in them. the ones you get in the north are bigger sized bhallas as they are fried in large kadai. at home we do no have such big kadais. for ease of making and frying, i have made them in small to medium sizes. there are variations to any recipe.
I will surely try this
I made them today and were awesome. Though it took me a little bit more effort as I didn’t have split dals. I had to soak them and rub them with my hands to remove the covering. As I told earlier dahi bhallas are my favorite snack as they came out very well now I can enjoy them without bothering about adulteration.
Thanks a lot
And
HAPPY DIWALI again.
thats good to know. husked dals are better. it does take time to remove the skins from the dals. happy diwali again to you too.
I maybe wrong but I think mistakenly in the ingredients list the water in cups for soaking the vadas differs from the one given in the instructions. Do check it please
thanks harsimrat. i checked and the quantity of 2.5 cups of water for soaking the vadas is same in the ingredient list as well as in the instructions.
Oh sorry. I thought the water for soaking dals as the water for soaking vadas as it was under heading for vadas
no problem harsimrat. happens. such things happen with me too 🙂
I love these dahi bhallas. My favorite snack . I will make them soon in two days . I made many of your recipes during last days including hyderabadi veg biryani and fruit kesari but didn’t get time to post a comment. Each was liked alot by our family and I salute to your patience while writing the recipes especially that biryani one which was a long one with max number of pics. I loved it and also one thing was that quantity of 100 g curd equal to half cup .
Again thanks will try these bhallas soon
thanks a lot harsimrat. you know i have to rework on the biryani post and make it more streamlined. thanks for letting me know about the quantity of 100 gram curd in cup measurement. do try these bhallas. they are really good.
Oh really. Such a hard working lady you are. In cup measurement it is almost half cup but not exactly .I will surely try them today. Roasted chanas in green chutney helps it in binding and it doesn’t appear watery. What do you think about it and also a very HAPPY DIWALI in advance.
thanks. roasted chana thickens the chutney. but if you less water while grinding the chutney, then it won’t be watery. roasted chana will give a different flavor to the green chutney.
OMG I Love the way u teach recipe so well and as being pure vegetarian,I make them and smile ? I learned something more and easy ,quick .Thank u millions of time.By sharing u making our life easy.Thank u again.
thanks a lot bindu.
I made potato biryani and shorba to along with biryani it was out of this world it was super delicious it was a huge hit…..thnk u ma’am all ur recipes are easy,delicious,mind blowing, and healthy….thnx once again
thank you very much riya 🙂
Looks so delicious! And the recipe’s quite easy to follow.. I will be trying it this Diwali.
Thanks Dassana for all these wonderful recipes! I have tried a lot of recipes and they’ve all turned out so well! Many thanks to you!
thanks a lot nupur. do try. these are really melt in the mouth vadas. you will like the texture and taste.