Dahi Bhindi Recipe (Okra & Yogurt Gravy)
Dahi bhindi is a delicious and flavorful dish of sautéed tender cooked okra in a smooth, creamy, lightly spiced and tangy yogurt sauce or gravy. This tasty recipe of dahi wali bhindi is a delight to eat with some hot Roti or Naan. The next best accompaniment is steamed basmati rice or cumin rice.
About Dahi Bhindi Recipe
The sauce or gravy is tangy and lightly spiced. I have used pureed tomatoes in the sauce which gives a tang. So along with the yogurt, there is a sourness, tang.
And a subtle sweetness due to cashews, gram flour and cream. The addition of gram flour or besan does not allow the yogurt to curdle.
The okra or bhindi is sauteed in oil till they are completely cooked. This technique also gets rid of the sliminess in the okra.
The gravy or sauce is then made and the sauteed okra are added to it. The end result is the soft succulent pieces of okra in a smooth creamy tangy sauce.
This is one of our favorite okra based dish apart from Bhindi Masala, Bhindi Fry (Kurkuri Bhindi) and Bhindi do Pyaza.
This dish is made of 3 main ingredients – okra, curd (yogurt) and tomatoes. So keep in mind to use the okra pods that are fresh, tender and crisp. Avoid using mature okra pods that have become fibrous and stingy.
For the curd or yogurt it is important to use fresh one and make sure it does not taste sour or very tangy. I recommend using homemade Curd or yogurt as that is what I include in all my recipes that have yogurt.
Remember that the tomatoes also have to be ripe and sweet. If the tomatoes are sour the sauce or gravy will have a more tangy taste and will spoil the balance of the dish. If in case the sauce has become tangy then add about ½ to 1 teaspoon of sugar.
How to make Dahi Bhindi
1. Rinse 200 to 250 grams of bhindi (okra) in water a couple of times. Then dry the bhindi with a kitchen towel or spread them on a plate and let them dry on their own.
Ensure that they are dried completely and have no trace of water on them. Otherwise, they can become slimy or sticky while chopping and cooking.
3. Trim off the crowns and tail of the okra pods. Chop the okra into 1 inch pieces. Keep an eye while chopping for any worms or black spots. If any then discard that okra.
Set aside the chopped okra.
3. Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a pan. Add the chopped bhindi. You can use any neutral-flavored oil.
4. Saute for at least 8 to 10 minutes on low heat till they change color and are softened and cooked.
5. Remove the sauteed bhindi in a bowl and keep aside.
6. Add 2 medium-sized chopped tomatoes and 6 to 7 cashews to the blender or chutney grinder.
7. Puree the tomatoes and cashews to a smooth and fine paste. There should not be any small chunks of cashews in the paste. No need to add any water while blending to a paste.
8. With a wired whisk, whip ½ cup fresh yogurt (curd) till smooth. Make sure that the curd is not sour or too tangy.
Making dahi bhindi
9. Heat the same pan in which we sauteed the bhindi. Add 1 tablespoon oil or ghee. Crackle ½ teaspoon cumin seeds first.
10. Then add ⅓ to ½ cup chopped onions. Saute till the onions change color or become translucent stirring often.
11. Crush 3 to 4 garlic and 1 inch ginger to a paste in mortar and pestle. Add the crushed ginger-garlic paste or you can add 1 teaspoon ginger garlic paste.
12. Saute for some seconds or till the raw aroma goes away.
13. Add the tomato-cashew paste. Take care as the mixture might splutter.
14. Stir and mix well.
15. Saute till oil starts to leave the sides of the mixture.
16. The onion-tomato-cashew masala paste has to be sauteed very well. Keep on stirring often for uniform sauteing.
The whole masala should come together and you should be able to see the oil or fat leaving the sides of the masala.
17. Add 1.5 tablespoon besan (gram flour).
18. Saute for 1 to 2 minutes or more on low heat till the raw aroma of the gram flour goes away.
19. Then add the following spice powders:
- ½ teaspoon coriander powder
- ¼ teaspoon red chili powder or cayenne pepper
- ¼ to ½ teaspoon garam masala powder
- ¼ teaspoon turmeric powder
20. Saute again for a minute. Switch off the heat and place the pan on the kitchen countertop.
21. Add the whisked yogurt (curd) to the pan.
22. Pour 2 cups of water.
23. Stir well with a wired whisk to get a uniform and even mixture. Then add the sauteed bhindi.
24. Next add salt as required.
25. Keep the pan on the stovetop on low to medium-low heat. Simmer the gravy till the mixture starts to thicken and you see specks of oil or ghee floating on top.
26. Add ¼ to ½ teaspoon crushed kasuri methi (dry fenugreek leaves) and 1 to 2 tablespoons low fat cream or light cream. Mix well.
27. Simmer the gravy for half a minute and lastly add some coriander leaves
28. Serve Dahi Bhindi hot or warm with some hot phulka, naan or roti. You can also have this dish with Jeera Rice or steamed basmati rice.
Few more tasty recipes for you!
- Bhindi ka Salan – Side curry for biryani or roti from Hyderabadi Cuisine.
- Gatte ki sabji – popular gravy based dish from the Rajasthani cuisine.
- Vendakkai sambar – delicious sambar made with okra or bhindi.
- Bendakaya pulusu – Andhra style okra gravy with tamarind,
Step by Step Photo Guide Above
Ingredients
- 200 to 250 grams bhindi (okra or lady finger)
- ⅓ to ½ cup chopped onion
- 2 medium ripe red tomatoes + 6 to 7 whole cashews, chopped – blended to a smooth paste
- ½ cup Curd (yogurt) – whisked till smooth
- 3 to 4 garlic + 1 inch ginger – crushed to a paste in a mortar and pestle or 1 teaspoon ginger garlic paste
- 1.5 tablespoon besan (gram flour)
- ½ teaspoon cumin seeds
- ½ teaspoon Coriander Powder (ground coriander)
- ¼ teaspoon Red Chili Powder or cayenne pepper
- ¼ teaspoon turmeric powder (ground turmeric)
- ¼ or ½ teaspoon Garam Masala
- 2 cups water
- 1 to 2 tablespoon cream – low fat or light cream
- 2 tablespoon oil for sauteing the okra
- 1 tablespoon Ghee (clarified butter) or oil for the sauce
- ¼ to ½ teaspoon crushed kasuri methi (dry fenugreek leaves)
- salt as required
Instructions
Preparation
- Rinse the okra (bhindi) in water for a couple of times.
- Dry the okra with a kitchen towel or spread them on a plate and let them dry on their own.
- Make sure that there is no moisture or water droplets on the okra before you start chopping them.
- Trim off the crown and tail of each okra. Chop the okra in 1 inch pieces. Keep aside the chopped okra.
- Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a pan. Add the chopped okra and saute for at least 8 to 10 minutes on low heat till they change color and are cooked and softened.
- Remove the sauteed bhindi and keep aside.
- Puree the tomatoes and cashews to a smooth paste in a blender or chutney grinder without adding any water. Make a fine and smooth puree or paste not having any chunks of cashews or unground tomato seeds.
- With a wired whisk, whip the yogurt till smooth in a bowl.
Making dahi bhindi
- Heat up the same pan in which we sauteed the okra.
- Add 1 tablespoon oil or ghee. Crackle the cumin seeds first.
- Add the chopped onion and saute till the onions change color or become translucent stirring often.
- Add the ginger-garlic paste and saute for a few seconds or till the raw aroma goes away.
- Add the tomato-cashew paste and saute till oil starts to leave the sides of the mixture.
- The onion-tomato-cashew masala paste has to be sauteed very well.
- Keep on stirring often for uniform sauteing.
- The whole masala should come together and you should be able to see the specks of oil or fat leaving the sides of the masala.
- Add gram flour and saute for 1 to 2 minutes or more on low heat till the raw aroma of the gram flour goes away.
- Then add coriander powder, red chili powder, garam masala powder and turmeric powder. Mix and saute again for a minute.
- Switch off the heat and place the pan down. Add the whisked yogurt and water to the pan.
- Stir well with a wired whisk and add the sauteed okra and salt.
- Keep the pan on the fire and simmer the gravy till the mixture starts to thicken and you see the oil or ghee floating on top.
- Add the crushed kasuri methi along with the cream and simmer for half a minute. Garnish with coriander leaves.
- Serve dahi wali bhindi with some hot phulkas, naan or rotis. You can also have it with cumin rice or steamed basmati rice.
Nutrition
Dahi Bhindi recipe from the blog archives was first published on November 2013.
Can I make this with vegan curd?
Yes you can.
Thank you for this recipe.
I tried it and everyone loved it ❤️
Hello Dassana,
I made this today and it was one of the best curries I have ever made. My family and I relished it.
But I wanted to say, thank you for the amazing recipes you have. I refer to your site for even the recipes I know traditionally just to see if I can learn anything new.
It’s like a cooking bible for me. Thank you again and god bless and wish you a lot of success!!!
Love,
Vibha
Thanks a lot Vibha. Glad to read your comment and also for the feedback on the recipe.
Thanks also for all of your kind words and good wishes. Wish you too all the best.
Can I replace cream with mixture of milk and buttermilk
You can try, but I am not sure how the taste will be.
Wonderful recipe..great….keep it up
thank you.
Great.
Please add dahi karela recipe..
mansi, have taken a note of your recipe request and will try to add.
Hi Dassana,
I love your recipes and the way you give step by step direction is just amazing. A very big Thanks to you…Am able to cook well. Your recipes are just perfect for our family.
thanks nisha. glad to read your comment. wish you a happy diwali in advance.
Thanks for posting this recipe. Tried it for lunch today and was fantastic!
I made some minor changes to the recipe. Example, I ground ginger garlic along with tomato and cashew, skipped adding heavy cream at the end, used ragi flour instead of basan and added finely chopped tomatoes before adding bhindi.
thanks evi for the review and the feedback on dahi bhindi. also thanks for sharing the changes you made. it will help the readers too.
Hi Dasanna,
I have started using your recipes and everything turned out to be soooo good. Thanks you.
One doubt – In this recipe of Dhahi Bhindi, is there a substitute for Besan flour? Or, will it be fine, if i completely omit that step?
Thanks,
Senden
thanks senden. you can use rice flour or corn flour instead of besan. besan is used to thicken the gravy as well as prevents the curd from getting split. with rice flour and corn flour (corn starch) the taste will change.
Hi Dasanna,
Tried this out today and served it along with Jeera rice. It came out fantastic. Thanks for the recipe.
Love,
Priya
Welcome Priyanka. Glad to know this.
Simple, easy and absolutely delicious!!tried this recipe today turned out great!! Thank you and kee up the good work ????
thanks maria for sharing this feedback. nice to know.
hi dassana, I just stumbled upon your website by chance and let me tell you it’s not just good balkay great great great. I just wanted to ask if you guys have an app for such great recipes as well as I want to use them offline too. do let me know. lots of love from Karachi, Pakistan
Thanks Aisha for your positive feedback. We do have an app on app store with the name “veg recipes of india”. However the app is not so advanced and will not work in offline mode unless recipes are saved as favorite. I would suggest you to use website over app.
I am big fan of yours,been following all types of your recipe. A DOUBT, can I use milk powder instead of cream (saw it in another recipe of yours). Just typing as I M preparing the recipe.
Thanks Uma for your kind words. You can add. Just add 1/2 tablespoon otherwise it becomes very sweet or add as required.
This recipie is easy and really yummy ….. everybody loved it at home…..
ThankYou so much 🙂
Welcome Kunal. Glad to know this.
AMAZING!!! The curry came out really splendid! Thank you so much for this recipe!
Welcome Rosalin
Hi Dassana, awesome photos. I learned a lot.
This is almost the same as your dahi wale aloo.
Why do we not add besan with yogurt and add it earlier in this recipe? Just curious
thanks laxmi. the reason being in this dahi bhindi recipe i have pureed the tomatoes and cashews. so added besan later. cashews also help in preventing the curd from getting split. in the dahi aloo, i have used chopped tomatoes and if only curd is added directly, it can curdle even if besan is added to the tomatoes. hope this helps.
Loved it! My daughter who is a typical pickey eater toddler loved it completely.
Thanks Deepti. Glad to know that your daughter liked it very much.
Kindly post step wise illustration for this recipe keen to prepare soon
sure komal we will post step wise pics soon but allow us some time to post the same, thanks.
It’s amazing
Very good. I made basmati rice with cilantro and ghee to go with this and it was fantastic. Thanks for sharing.
pleased to know this thankyou leola for trying them 🙂
Why we should switch off the fire and then add yogurts
in ayurveda they say yogurt has to be chilled and not heated hence added towards the end. but you could cook them if you want ssj hope this help’s you.
Very nice its yummmmmmm
Nice Recipe well, i will try it.
I had this dish at a Rajasthani restaurant and was keen to have it again but I did not find it in my local restaurants. Am not much experienced in cooking but when I came across this recipe, it seemed too easy and simple for me to go ahead and give it a shot. The results were too good and I almost managed to get the same taste that I remembered.
Thanks for making this so simple…
welcome vicky. glad to know that you liked the dahi bhindi recipe.
I am born in UK and could never master khuri like my mum but I followed this bhindi khuri and it tasted just like mums , thanks,
welcome roza.
Perfect recipe!
thanks vasanti
Tried this recipe. Turned out to be excellent.
thanks shweta
Tried this today exactly following your recipe, was a bit nervous about the combinations but the end result is yummy and excellent!!!
thanks ami for sharing positive feedback on recipe.
Awesome recipe my son loves bhindi very much thanks
welcome ankita.
Really a mouth watering receipe… tried n came out very well. thanks a ton 🙂
thanks for the feeback roopa.
Great recipes….thnaks
welcome mini
How can we make this cream at home?
cream can be made by whipping malai from full fat milk in a blender. don’t over do as then you will get butter. just whipping the malai will give you a soft smooth cream. but you need a sufficient quantity of malai that can be whipped easily.
I recently came across your wonderful website and spent quite a lot of time surfing through the recipes. Last night I tried Dahi bhindi and it came out soooo good, all my family just loved it ( i did not put the cream though). I thought I should share this with you and compliment you on your work. Thanks for putting all the delicious looking recipes with easy to follow instructions. I am gonna try a lot of your recipes.
welcome bhavna. i appreciate your consideration for writing such a lovely comment and thus making me feel good about the site.
awesome recipe!! I have cooked twice ,my husband and inlaws loved it. I just made small addition, added three tablespoon of kasoori methi … .. My husband said “shaadiyoan ki sabji lagti hai”
thanks for sharing your positive feedback and inputs.
Thanks for all the wonderful recipes… The pictures make it so simple for us to understand.
welcome sushma
Thank you for providing such a wonderful recipe
welcome sayantan and thanks for the positive feedback
The dish was just awesome and delectable!!!
Perfect recipe .Really came out very well..so delicious ..thanks so much for sharing this recipe..
welcome dipika
Awesome tried this recipe. Came out excellent. Cheers
thanks for the feedback shveta.
Hello Dassana, tried this recipe and came out really well. Thank you so much.
welcome nimmi
Hi Dassana
Tried this dish. Came out very very well. Loved it. Your recipes have lways been a success for me. Thanks a lot.
Pizza was infact the first dish i learnt from you. Now I am an expert..;)))
welcome deepa. happy to know that u are becoming good in cooking and expert in pizza.
Hi dassana, missed your lovely recipes.
I make this curry in a very similar way:)
Yours looks delicious as all other currys on your space!
thanks
glad to see you back dassana 🙂
thanks preeti
Looks so rich and delicious.. Yummy!!
thanks chandana
I randomly got ur site, such a lovely description of all the recipes. I wud really like try one of these. My first will be paneer capsicum….
thanks sandhya. this is a good recipe. even paneer capsicum is good. do try these recipes.