Lentil and Dairy-Free Dahi Vada?!
If you’ve never had dahi vada before – it is traditionally a fried lentil dumpling – but my recipe is lentil-free. I wanted to create a lentil-free recipe for those who can’t tolerate legumes and/or for those following a paleo diet. Another big difference between the traditional version and mine is that I don’t fry the fritters. Rather than deep frying the dumplings, my recipe calls for baking them in an oven using a donut pan OR you can also use a donut maker if you have one. This is an Indian street food and it goes by many different names – it’s also known as dahi baray, dahi bhalla and well, a lot of other names. I actually came up with this paleo version several years ago when I wrote this Paleo Indian eCookbook – it has 100+ Paleo Indian recipes and this recipe for dahi vada one of them. Instead of lentils, my recipe calls for a combination of paleo friendly flours: almond flour, arrowroot flour and coconut flour. The coconut flour does a great job of soaking up the coconut yogurt. You’ll want to have some chutneys handy to top these dahi vadas – a few of my favorites: chaat sauce, tamarind chutney and green chutney. You can make these sauces and freeze them flat in a zip lock bag – that’s what I do – then just break off a frozen piece and thaw as needed. I hope you love this appetizer! It’s perfect on a hot day – the cool and creamy dahi and chutneys will absolutely cool you down. Enjoy! Like this recipe? Pin it to your favorite Pinterest board now so you will remember to make it later!
