India ~ Soup ~ Gujarati Kadhi

Gujarati Kadhi

I am still finding it difficult to find all the ingredients needed for most of the meals I am making at the local grocery store, so I will continue making substitutions as I need to. I hate to do it, as one ingredient can change the taste of the meal but I know many of you may be facing the same difficulties and it may turn some of you away from international cooking, and that would be a tragedy.

Alright so Kadhi is a hot yogurt soup. It can be made many ways depending on the region it is cooked in. The version we are making is Gujarati Kadhi.

Don't be intimidated by the names of the dishes, or the fact that in many recipes for Indian dishes have ingredient names that I have no idea how to find. I am learning quickly what some are and once you learn that, reading a great new recipe will be much easier. I will make a post of common things you will see listed for ingredients as we go. Remember that I have never cooked authentic or even close to authentic Indian food so we are truly learning together in this.

So on to the recipe

I went to Show Me the Curry and found some good recipes, this being one of them, and each one had a video showing how to prepare it. Just in the nick of time too, I was beginning to feel I had bitten off a bit more then I could chew for this month.

You can find the original recipe and video Here.

Gujarati Kadhi

1 cup yogurt, beaten. *this is important if you are using a greek style yogurt (I suggest unsweetened plain)*

3 cups Water

4 Tbsp Chickpea Flour (Basan)

3/4 tsp Salt

1/8 tsp Turmeric Powder

1/2 tsp Grated Ginger

1 to 2 Green chilies to taste and finely chopped

1 tsp Sugar to taste and optional

For the Vaghar (seasoning)

2 tsp oil

1 tsp Ghee (clarified butter)

1 whole red chili

4 cloves

1 small piece cinnamon

1/2 tsp Cumin seeds

1/2 tsp Mustard seeds

10 Fenugreek seeds(Methi)

1/8 tsp Asafoetida (Hing)

1 sprig Curry leaves

5 sprigs chopped Cilantro

1. In a pot, mix together Yogurt, Water and Chickpea Flour until there are no lumps. 
2. Add Salt, Sugar, Turmeric Powder, Ginger and Green Chilies.
3. Bring mixture to a boil on medium heat, stirring continuously. *they do mean, Continuously!*
4. Reduce flame to low once mixture has boiled.
5. In a seperate small pan, heat oil and Ghee *remember that this is clarified butter*
6. Add whole red chili, Cloves, Cinnamon, Cumin Seeds, Mustard Seeds and Fenugreek Seeds and all them to sputter.
7. Turn off flame and add Asafoetida, Curry Leaves and Cilantro then mix well to coat everything in oil.
8. Immediately add the seasoning to the boiled yogurt mixture and allow it to boil once more.

Here is what I did differently:
I do not remember finding chickpea flour in the bulk food, and the only thing I had on hand was dry Hummus Mix. Not sure if I wanted that flavor in it, so I was forced to used every day run of the mill flour and I am positive it effected the taste however the soup thickened just fine.
I omitted the chilies, I really need to stop doing that but something inside of me just screams at the thought of spicy food. I am just going to suck it up on the next dish.
Ok, Asafoetida is something I have never remembered seeing in the spice section, just as curry leaves and Fenugreek Seeds.
I used a mild curry spice mix in place of the leaves and dried cilantro :( instead of fresh.

We attempted this as a Lunch dish, you know the whole American view of soup and sandwich going together however I am not sure I am ready to eat this soup as a stand alone dish and think it would go better with a rice dish like Khichdi or even just plain rice.

My Families Reaction:
My oldest son enjoyed the taste but could not eat a full portion. He thought the same thing about it going better with a rice dish.
My youngest son ate 5 bites to make me happy, was glad that I had made a sandwich for him and we both just left it at that.
I loved the flavor, but it was not a sandwich kind of soup. I reheated the leftovers for dinner and added that to some plain rice I had just made. *If your going to add it to plain rice, make it a sticky rice so that the rice gets nicely coated.*
All in all, I might try this again and add the chilies to it.