Healthy Sambar/Kothimbir/Pudachi Wadi (Nagpur Style)

Hello everyone. I hope you all are doing great. Today I am going to share with you my favourite “winter special” dish aka Kothimbir wadi. It is a popular snack all year around in my region (read Nagpur), but it is a winter special recipe because the main ingredient i.e. coriander is found in its purest, freshest form in the winters. Traditionally, the coriander filling is stuffed into rolled out gram flour (besan) dough and then it is deep fried. But here I give you a healthier version of this lip smacking snack. So without further ado, let’s get started with the recipe. Here is what you will need,

	Ingredient	Quantity
1.	Coriander (finely chopped)	¾ cup
2.	Gram flour (Besan)	½ cup
3.	Wheat/Multi grain flour	½ cup
4.	Onion (finely chopped)	1 small
5.	Garlic	2 cloves
6.	Ginger	1 small piece
7.	Green chillies	1 large or 2 small
8.	Coconut (grated)	1 tbsp.
9.	Poppy seeds (khus-khus)	¼ tsp.
10.	Tumeric powder	¼ + ¼ tsp.
11.	Red chilli powder	¼ + ¼ tsp.
12.	Lemon juice	½ tsp.
13.	Oil	1+1 tsp.
14.	Dry fruits (chopped)	1 tbsp.
15.	Salt	To taste
16.	Water

Procedure:

1. To make the dough, mix gram flour, wheat/multi grain flour, ¼ tsp each of turmeric powder and red chilli powder. Add salt to taste.

2. Heat 1 tsp. oil and add the steaming hot oil into the mixture.

3. Slowly add in water, 1 tsp. at a time and make a tight dough. You will need around 2-3 tsp. water. And let it rest until we make the filling.

4. For the filling, first roast the grated coconut until it is slightly brown. Let it cool.

5. Grind garlic, ginger and green chillies.

6. In a non-stick pan, heat ½ tsp. oil. Add the onions and chilli-ginger-garlic paste. Fry it until the onions turns slightly brown.

7. Add the poppy seeds and the dry fruits. Roast them for a few minutes.

8. Add turmeric powder, chilli powder and salt. Then add in the coriander.

9. Finally add the roasted coconut and lemon juice. Now your filling is ready.

10. Divide the dough into two equal parts. . Dust some flour on the rolling board and roll out each one into medium sized chapatis. The chapatis shouldn’t be too thin.

11. Now divide the filling into two and make the wadis as shown. Add the filling to the chapatti. Then, first turn the chapati into half and press down the sides, then gently roll it back to make a rectangle, the finally close the other two sides. Then press all the sides firmly so that there is no gap in the covering. It is really difficult to put these steps into words (#awkward).

12. Now add the wadis into the steamer. Read the steps 11, 12 and 13 of the steamed modaks article (http://ahappygirlwrites.blogspot.com/2014/08/healthy-steamed-modaks.html) to know how to do so.

13. Let these steam for around 20 minutes on high heat and then let them sit in steamer for 10 more minutes after turning off the heat.

14. Now add remaining oil into the non-stick pan and fry the wadis (on medium heat) until they are nice and crisp. It takes around 4-5 minutes on each side. And then these tasty kothimbir wadis are ready to serve. I like to have them warm with the home-made tamarind sauce.

I know this is a slightly exhausting dish to make, but trust me all your hard work is worth it. These wadis taste exactly like the fried ones just way less oily. So friends, I hope that you will give this recipe a try and if you do, let me know in the comments below how you like it. If you have any suggestions or if there is anything you want me to write about or you want to share a picture of your recreation of this recipe, feel free to catch up with me here or on Google+ or on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/AHappyGirlWrites) or Instagram (a.happy.girl.writes) or on Twitter (A_Happy_Girl2) or Snapchat (ahappy.girl) or Tumblr (ahappygirlwrites) or on We Heart It (ahappygirlwrites). Until next time, keep smiling and I will be back soon. Don’t forget to have a happy day J.