Bhindi Kadhi - Indian Yogurt Soup cooked with Chickpea flour and Okra.

Recipe Snapshot

  • Prep time: Not specified
  • Cook time: Not specified
  • Total time: Not specified
  • Yield: 4
  • Category: Recipes
  • Cuisine: Indian

Ingredients

For the yogurt-chickpeas batter

  • 1 cup yogurt (at room temperature)
  • ½ cup chickpea flour (besan)
  • ¼ teaspoon red chili powder
  • ¼ teaspoon turmeric powder
  • 2.5 cups water

For the kadhi

  • 2 teaspoons oil
  • ½ teaspoon cumin seeds (jeera)
  • ½ teaspoon fenugreek seeds (methi)
  • 1 inch ginger (finely chopped)
  • 3 cups water
  • 6-7 curry leaves
  • 2 tablespoons coriander leaves (finely chopped + more to garnish)
  • 30 okra (bhindi, small sauteed in 1 tablespoon oil)

To temper

  • ½ tablespoon ghee (clarified butter)
  • ¼ teaspoon mustard seeds
  • 2 whole red chilies (broken)

Method

Saute the okra

  1. Wash and pat dry the okra using a kitchen towel. It is very important to pat dry the okra else it will be all slimy when you try to cut it.
  2. Chop each okra into 2-3 pieces.
  3. Heat a tablespoon of oil in nonstick pan on medium heat. Once the oil is hot add the cut okra pieces.
  4. Cook the okra for 5-6 minutes or till the okra is no more slimy. Set aside.

Make the kadhi batter

  1. In a bowl whisk together yogurt, chickpea flour (besan), red chili powder and turmeric powder.
  2. Add around 2.5 cups of water and make a very thin paste.
  3. Make sure they are no lumps in this batter. Set aside.

Make the kadhi

  1. Heat 2 teaspoons of oil in a pan on medium heat.
  2. Once the oil is hot, add cumin seeds and fenugreek seeds and let it crackle.
  3. Once the seeds crackle, add curry leaves and chopped ginger and cook till ginger is very light golden brown in color. Be careful not to burn it.
  4. Now add the yogurt-chickpea flour batter that we had prepared to the pan.
  5. Keep stirring the kadhi on medium heat and once it comes to a boil add around 3 cups of water to it.
  6. Lower the flame to medium low and let it cook for 10-15 minutes. Make sure to stir in between.
  7. After 10 minutes, add the sauteed okra (bhindi) to the kadhi and also add the salt.
  8. Let the kadhi simmer on medium-low flame for 20-25 minutes till it gets little thick.
  9. Switch off the flame.

Tempering

  1. In another pan heat 1/2 tablespoon of ghee (clarified butter) on medium heat. Once ghee is hot, add mustard seeds and whole dried red chilies (broken into pieces).
  2. Saute till the mustard seeds start crackling and the red chilies turn dark brown in color. Transfer the tempering to the kadhi.
  3. Add 2 tablespoons of chopped coriander leaves to the kadhi and mix.
  4. Garnish with some more coriander leaves and serve hot with steamed rice.

Kiyaan Singh’s Kitchen Note

Keep this recipe as a working base: cook once as written, then adjust spice, texture, and serving style for your own table.