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Kothimbir Vadi is a delicious, gluten-free Maharashtrian snack. It is made from Coriander, Gram Flour and some spices.
"Kothimbir" in marathi language means "Coriander or Cilantro" leaves and "Vadi" means cubes, slices or pieces.
You get these in the small snack shops as well as big restaurants in Maharashtra. Each one has their own versions and each is delicious. But none of them can replace the fresh homemade ones.
I absolutely love the ones my Mom makes, they are crispy, packed with coriander leaves and spiced to perfection. Though traditionally they are deep fried, I have always had the shallow fried or pan fried ones.
Whenever mom would get a fresh big bunch of coriander she used to make Kothimbir vadi's and we used to devour it with green chutney or tomato ketchup.
Kothimbir Vadi can be served steamed, pan fried, deep fried or even now a days air fried. You can have it either ways and it will be delicious.
Whenever I make these Vadi's some of them get finished as soon as I get them out of the steamer. My son and my husband sneak in to have the first bite. The freshly steamed ones are healthy as well as tasty.
Key points for perfect Kothimbir Vadi
Clean and wash the coriander / kothimbir/ cilantro properly so that there are no sand particles left in it.
Chop the coriander and spread it out in a tray to dry completely. This is very important as we do not want to add too much water to this dough.
So if the coriander is wet then it will need more besan / gram flour to form a stiff dough.
Secondly for crisp Kothimbir Vadi don't forget to add rice flour.
The dough should be stiff and you should be able to make a dough log.
Kothimbir Vadi
Equipment
- Bowl
- Spatula
- Kadhai / Frying Pan / Tava
- Strainer spatula
- Knife
- Steamer / Cooker
Ingredients
- 2.5 Cups Chopper Coriander leaves / Kothimbir / Cilantro packed well in the cup to measure
- 1 and ¼ Cup Besan / Gram flour
- 4 tablespoon Rice Flour
- 1.5 tablespoon Garlic Chili Ginger paste 5-6 green chili's, ½ inch Ginger and 6-7 Garlic cloves
- ½ teaspoon Red chili powder
- ¼ teaspoon Turmeric
- ½ teaspoon Cumin powder
- 1 teaspoon Sesame seeds
- ¼ teaspoon Sugar
- ⅛ teaspoon Hing
- 1 teaspoon Oil for dough
- Oil for frying
Instructions
- Ingredients
- Take a big bunch of coriander and clean it. Remove all the bad and yellow leaves. Sperate stalk and leaves.
- Wash it thoroughly to remove and mud or sand particles.
- Chop the leaves and spread them on a paper towel or clean cloth to dry. Let it dry completely.
- In a bowl add coriander leaves, ginger-garlic and chili paste, turmeric, red chili powder, cumin powder, sesame seeds, hing, salt and sugar.
- Mix everything well. This releases water from coriander that is required for kneading the dough.
- Now add besan and rice flour and combine to knead a dough without any water.
- Once everything is mixed if required add a tablespoon of water at a time till the dough comes together and forms a dough.
- Add a tablespoon of oil and knead it in. The dough will be a little stick but that ok.
- Make rolls or a roller log out of the dough.
- Take the pan in which you will be steaming the kothimbir vadi and apply oil to it.
- Place the rolls on the greased plate. Keep some space between them as they expand once steamed.
- Take a steamer / cooker / deep pot and heat up about an inch of water in it.
- Place the vadi rolls in the steamer and steam them for about 15 - 20 mins.
- Once steamed take the kothimbir vadi rolls out and let them cook for sometime.
- Cut the rolls into slices.
- Heat up the pan or kadhai with oil for either pan frying or deep frying as per your preference.
- For pan frying drizzle the hot pan with oil and place the vadi's on it for frying.
- Cook it till it becomes golden brown from each side.
- If you are deep frying then fry it on medium high heat or technically 350F till it turns golden brown and take it out on a paper towel.
- Serve them hot with ketchup or mint chutney.
Notes
- For crisp vadi always add rice flour to the dough.
- If you add too much water you can always add more gram flour to balance it or you can grease a pan and pour the batter in the pan and steam it like flat vadi's.
- you can skip ginger and garlic if you don't like.
- Adding chili powder is optional.
- Normal ratio of coriander leaves to besan is 2:1
- Adding sugar lifts the flavors.
Pallavi chitre
Yes it is very tasty and tempting,and your way of presenting kothimbir wadi is very good, nicely explain
prajakta.palkar
Thank you very much
Pradeep Chitre
We are really delighted with the splendid way of explanation
Good
Keep it up
Awaiting your next exploration
prajakta.palkar
Thank you very much