Paneer Dahi Vada or this Banaras ka special Chena Dahi Vada is made with fresh cheese or paneer. It is a savory snack made with Chena or paneer, a perfect mixture of sweet and sour topped with sweet curds and chutneys.
Planning the Banarasi Street Food was very interesting as I planned to feature chat dishes that would fancy my kids.
The platter features Tamatar Chaat, Laiya Chana, Chena Dahi Vada, Banarasi Gol Gappe, Dahi Chutney wale Gol Gappe and the most popular Katori Chat. For accompaniments, I served Khajur Imli Chutney, Hara Chutney, Sweet Curds, Boondi & Sev.
I do have other versions of Dahi Wada made with Urad dal like this Dahi Wada Recipe or the Odia Style Dahibara, or this Vrat ki Dahi Gujiya, Holi Special Dahi Gujiya.
I am featuring this Chena Dahi Vada as part of the Street Food special theme. This is a special Benarasi Street food.
This delicious Chena Dahi Vada is called by many names, such as Banaras ka special chena dahi vada, Chhene ke dahi vade, Rasgulle Ke Dahi Vade, Chenna Dahi Bada, Varanasi Famous Chena Dahi Vada, Paneer Dahi Bhalla Farali, Chena Dahi Bhalle, Paneer Dahi Bhalle or Paneer Dahi Bada.
You may wonder why Rasgulle, well this is nothing but chena as used to make Rasgulle but mixed with potato. So maybe some call it as such too. It is also one of the popular dishes made for Holi. So if you are looking for some Holi special dish, this is it for you.
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Ingredients
The main ingredient used in this dish is Fresh Cottage Cheese or Paneer. Homemade paneer works best as it is fresh and easy to knead.
Paneer - I normally use 4% milk to make my paneer at home. However, if you are looking for rich paneer, then you can make it with Fat rich milk
Potato - We use potatoes for binding the chena and hold the vadas.
Flour - For Vrat or Fasting period menu, you can use arrowroot. However, All Purpose flour or Cornflour also works.
The chena is spiced mildly with green chilies and salt.
The main flavoring comes with chutneys and spice powders added to it.
We use roasted cumin powder, kala namak, and red chili powder.
Instructions
Make dahi bade ki chaat
Freshly made paneer tastes great, however, if you have stocked paneer, then make sure you grate it finely and then mix it well with mashed potato for a firm vada
Making Chena Vada
Wash and boil the potatoes. Since I boiled one potato, I microwaved the potato for 3 to 4 minutes depending on the size. If it is a small potato, then microwave for 2 to 3 minutes after marking on the top. Once done, soak it in water and peel off the skin. Mash it well.
Else you can pressure cook the potato.
Take the paneer in a bowl, if you just made it, it is easy to crumble it, else you can grate it depending on when you made the paneer.
Add the mashed potato to the paneer along with salt, grated ginger, cornflour.
Mix everything well, you can knead it to a soft dough.
Divide into small equal balls.
Heat a kadai with oil, deep fry the chena vada in batches.
Drain on a kitchen towel.
Assembling the Paneer Dahi Vada
On the serving plate, place 3 to 4 vadas.
Pour sweet curds over it. Make sure the curd is well beaten and slightly sweet.
Next add Khajoor Imli Chutney, followed by Hara chutney.
Now sprinkle black salt, roasted cumin, and red chili powder over it.
Drizzle some sweet chutney and green chutney slightly over it.
Now once again sprinkle some black salt, roasted cumin, and red chili powder.
Your Paneer Dahi Vada Chaat is ready.
Substitutions
For substitutions, you can use green chutney made with a mix of mint and coriander leaves.
Instead of deep-frying, you can shallow fry the chena balls. Or you can even shallow fry the balls if you are conscious of deep-frying.
Just as I make a coriander base with dahi, you can add a coriander rich curd as the base.
Variations
Since this is a curd based snack, making this a vegan is not really feasible. However, you can try vegan curds if you can make it want to enjoy this snack.
For topping try different crispies like sev, mathri etc as they add a good crunch to the snack.
Storage
You can store fried paneer balls before adding the curds. However, this is a snack that tastes great when made fresh.
Similarly, I have made the different components before assembling Banaras ka special Chena Dahi Vada and it really saves some time.
Expert Tips
Make sure the oil is hot enough for frying the vadas. Frying at the correct temperature, the vadas absorb less oil and do not break.
First, check if the vada consistency is correct by dropping one. If it breaks in oil, add more flour to the dough and knead again well. This way the vadas will be firm.
If you are making vadas for fasting, then use rock salt and black pepper. Add sweet chutney and green chutney as well.
We always add sweet curds, so you can add 1 to 2 teaspoons of sugar.
The recipe calls for arrowroot, we can use corn flour or all-purpose flour, or bread crumbs as well.
Recipe
Paneer Dahi Vada | Banaras ka special Chena Dahi Vada
Ingredients
For the Chena Vada
- 1 cup Paneer / Indian Cottage Cheese
- 1/2 cup Potato boiled and mashed
- 2 tablespoon Cornflour
- 2 Green Chilies finely chopped
- 1/2 inch Ginger grated
- Salt to taste
- Cooking Oil for deep frying
For Garnishing on top
- 1 cup Sweet Curds
- 1 teaspoon Black Salt / Kala Namak
- 1 teaspoon Roasted Cumin Powder
- Red Chili Powder as required
- Sweet Chutney as required
- Green Chutney as required
Instructions
Make dahi bade ki chaat
Making Chena Vada
- Wash and boil the potatoes. Since I boiled one potato, I microwaved the potato for 3 to 4 minutes depending on the size. If it is a small potato, then microwave for 2 to 3 minutes after marking on the top. Once done, soak it in water and peel off the skin. Mash it well.
- Else you can pressure cook the potato.
- Take the paneer in a bowl, if you just made it, it is easy to crumble it, else you can grate it depending on when you made the paneer.
- Add the mashed potato to the paneer along with salt, grated ginger, cornflour.
- Mix everything well, you can knead it to a soft dough.
- Divide into small equal balls.
- Heat a kadai with oil, deep fry the chena vada in batches.
- Drain on a kitchen towel.
Assembling the Paneer Dahi Vada
- On the serving plate, place 3 to 4 vadas.
- Pour sweet curds over it. Make sure the curd is well beaten and slightly sweet.
- Next add Khajoor Imli Chutney, followed by Hara chutney.
- Now sprinkle black salt, roasted cumin, and red chili powder over it.
- Drizzle some sweet chutney and green chutney slightly over it.
- Now once again sprinkle some black salt, roasted cumin, and red chili powder.
- Your Paneer Dahi Vada Chaat is ready.
Nutrition
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Radha says
What a delicious street food! My kids would love to have this often and am bookmarking this mouth-watering recipe! Delicious one that I am unable to stop staring at the beautiful pictures.
Harini says
The whole platter looks amazing. A wonderful recipe from the streets of Banaras.
Rafeeda - The Big Sweet Tooth says
I am actually very tempted to save up this recipe and try it for Iftar one day. Why not? The patties are healthy when shallow fried and the whole thing, I am sure would taste amazing... Going into my must-try list...