Kudhi (Yogurt and Gram Flour Soup)

I officially have a cold, but that doesn't stop me from cooking! and what a better way to unblock your nose and feel better than to have kudhi (yogurt and gram flour soup) with vegetable rice.  Its perfect as it has lots of ginger and chilli and is quite tangy and it tastes so good.

It was the first time the kids tried it and the verdict: the older one didn't like it but the younger one did, I suppose 1 out of 2 isn't too bad and the verdict from the husband..... 'absolutely amazing, it's better than my mum's!' I can't get a better compliment than that.  The recipe will follow below.

Its been a busy few weeks, with the kids attending birthday parties (and the parents being chauffeurs!), tube strikes and storms hitting the UK have been an absolute nightmare, I feel for those people who have lost their homes and businesses and having to contend with such bad weather, its meant I've done lots of cooking, rather than go out in this horrible weather (when is it summer?!)

We had a dinner party with some friends and they specifically asked for a 'Bare Veggie' authentic Indian meal.  This was the menu:

Starters: Aloo Tikki Chat (Potato patties) with date and tamarind chutney and yogurt
Main: Potato and Aubergine Curry served with rice and chapattis and poppadoms with an assortment of chutneys
Dessert: Gulab Jabum (fried dough balls in a sweet sticky cardamon flavoured syrup, served with vanilla ice cream

All served with copious amounts of wine!

The meal went down extremely well (plates looked as though they had been licked clean) and I received a 10/10 from our friends!

So back to the Kudhi and the recipe I'm sure you've all been waiting for:

Ingredients
100g Gram Flour (chickpea flour)
250g Plain Yogurt
100ml Warm Water (at first)
5 Cloves
1/4 tsp Jeeru (cumin) Seeds
6 Lemon Leaves
2 tbsp Ginger paste
4 Green Chillies made into a paste
600ml Warm water (during cooking)
1.5 tsp Salt
1/4 tsp Turmeric
Small bunch of Coriander
1 Fresh Tomato chopped
1/2 Juice of a Fresh Lemon

Method
1. Add the gram flour, plain yogurt and 100ml warm water to a pan and whizz together with a handheld whisk until smooth.
2. In a large pan, heat the ghee and add the jeeru, cloves and lemon leaves until they sizzle.
3. Add the gram flour and yogurt mix to the pan, here is where you have to constantly mix it as the yogurt mixture can split, I would say you need to mix this constantly for about 20 minutes.  
4. During the mixing you will find that the soup will start to thicken, have the 600ml of warm water to hand to add to the soup at about 100ml at a time, until you reach the right consistency (which is a bit like a well known brand of soup!).
5. Add the ginger and chilli paste, salt, turmeric and coriander and freshly chopped tomato
6. Let the soup simmer on a low heat for approx 15 mins, mixing occasionally.
7. Just before serving squeeze the juice of 1/2 a lemon
7. Its ready! Serve and enjoy...

We have this with a vegetable rice or you can have it with plain rice or even just on its own