Dahi Kanji (ଦହି କାଞ୍ଜି): Traditional Odia Food

Dahi Kanji (Odia: ଦହି କାଞ୍ଜି) is a traditional food of Odisha. Kanji is similar to kadhi, an Odia cuisine made with curd. Here is the full recipe from my mother's kitchen.

Preparation Time: 30 minutes

To prepare Dahi Kanji, you need Dahi. We usually prepare Dahi at home. After extracting butter from the curd, the watery part is really useful for our health. We use that to cook Dahi Kanji.

Ingredients of Dahi Kanji:

1-liter curd (mixed with water after extraction of butter).
Some vegetables like pumpkin or Calabash (lauki) or eggplant or ladies finger, tomato.
2 TSP oil
2 cups water
4/5 garlic cloves
1 TSP turmeric powder
2/3 TSP salt
Pancha Phutana
3/4 red chilies
Curry leafs

Making of Dahi Kanji:

Add some atta (around 10 grams for 1-liter curd) to Dahi, it increases the thickness of Kanji. Mix it properly and keep it aside.
Let's cut the vegetables and boil them with 1/2 cup of water. Don't add tomato now.
While the vegetable is boiling, add salt, turmeric powder to it.
After 5 to 7 minutes, add the atta mixed Dahi to it and stair continuously. Remember, you need to stair it slowly until the curd boils properly. Do it as shown in the video.
Let the curd boil for 5 to 6 minutes. And then keep it aside.
Now it's time to chop tomatoes and chop garlic cloves.
The last process is to tadka. For tadka, add 2 TSP oil to a hot pan and then add Pancha Phutana, red chilies, chopped garlic cloves, and curry leaves.
Then add the boiled Dahi and chopped tomatoes.
It's ready to serve.

As per my father, Dahi kanji tastes best when you keep it overnight and eat it the next day. The cold kanji is best to eat with rice or pakhala. If you are following our Instagram page, FoodieOdia, then you might have seen Dahi Kanji on every day's plate.