Skip to main content
Support

Browse by category

All categories
Home

Soy and legumes from Indian Subcontinent

Wadi / warri (sun-dried legume-paste dumplings)वड़ी

Split black gram is soaked, ground to a sticky dough and left to ferment, then shaped into small cones or balls and dried in the sun for days. Lactic bacteria sour the dough and yeasts puff it, so the dried wadi is hollow and brittle; it is cooked later in curries.

Fully documentedSoy and legumes3.2 days – 12 days

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceTraditional process with no fixed amounts; the dough is black gram and water, with spices and salt by choice.
Split black gram (urad dal)[roy2011]
Water, for soaking and grinding[roy2011]
Spices, salt and old dough (backslop)Sometimes mixed in[roy2011]
Potato wari variant70 % potato, 30 % urad dalThe best-liked blend in a Punjab study[kaur2016]
Starterspontaneous, or backslop

Total time across the recorded steps: 3.2 days – 12 days

Start
Drag the bar or press Play
Close-up: water moving into a bean

What changes: Split black gram soaks and swells in water

Step 1 of 5
Soak the split black gram
Time
6–12 h
Reported
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactic acid bacteria
Yeasts

Output: soaked dal.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

Not documented for this step.

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

At a glance

Split black gram is soaked, ground to a sticky dough and left to ferment, then shaped into small cones or balls and dried in the sun for days. Lactic bacteria sour the dough and yeasts puff it, so the dried wadi is hollow and brittle; it is cooked later in curries. Made in 5 steps over 3.2 days – 12 days. The longest step, dry in the sun, takes 2.5–8 days (Roy A 2011) and runs at 29–33 °C (Roy A 2011). Lactic acid bacteria, which sour the dough and Yeasts, which leaven the dough do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step2.5–8 daysReported[roy2011]Dry in the sun
Temperature29–33 °CReported[roy2011]Dry in the sun
AciditypH 6 → 4.8Measured[roy2011]Dry in the sun

What makes this one different

Wadi uses the same soaked and fermented black-gram dough as idli batter, but it is shaped and dried in the sun instead of steamed; a potato wari kept 12 months at room temperature.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Potato wariBoiled potato blended with urad dal, 70 to 30; kept 12 months at room temperature.

Safety

In a lab study, Staphylococcus aureus and E. coli added to the dough fell below detection after 36 h of drying, and Bacillus cereus after 24 h. The suggested storage is 15–25 °C with water activity below 0.7.

Hazards the sources name: Bacillus cereus, about 3 log cfu/g in uninoculated dough, below 100 cfu/g after 24 h of drying.

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

History
The sources we found do not record its history.
  1. [roy2011] Roy A., Moktan B., Sarkar P.K. 2011, Survival and growth of foodborne bacterial pathogens in fermenting dough of wadi, a legume-based indigenous food, Journal of Food Science and Technology 48(4):506–509paper
  2. [rakshit2014] Rakshit M., Moktan B., Hossain S.A., Sarkar P.K. 2014, Moisture sorption characteristics of wadi, a legume-based traditional condiment, Journal of Food Science and Technology (abstract)paper
  3. [kaur2016] Kaur S., Aggarwal P. 2016, Development and quality characteristics of nutritionally enhanced potato legume based wari, an Indian traditional savoury, Journal of Food Science and Technology (abstract)paper