Thayir semiya/Curd semiya which literally means yogurt vermicelli is one quick and easy dish generally had as a light meal. It can be served as a ‘naalu mani palaharam’ or an after-school snack for kids.
The main ingredients are semiya or vermicelli which is cooked, mixed with curd or yogurt, tempered, and garnished. The curd used should be moderately sour.
This dish was very popular in the Annapoorna hotels, Coimbatore and it used to be my regular order during my growing years. But somehow I never tried making it at home, as no one was fascinated with it as much as the vermicelli payasam.
And as such, in so many years I completely forgot about the dish. A few days back, I was running short of a lot of items and had to make something for hubby’s evening snack.
The sight of the vermicelli brought back fond memories and I decided to make thayir semiya for him. To my surprise, he liked it so much that I ended up making it a few more times after that.
It may be a very common dish for my people, I mean the people of Tamilnadu or Coimbatore to be specific 🙂 . But thought I should post for the ones who haven’t tried this yet.
Over to the recipe…
Thayir semiya / Curd Semiya
Ingredients
To cook the vermicelli
- ½ cup vermicelli (45g)
- 2 cups water
- few drops oil
- salt as needed
Rest of the ingredients
- ⅓ cup curd/yogurt
- 1 tsp butter
- ¼ cup milk
- a pinch of cumin powder
- a pinch of hing (asafoetida)
- salt as needed
- a pinch of sugar (optional)
For tempering
- 1- 2 tsps oil
- ⅛ tsp mustard seeds
- ¼ tsp split urad dal
- a few cashew nuts
- 1 green chilly (or more as needed)
- a small piece of ginger
- a few curry leaves
- a few raisins
For garnishing
- chopped coriander leaves
- some grated carrot(optional)
Instructions
- Wash the vermicelli and cook it up with the ingredients given under 'to cook vermicelli'.
- Once done, drain and transfer to a container. Add a tsp of butter, mix well and let it sit.
- When it is completely cooled, add the curd/yogurt, milk, cumin powder, hing, sugar, and salt as needed.
- In a pan heat up the oil and temper the items given under 'for tempering' in that order and pour this over the vermicelli mix.
- Serve after garnishing with coriander leaves, and grated carrot. It can also be refrigerated and chilled before serving.
Hema’s P.S
- I have not added carrot this time as I did not have it on hand.
- The thayir semiya is generally in a semi-solid state. Some vermicelli can thicken up way too much. Adjust consistency by adding more curd or milk as needed.
- Add chillies as per preference.
- Adding butter immediately after draining ensures that the vermicelli does not stick to each other.
- Sugar enhances the taste of the preparation. You can skip if you do not want to add.
- If you do not like to add milk to curd, you can completely use curd or even add some water to adjust the consistency. The final preparation should be mildly sour balanced by the spices.
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