No-fry dahi vada

My paniyaram pan was a few weeks old, and I had been using it to make paniyarams a couple of times a week. I had been making paniyarams to send as school lunch, when I was struck down by a sudden thought- what if I could use the paniyaram tray to make the vadas for dahi vada? Would that not save me the trouble of dealing with all that oil used in deep-frying, and will it not be much, much healthier than the original version? It was nothing short of a Eureka Moment for me.
I was surprised that nobody else had thought of it, and thought it wouldn't work. But when you are used to creating disasters in the kitchen, one more can't hurt too much, can it? I immediately soaked some urad dal, and tried it out within four hours. The result was almost as good as the original. Wonder why I hadn't thought of it before?

The vadas were lovely. I had discovered a way to have dahi vadas on call. Is this what Heaven looks like?

Soak 1 measure urad dal for 2- 8 hours ( I did for 4 hours).
With minimal water, grind the soaked urad dal, a 1/2 inch piece ginger and a green chilli till fine (the way to test if the dal is done is to drop a bit in water- if it starts floating right away, it is done).
Add salt to taste and mix well.
Using an appam tray, make vadas, the same way as you would paniyarams (a slightly watery batter works better than thick one).

Meanwhile, prepare the dahi- beat dahi with salt, roasted jeera powder till smooth.
Keep half aside, and in the other half, add enough water to make it almost the same consistency as buttermilk.

Put the hot vadas in the dahi, and let it soak.

After all the vadas are done, and the dahi has soaked in well, pour the rest of the dahi over the vadas. (If you are serving dahi-vadas, keep some more of the dahi aside)

Garnish with chilli powder, zeera powder and dhania powder.