Crunchy and delicious deep fried lentil fritters. Perfect snack on this cold winter day!
It is a popular snack in southern India. It is super addictive snack. Perfect party snack and also it taste best with tea time snack. And if you make these for parties, it is a great hit. Whenever there is a tea time here, people tend to have biscuits or cakes. But I guess in India, It is always spicy crunchy snacks with tea. Whenever I walk in streets in Chennai, I used to have this masala vada aroma near the road side shops. It smells so good! I have never got the chance to taste them. It is been in my drafts for a long time to post, so I am posting it today.
The tips to make these vada tasty are by adding the shallots, mint and fennel seeds. And also people think it’s hard to make these. If you make them once, you will know how easy it is to make them. But make sure to not add water when you grind them. I have mentioned some tips in the notes. Do look at it.
- Channa Dal – 1 cup
- Shallots/Small onions – 1 cup, chopped
- Corainder leaves – 2 tbsp, chopped
- Mint leaves – 2 tbsp, chopped
- Curry leaves – 1 sprig
- Green Chillies – 4
- Fennel seeds/ Soambu – 1 tsp
- Ginger – 1 inch piece
- Garlic – 6 cloves
- Rice flour – 1 tbsp
- Salt – 1 ½ tbsp
- Soak channa dal for 4 hours.
- First grind ginger, chillies, garlic and fennel coarsely in a blender jar.
- Drain channa dal completely and add it to the same jar of the ginger paste and grind coarsely. 4-5 channa dal pieces can be whole.
- Mix finely chopped onion, mint, coriander, salt, rice flour and curry leaves.
- Heat oil in pan/kadai.
- Meanwhile Keep a bowl with water and wet both hands. Make equal sized balls first for uniform sized vadas. Shape each ball to flat patties of medium thickness.
- The oil should be hot and when it is hot, Drop the vadas. Simmer the heat and deep fry them in hot oil until golden brown in color, flipping once in between. It is always good to cook in medium flame to ensure even cooking and golden colour.
2. Make sure to soak vada for three to four hours. It is hard to grind them otherwise and also if it is not soaked well, it may turn hard and too crisp.
3. Rice flour helps to make it crispier. It is optional. You can soak 1 spoon for rice with the dal and grind instead.
4. Garlic is optional too.
5. Shallots can be replaced with normal red/white onions. But shallots give great texture and flavor.
Masala vadai look so crispy.. I like your photos, truly tempting to eat..
Thank you bhawya 🙂
nice and crispy vada….perfect t time snack..
Cheers
Anu @ RasA-svAda
Thank you Anu :)!