Masala Vada / Paruppu Vada Recipe

Masala Vada is a street snack and will be good along with a cup of tea. Masala Vada, a crispy and savory deep fried fritter made from chana dal and spices, is a popular street food of South Indian cuisine. It is also known as Paruppu Vadai in Tamilnadu. Besides chana dal, the other important ingredient in masala vada which plays a major role for its flavorful taste is onion. However if you want to make it without onion, add fennel seeds for the flavor. Process for making chana dal vada is very simple and takes very less time except for the time required for soaking the chana dal. If you are craving for something crispy and crunchy, then make this vadai and your taste buds will not stop thanking us.

Ingredients:

Chana Dal - 1cup

Fennel seeds - 1cup

Red Chillies - 4

Onion - 1 big or 10 to 15 pearl onion (Finely chopped)

Green Chilli - 3 (Finely Chopped)

Curry leaves - 1slit

Mint and Coriander leaves - as required (Optional) (Finely chopped)

Salt - for taste

Oil for deep fry

Steps:

Soak the Chana Dal for 5 hrs minimum. Soaking more is required for smooth and crispy

Take out a spoon of Chana dal from soaked dal and keep aside.

Put the rest of the dal into a jar and add red chilli and fennel seeds , salt.

Blend it for 1 minute. It should not be very smooth nor very coarse.

Take out this mixture from jar and add finely chopped onion, green chilli, curry leaves, Mint, coriander leaves and a spoon of chana dal which we took early.

Now the mixture for Vada is ready

Heat the oil in a pan. The flame should be in the medium. Try a small piece from the mixture into oil. If it is raising immediately, that's the stage you can start putting Vada.

Take a small lemon sized ball of the mix, flatten it with your hands and gently slip it into the oil. If you are not familiar with the hands use piece of banana leaf or aluminum foil or plastic cover for flattening the Vada.