Masala Vada | Bengal Gram Fritters

Masala vada is famous in South India , it’s A popular teatime snack in South India. These Fritters made with a mixture of lentils and legumes,perfect evening snack along with a cup of tea for cold and rainy days..There are quite a number of variations of this recipe. One can add vegetables, greens and other ingredients to this vada mixture. Vada is my hubby’s favorite snack, he would finish off the entire batch of vada. We normally make this vadai during festivals and other occasions.

April 14 is “Puthandu”/Tamil New Year. Puthandu/Tamil New Year, is the celebration of the first day of the Tamil new year in mid-April by Tamilians all over the world. Its a day of celebration for tamilians. I usually make payasam, vada along with full South Indian meals which include Sambar, Rasam, poriyal, appalam, vada, payasam. The entire spread is offered to God during pooja and then we relish them.

I have already posted dill leaf masala vada recipe which is another variation of masala vada. Click here to goto the recipe.

Here’s Masala Vasa recipe-
Ingredients:-

Chana dal/bengal gram – 1 cup
Onions – 1 small(finely chopped)
Coriander leaves – 4 tbspns(finely chopped)
Suji/Semolina – 2 tbspns
Rice flour – 1 1/2 tbspn
Salt to taste
Oil for deep frying
To grind-
Dried red chillies – 4 nos
Garlic cloves – 4 nos
Ginger – 1 inch
Cumin seeds – 1 tspn

Method of preparation:-

1.Wash and Soak channa dal in waster for 3 hours.

2. Chop onions and coriander leaves fine. Keep aside.

3. Blend all ingredients mentioned under to grind list with 1 tspn of water into a coarse mix. Remove from blender, keep aside.

4. Drain water from channa dal completely and grind into coarse paste.

5. To the ground channa dal, add onions, coriander leaves, ground masala paste, semolina, rice flour, salt and mix well.

6. Heat oil in a deep bottomed pan, meanwhile wet your hands with little water, make a small ball of mix and flatten it into vada shape as shown. Deep fry in hot oil until golden in color,flip once in between. Always cook in medium flame to ensure even cooking and golden color. Drain it to a paper towel. Repeate with rest of the dough.

7. Serve hot with any chutney or tomato sauce. Enjoy!