Heena's Kitchen Diaries: Dal Vada

" Dal vada " makes my mouth water. A protein rich lentil dumpling deepfried to that exact crisp served with fried slit green chillies and marinated sliced red onions. You can find these as a street snack in Ahmedabad, Gujarat widely.

" Dal " means any lentil and " vada " means deep fried dumplings. These can be made with a variety of lentils too or a mix of all together too, but the name and the taste varies.

Usually this is the most relished delicacy in winter's or when it rains BUT frankly these can be relished anytime. This is a One Pot Recipe, Protein rich, Diabetic Friendly option, Great as a tea time hot snack, Excellent appetizer or snack recipe.

This is my Masi's recipe. She makes amazing yummilicious fingerlicking food and is an expert in making snacks and sweets. She had a school friend who had a snack and sweet shop and that's when she had the hang of making these so very good. The tricks and tips which she possesses is immensely helpful. She makes these snacks more yummy and healthy than the store bought ones. Her best being the Mohanthal recipe which my Dad insisted her on making everytime we visited her home. Believe me that Mohanthal taste lingers still in our mouth...so yumm.

INGREDIENTS

1 heaped cup - skinned split moong dal

2 green chillies

1 inch ginger

1/4 tsp - asafoetida

handfull cilantro leaves chopped ( optional )

salt as needed

water for soaking

oil for deep frying

grinder or mixer or food processor

wok for deep frying

PROCEDURE

Just 3 simple steps SOAKING - GRINDING - FRYING and relishing them hot.

These can be made using skinless moongdal too BUT my Masi insists making these with skinned split moongdal it enhances the taste and makes it more crunchy and yumm. You can try making both versions and see which one you like more. We personally like the skinned version and make it often when making DAL VADA's.

Step 1 : This recipe requires pre-soaking of the lentil / dal. I usually soak the lentil in the morning, 4 hours or more is enough to soak and puff up the lentil. Wash the lentil / dal properly and soak in adequate water. More water does no harm.

I follow this procedure - soak in the morning, grind and make in the evening. So if planning to make these for Friday movie nights OR weekend parties it is definitely a healthy quick fix treat.

For making it Kids friendly I personally make two separate batters, 1 with more spice and other with minimal spice, you can fry the kids lot first then the remaining lot. Also for marinated onions you can just add salt for the kids option and serve.

Skinned split moongdal.

Step 2 : Drain the excess water from the lentil / dal and keep aside. Now in a food processor or grinder add green chillies, ginger, asafoetida, and soaked dal and grind it coarse. Believe me the chunky dal tastes so crunchy on frying and gives it a nice grainy texture too.

While grinding almost no water is required to pulse the dal as it is pre-soaked and already has that required water content to ease grinding. If you feel the mixture more dry then you can add some spoon by spoon, but if you have soaked it properly and the dal is properly puffed up then avoid adding more.

Once properly ground the batter appears thick and slimy not easy to fall, is the consistency we are looking for.

I personally did not add anything other dals OR flour here. But if your Dal vada batter has more water content OR become loose enough then you can add any ingredient mentioned here as per the availability in your pantry -
chickpea flour / besan
rice flour
rava
poha

Soaked and grinded with adequate water.

We personally like more spice and crunch, so add these extra finely chopped green chillies, do add them if you like spicy food. Add salt and check for the spices, do add accordingly before frying.

I omitted Cilantro OR any other greens here as my husband does not like it in this recipe. Well even I feel it can over power the taste, but you can surely add it if you like it.

Step 3 : Heat oil in a wok for deep frying. Once the oil is hot drop little batter to check, if the batter instantly pops up back then the oil is ready for frying. Add 1 Tsp of hot oil from the wok to the batter and mix well. Scoop the batter with hands OR with a spoonfull and drop small dumplings into the oil. Fry them properly on both sides over a medium low flame until rich golden color.

Step 4 : Meanwhile the Dal Vada's are frying prepare the marinated onions to eat with these hot vada's.

Prepare these just before serving as onions will ooze water and loose the crisp if prepared ahead of time.

Marinated sliced red onions with salt, paprika and lime juice. These taste just yummm... with hot Dal Vada's.

You can even add chat masala instead of paprika OR both.

Frying perfection.

Halve and see if the Dal Vada's are cooked properly from inside. My way of grabbing that first bite...;)

ACCOMPANIMENTS

Wallah, I cannot resist my self more and immediately dig in these hot crispy bites with marinated onions as soon as these come out of the wok.

We relish these with a variety ...

marinated red onions,

fresh cilantro chutney,

sweet and tangy khajur imli gud chutney / dates tamarind and jaggery chutney,

chilled buttermilk,

hot ginger mint tea,

tomato ketchup,

marinated papaya chutney.

Our platter of Dal Vada's with marinated onions and fresh cilantro chutney and sweet and tangy khajur imli gud chutney / dates tamarind and jaggery chutney.