Masal Vadai

A traditional and common south Indian snack that is served with tea or coffee. This Vadai is made with Bengal gram dhal and onion.

Masal Vadai

Recipe by S Kamala
Course: SnacksCuisine: Indian, TamilDifficulty: Medium
Servings

20

servings
Prep time

4

hours 
Cooking time

30

minutes

A traditional and common south Indian snack that is served with tea or coffee. This Vadai is made with Bengal gram dhal and onion.

Ingredients

  • Bengal gram dhal – 2 cups

  • Onion – 1 No

  • Green Chillies – 3 to 4 Nos

  • Fresh ginger – a small piece

  • Curry leaves – few

  • Coconut gratings – 1 tablespoon (optional)

  • Anise (Sombu) – 1 teaspoon

  • Salt – 1 teaspoon or as per taste

  • Oil – for deep frying

Directions

  • Soak the dhal in water for 3 to 4 hours. Drain the water completely.
  • Take out a handful of soaked dhal and keep separately. Grind (Use whip mode for grinding) the remaining dhal along with sombu, and salt to a coarse paste. No need to add water.
  • Chop onion, green chillies, ginger and curry leaves. Mix all these with dhal along with whole soaked dhal and coconut.
  • Heat oil in a frying pan. Take a lemon size ball and keep it in your left palm and gently press with your right palm. Put it in the hot oil and fry till it turns golden brown.

Notes

  • If you do not like Sombu, then omit it and add a pinch of asafoetida. Also add a red chilli while grinding the dhal or add half teaspoon red chilli powder to the dough to get more spicy Vadai. Chopped mint leaves and coriander leaves can also be added to the dough to get mint flavor.

9 Comments

  1. Anonymous

    hi kamala,
    Can we add rice to the kadala paruppu while soaking (like 1 tbsp rice for 1 cup paruppu) – i normally dont add but a friend suggested this a a tip to get extra crispy vadais. also i use vada paruppu instead of kadala paruppu (its called yellow split peas which you get in the indian grocery shops here)
    Anu

  2. Hi Anu, Yes. You can add a teaspoon of rice along with paruppu to get more crispy vada. Vada can be prepared with any dhal or whole gram. Only taste differ slightly.

  3. Dear mam,

    Ehat is meant by yellow split peas in tamil ?..

    Pls expalin me

    reg
    sonia

  4. Hi Sonia,

    Yellow split peas are "Pattani Paruppu".

  5. hi

    yellow split peas (pattani paruppu) is more tastier than bengal gram(kadalai paruppu) for
    preparing masala vadai

  6. Dear Kamala maami,

    All the recipes I have tried so far from your website have come out really well both in terms flavour and texture.Thank you so much!

    Regards,
    Vaishnavi

  7. RAVI MEHROTRA

    I HAVE TRIED MANY RECIPES & MOST HV COME VERY WELL. MY FAMILY APPRECIATED MY COOKING .

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