Aama (Dal) Vadai

Vada is a popular South Asian deep-fried snack. The shape and size can vary, although the finished product is usually like a doughnut. Although deep-fried, if done right, the finished product should not be very oily. There are a variety of vadas.

The following recipe helps make around 30 medium-sized vadas

Ingredients

Tuvar Dal 1 cup
Urad Dal 1/2 cup
Chenna Dal 1/2 cup
Red Chilli 3 or 4
Green Chilli 4 or 5
Ginger 1/2″
Asafoetida powder
Salt to taste
Cilantro -chopped finely
Oil for frying

Get Cooking!

1. Wash and soak the tuvar and urad dal together for atleast a couple of hours. Drain the water away.
2. Wash and soak the chenna dal for at least a couple of hours. Drain the water away.
3. Grind the red chillies , green chillies, ginger. Add the tuvar-urad dal mixture and grind coarsely just sprinkling water. ( Try make it as dry as possible )
4. Add the salt and asafoetida powder. Mix the chenna dal and the chopped cilantro.
5. Heat the oil. Take a small ball of the mixture, shape into a vada and fry till brown.
6. Once the vadas are brown, remove from oil and place on a tissue to drain excess oil.

Tips
You can add coconut scrapings and/or cashew nuts to the vada batter before frying and mix it up. You can also add curry leaves to the batter. Some add even chopped onions.
To reduce the amount of oil usage; I once placed my vadas on a cookie sheet placed them inside a hot oven after spraying some oil on them; cooked them up till they were crisp. The colour was not the golden brown, hence I deep fried some and found it absorbed much less oil and was way crispier 🙂 You could eat the vadas straight from the oven (or grill).