Last updated on August 19th, 2018
Masala vada recipe or chana dal vada recipe – a popular and delicious south Indian street food along with pakoda, onion samaosa, medu vada types. These are also known as paruppu vadai as these are made of split bengal gram or chana dal. Heavily spiced and exceptionally crispy this chana dal vada is a crowd favorite with chai. Here is how to make street style masala vada recipe with step by step photos.
If you see in streets of Tamilnadu, there will surely one cart at every adjoining streets selling absolutely delectable savories like spicy samosa, masala vada, ulundhu vada and onion pakoda, they get sold like hot cakes, literally! There is a stall very near to our house and even we use t0 buy every now and then.
To make masala vada recipe just like we get in shops, few ingredients like fennel seeds and garlic. If you miss fennel seeds, the masala vada will not taste like the ones you get in shop nonetheless very tasty. In few homes paruppu vada or dal vada is made on Diwali, so thought of sharing this masala vada recipe now. If you want you can leave out onion garlic to to make masala vada on Diwali.
Check out my Diwali sweets collection and Diwali snacks collection here!
Masala vada recipe wit step by step photos:
1. Soak gram dal and toor dal (if using) in plenty of water for 45 minutes. Drain and set aside.
2. Grind fennel seeds,garlic flakes and dried chilies to a coarse paste (do not add water). Remove to a mixing bowl.
3. Now in the same mixer , add the soaked and dried dal. Pulse it for just 2-3 times, do not add any water, there should whole dal here and there.
4. Take the pulsed dal in the mixing bowl too. Add finely chopped onions, mint leaves, salt and rice flour. Mix well. Do not add water at any point.
6. Heat oil for deep frying. Take one big lemon sized ball from the prepared dal mixture, try shaping a vada, if you feel the mixture is very loose add 2 more teaspoons of rice flour and mix well. Now shape vada from the mixture.
7. Slide the shaped vadas 3-4 at a time (depending on the size of the kadai) and deep fry until golden brown from both sides. Serve masala vada piping hot with coffee or tea. You can also serve this as side dish with bisibelebath.
Masala vada recipe card below:
- 1 cup gram dal
- 1 tablespoon toor dal optional
- 2 teaspoons rice flour
- 1 big onion finely chopped
- 2 tablespoons mint leaves finely chopped
- 1 teaspoon fennel seeds/saunf/sombu
- 3 dried red chillies
- 2-3 garlic cloves
- 3-4 curry leaves
- 2 green chillies
- Small piece of ginger
- Salt
- Oil for deep frying
- Soak gram dal and toor dal (if using) in plenty of water for 45 minutes. Drain and set aside.
- Grind fennel seeds,garlic flakes,ginger,green chiles and dried chilies to a coarse paste (do not add water). Remove to a mixing bowl.
- Now in the same mixer , add the soaked and dried dal. Pulse it for just 2-3 times, do not add any water, there should whole dal here and there.
- Take the pulsed dal in the mixing bowl too. Add finely chopped onions, mint leaves, salt and rice flour. Mix well. Do not add water at any point.
- Heat oil for deep frying. Take one big lemon sized ball from the prepared dal mixture, try shaping a vada, if you feel the mixture is very loose add 2 more teaspoons of rice flour and mix well. Now shape vada from the mixture.
- Slide the shaped vadas 3-4 at a time (depending on the size of the kadai) and deep fry until golden brown from both sides. Serve masala vada piping hot with coffee or tea. You can also serve this as side dish with bisibelebath.
1. Do not add water for grinding or in the dal mixture at any point.
2. Do not grind the dal smoothly, it should be coarse with few whole dals here and there.
Masala vada with cutting chai 🙂 Best for winters