Masala Vada- Dal Vada

Masala vada or dal vada or paruppu vadai is a popular south Indian snack served with tea or as part of meals. These are also known as chana dal vada and made with chana dal, onions, red chillies, some herbs and spices. Vegan and gluten free.

Masala vada is very popular south Indian street food that you will find in the makeshift shops in every street corner 🙂 It is sold as hot cake along with onion pakora, onion samosa, bonda and medu vada.

There are many variations with this dal vada and I am sharing the street style recipe which is very flavorful and crispy. Air fryer and baking methods included.

South Indian street food is very interesting, delicious and has so many varieties. This masala vada is a very popular one among them and loved by all.

We love dal vada at home and I make it often for snacks or during festivals instead of medu vada. While making for festivals I do not add onions but this recipe is with onions and it tastes just like street side ones.

If you like crispy and crunchy spicy snacks for tea, do try out this recipe, I am sure you will thoroughly enjoy it.

About Dal Vada Recipe

Masala vada is a spicy and flavorful deep fritters made of chana dal, onions, herbs like mint leaves, curry leaves and spices like fennel seeds.

It is very simple to make, tastes very delicious, absolutely crispy and has a wonderful flavor. You can use only chana dal or add a small quantity if toor dal too for making this vada.

The difference between masala vada and paruppu vada is that in masala vada we add spices like fennel seeds, onion, garlic whereas in paruppu vada we just use chana dal, red chilies and salt.

Obviously masal vadai is more flavorful and most sought after 🙂 It tastes so good that you do not need any side dish like chutney for this. We always serve this with coffee or masala chai only.

The main ingredient of this dal vada is chana dal or split Bengal gram. It is obtained from brown chickpeas or kala chana and it is very rich in plant based protein and it is known as paruppu in Tamil, hence the name Paruppu vada.

Chana dal is widely used for making adai, paruppu usili in south Indian cooking.

Making perfect masala vada that is crispy yet well cooked and soft inside is really easy if you keep few points in mind.

The key to make best dal vada is getting the right batter consistency and keeping the oil temperature for frying right.

In this recipe I am sharing all the tips and tricks I have learnt over the years and also how to make dal vada in oven and air fryer.

A well made masala vada is super crispy with well cooked, soft and fluffy insides, flavorful with right hint of spices and is absolutely addictive.

I would say the preparation of this masala vada and paruppu vada is similar to falafel. The taste is also somewhat similar but the spices used makes a difference in flavor and taste.

I personally love this vada plain without any chutney but if you prefer you can serve this with coconut chutney too.

Do try me easy masala vadai recipe with step by step photos and enjoy. It is

one of the very popular south Indian street food

vegan and gluten free

very delicious, crispy and flavorful

Very easy to make

made with simple pantry ingredients

best evening snack with tea.

How To Make Masala Vada Recipe

Preparaing The Batter

Pick and rinse 1 cup chana dal and 2 tablespoons toor dal thoroughly. Adding toor dal is optional. Place the rinsed lentils in a wide bowl and add enough water to soak them. Set aside for 2 hours.

After the lentils have well soaked and turned soft, drain excess water from soaked chana dal and set aside.

Using a small mixer grinder jar add 1 teaspoon fennel seeds, 3 peeled garlic flakes, a small peeled ginger piece and 4 dried chilies to a coarse paste without adding any water. Remove to a bowl.

In the same jar add the soaked lentils. Pulse it just twice or thrice without adding any water. Please refer to the picture, there should be few whole lentils for that perfect crispy texture. Do not grind into a paste.

Remove the pulsed lentils to a large mixing bowl. To that add the ground spices, 3/4 cup finely chopped onions, 15 torn curry leaves, 1/4 cup finely chopped mint leaves and salt to taste.

Mix very well. This is the batter or dough for masala vada. It should be thick and you should be able to hold and shape it into ball. If the mixture falls apart add 2 tablespoons rice flour , mix and shape. I have not added any rice flour here.

Shaping & Frying Chana Dal Vada

Mix the prepared parppu vada dough very well and divide into 12 equal sized balls.

Flatten each balls gently and shape like a vada. While you are shaping all the dough balls heat oil for deep frying. To chek if the oil is hot enough drop a small piece of dough, it should raise after a second and should not get burnt immediately. If using a thermometer it should read 190 C / 350 F.

Once the oil is hot drop 2-3 shaped vadas to the hot oil depending upon the size of your pan. Do not disturb them for 20-30 seconds. Once they have firmed up, flip gently and deep fry until they turn crispy and golden brown from all sides. Maintain medium flame.

Remove the fried chana dal vada to a plate lined with kitchen towel to absorb excess oil. Serve masala vada hot.

Air Fryer & Baking Instructions

If you choose to bake or air fry these vadas first of all increase the soaking time for 6 hours as air frying dries out these vadas very much.

So soak the lentils for 6 hours and prepare masala vada batter as mentioned in the step by step recipe.

Preheat your oven or air fryer at 190 C/ 350 F. Shape the batter into vadas and brush them with some oil. Place them on net basket or baking tray and air fry or bake for 15-18 minutes. After 12 minutes flip and bake the other side until they turn crispy and golden.

Serving Suggestions

These masala vadas taste excellent as snack with masala chai or ginger chai. We also like to have this with coconut rice, lemon rice, sambar rice.

You can also use these vadas to make vadacurry recipe.

Storage

These vadas taste good when made and served piping hot. If you have leftovers use it make vadacurry.

The batter can however be stored for 3-4 days in refrigerator. You can make vadas freshly as you need.

Tips To Make Best Masala Vada

Soaking the lentils– I prefer to soak chana dal only for 2 hours for deep fried version. If you over soak the batter turns very soft. It will soak up lot of oil as well as it will not be very crispy. You can make this vada with just 1 hour soaking time too. Do not soak the lentils in hot water, they will turn very soft.

While grinding do not add water at all. Just pulse the lentils twice or thrice in short intervals for a very coarsely ground batter. Though we call it batter it should be thick like a dough only. There should be several whole lentils in the dough as they will lend that amazing crispy texture. The dough should be a coarse mixture.

For that street style flavor do not skip mint leaves, fennel seeds and garlic. You can of course make masala vada recipe without spices and it will taste good too. You can also add some chopped coriander leaves along with mint.

To make home style paruppu vada just skip onions, garlic, fennel seeds, mint leaves. Grind red chilies along with lentils and add 1/4 teaspoon asafoetida to the batter.

Along with red chillies you can add 1-2 green chilies too in the vada mixture.

I like to fry these vadas in peanut oil for that amazing flavor. You can also use sunflower oil or any vegetable oil.

To keep fried vadas crispy for long time make sure the batter consistency is right and you fry them in medium flame until crispy and golden.

More Snack Recipes

Pakora

Veg cutlet

Gobi Manchurian

Kuzhi paniyaram

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