Dear friendz, today it’s a throw back post. I am seriously thinking re-posting all the OLD posts with new, updated pictures and video. Because videos are more in trend today and it totally makes sense to rewrite content with eye-catching video. What say? It’s quite an breathtaking experience for me to video shoot the recipes on daily basis so that all the old posts are re-done in fast pace. Masala vada which is more popular as chattambade in Udupi is food for today. This snack is perfectly matches with today’s weather of UAE which is rain plus cold breeze.
It all started like this. The weather GOD showered mercy on UAE with good heavy rain which made schools to announce holiday for children. When kids are at home, the crispy and crunchy snacks are in demand as random hours of the day. So I made a batch of these golden brown masala vadas and the kids were happy to the core.
The recipe is simple, straight forward one. The protein rich chickpea lentils (chana dal) is soaked for at least 2 to 3 hours. Which is then coarsely ground with chillies and ginger. I would suggest to retain few lentils unbroken so that you enjoy biting them in the mouth while eating the vada. I have added little rice powder to retain the crispiness little longer than normal. You can otherwise add some semolina (rava) too. As the little flat masala vada gets in to hot oil and becomes golden brown, the mouth waters for yummy-ness.
Watch the video:
Masala Vada Recipe | Chattambade Recipe
Ingredients
- Chana dal chickpea lentils- 2 cups
- Green chillies- 3 nos.
- Ginger- few pieces
- Coriander leaves- 1/4 cup
- Curry leaves- Few
- Rice flour - 1 tbsp
- Salt- 1.5 tsp
- Hing asafoetida- 1/4 tsp
- Cooking oil- enough to deep fry
Instructions
Preparation
- Rinse chana dal in enough water and soak it for 3 hours.
Method
- Drain all the water from chana dal using colander and transfer it to a blender/mixer. Add green chillies and ginger pieces.
- Grind them together to a coarse paste such that some lentils are intact and unbroken. Transfer it to a bowl.
- Now add finely chopped coriander leaves, curry leaves, rice powder, salt and hing(asafoetida). Mix everything together.
- Take a lemon sized mixture and pat it like vada on your palm. You can get a batch of such vada ready.
- Next heat enough cooking oil in a heavy bottom wok. As it gets heated, slowly drop vada in to oil and deep fry till they turn brown. Remove from oil once done. Drain over tissue paper.
- Repeat the process till all mixture is done. Yummy and crispy masala vada is ready to serve as tea time snack.
Notes
- Do not add water while grinding the soaked chana dal.
- You can replace rice powder by rava or semolina too. It gives crispiness to vada.
- You can include greens like dill leaves too.
- Store in air tight container to extend crispiness for long.
