Spicy Parippu Vada / Spicy Lentil Fritters

 

Snacking with evening tea was a norm at my house during my childhood days.  Even though we kids never used to drink tea, we would enjoy the snack with a cup of milk.  Store bought snacks were rarely used.  Hope some of you can relate to this.

Among the homemade snacks, Parippu Vada / lentil fritters were one of my favorites .  Spicy crunchy Parippu Vada with a cup of ginger tea on a rainy cold day is a perfect evening snack.  Here I am sharing my fool proof Parippu Vada recipe.  Hope the tips mentioned in the notes will help you to make crunchy delicious vadas.

Yields - 35 vadas

Ingredients

2.5 cups - Chana daal

10 - dry hot chili

4 - 5 - hot medium size green chili

2 inch - ginger piece

3/4 - medium size red onion cut into big pieces

2 springs - curry leaves

1/2 -3/4 tsp - asaphoetida powder

Salt to taste

Oil to fry

Directions:

• Soak Chana daal for 2 hours and drain to remove all the water.  Reserve 1/2 cup of the daal.
• In a food processor pulse onion, ginger, dry and green chilis and curry leaves.  Transfer this into a mixing bowl.
• Pulse the chana daal till you can form a ball with the mix.
• Add the pulsed chana daal into the onion, chili mix.
• Add the reserved chana daal, asaphoetida and salt and mix well.
• Heat the oil in a kadai or frying pan.  Shape a lime sized ball into disc by flattening it between your palms.  The edges should be thin.
• Fry them in hot oil  without over crowding on low to medium heat till the vadas are crispy and golden brown.

Notes:

• Make sure not to over soak the chana daal to avoid soaking up lot of moisture.
• If you are not making all the vadas at the same day, make sure to add the salt only to the batch you are going to use the same day.  Rest can be refrigerated.  Take the mix out of the refrigerator and let it come to room temperature before you make vadas.  Adding salt in advance will tend to drain the moisture out of the onions and will make the mix watery.
• Make sure to make small vadas with more of a flattened shape to cook the vadas evenly and crispy.
• People use toor daal, Peas daal or chana daal to make this vada.  I usually make it with chana daal.
• I shape the vadas in batches and keep them in a plate lined with parchment paper.  Using a slotted spoon I flip the vada onto the spoon carefully and drop it into the hot oil.  This helps to avoid any accidents of oil splutters while dropping the vadas in the oil.
• Makes sure to fry the vadas on low to medium heat to get crispy crunchy vadas.  Increase the heat to medium for the last 1 minute to get the right color.
• You can store the prepared vadas in the air tight container in the refrigerator.  To reheat them place them in a preheated air fryer at 350 °F for 5 - 6 minutes till it gets crispy.