on May 19, 2021 I’m on a little bit of a regional food spin here with the Donne Biryani style Chicken Pulao recipe I shared last week and my favourite coconut chutney recipes. But this masala vada or vadai needs a special hooray! If you love crispy, deep fried food thats so crunchy you can hear it a mile away, you need to try these. They are the king of street food, 5PM snacks and train snacks. Made primarily with lentils or soaked dal these chana dal vadas pack in a lot of flavour from a few simple spices.
The Main Ingredient – Chana Dal
The primary ingredient is masala vadas is chana dal (split chickpeas). The trick is to soak them for 1.5 hours ONLY. Any longer and the dal will start becoming too soft when ground, making these mushy and not crispy. Chana dal is a staple in most Indian households and has a dense, meaty texture when cooked which makes it so perfect for these chana dal vadas.
The Spice Mix
There are a few pantry spices that add all the flavour to these vadas. The spices should be fresh (not older than 1 year or they’ll lose their strength and aroma), and don’t need to be roasted. You can use the small jar of the mixer grinder, a coffee grinder or a spice grinder to grind these spices to a coarse powder. You’ll notice everything in this recipe is coarsely ground because every element adds crunch and texture. Here are the spices you’ll need:
Whole Cinnamon (dalchini)Cumin Seeds (jeera) Fennel Seeds (saunf) whole dried Red Chillies
Apart from these, we are also going to use fresh mint, fresh curry leaves, chopped onions, ginger garlic paste and turmeric that’ll be mixed with the chana dal mixture. Serve Masala Vada with any of our favourite coconut chutney recipes
Making extra crispy Masala Vada
Here are a few tips and tricks that’ll yield the cripest vadais. I tested these so that every bite is crunchy: Soaking Time for Chana Dal: The optimum time for soaking chana dal is 1.5 hours. Any longer and the dal will become soggy Grinding Chana Dal: All Indian mixer grinders come with a small spice mixer. Use this for grinding the chana dal only. This jar is specifically for grinding spices, chutneys and podis so you don’t need to add any water vs the wet grinder and blender. Don’t use any water and grind the chana dal to a coarse mixture. Don’t worry if you still have bits of whole chana dal – we want those! Forming the vadas: Form the vadas into flattened discs that are about 1/4 inch in thickness. Any thicker than that, and there’s a chance the inside won’t cook through properly Deep Frying Masala Vada: The trick to frying these crispy is to add the vadas to hot oil and not disturb them for a few minutes (2-3 minutes). This helps to cook the outside so that the vadas maintain their shape and don’t start breaking while frying. Fry these over medium heat to give them a chance to crisp up all the way through. If the heat is too high, the insides will remain uncooked. These take about 10-12 minutes to fry to a deep golden brown. Making this vada recipe needs some prep but the method is actually quite effortless. The result is crunchy, crispy masala vadai that keeps you hooked and wanting for more!
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