Dill is one of the commonly used green leafy vegetables in India. It is extensively made use of in stews, curries, and salads. Masala vada made using dill is a specialty that is generally made during festivals in south Indian households. On regular days, It serves as a perfect appetizer or a side dish alongside steamed rice – dal or an evening snack with some piping hot chai/tea!

Masala vadas are essentially deep-fried in vegetable oil. However, I prefer shallow frying over deep frying as it gives the same taste and crunchiness as that of deep-frying, plus it consumes a lesser amount of oil. Continue reading if you want to know how to make these flavorsome, crunchy, lentil fritters.

Prep time: 2 hours
Cook time: 30 minutes
Total time: 2 hours 30 minutes
Servings: 3

Ingredients:

1 cup(150g) channa dal/ split chickpea, soaked for 2 hours
5 tablespoons of dill, finely chopped
1 small onion, finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
Vegetable oil
Salt to taste

For blending:
3 green chillis, chopped
3 garlic cloves
2 cloves
1/4 inch cinnamon bark

preparation:

Step 1: Drain out the water from the soaked channa dal and transfer half the channa dal into a blender. Add green chilies, garlic, cloves, and cinnamon into the blender and blend it into an almost-fine paste. Transfer the mixture into a mixing bowl. Then, add the remaining half channa dal and blend it into a coarse paste and transfer it into the same mixing bowl. Coarse grinding helps the vada mixture to bind together well and makes it crunchy.

Step 2: Add finely chopped onions, dill, cumin, salt to taste to the mixing bowl, and combine the mixture well.

Step 3: Pour enough vegetable oil to fill the bottom of a frying pan and heat it on low-medium flame. Once the oil is hot enough, take a golf-sized roundel from the vada mixture, flatten it using your palm and gently place the flattened vada in oil. Make 4 to 5 such vadas depending on the frying pan size and shallow fry each vada on both sides until dark brown.

Step 4: Carefully remove vadas from the oil and place them on a paper towel to drain out excess oil.

Step 5: Enjoy hot dill masala vada as an evening snack, or as a side dish with rice-dal.