Dill masala vada or sabsige masala vade is a savory, crispy, mildly-spicy, deep-fried snack made using chana dal, onions, dill, and spices. It is popular in southern India as a side dish for rice bath, rice-dal, or an evening snack with some piping hot chai/tea. While masala vadas are essentially deep-fried, shallow-frying also gives the same taste and crispness as deep-frying. Additionally, shallow-frying takes a much lesser amount of cooking oil, which is why I prefer it. Continue reading to know how to make these yummy, shallow-fried dill masala vadas.

Prep time: 3 hours
Cook time: 30 minutes
Total time: 3 hours 30 minutes
Yield: 8 -10 masala vadas

ingredients:

200g channa dal/ split chickpea, soaked for 3 hours and drained
3 green chilies
2 cloves of garlic
1/4 inch of ginger root
2-3 cloves
1/4 inch cinnamon bark
5 tablespoons of dill, finely chopped
1 small onion, finely chopped
Cooking oil, for shallow frying
2-3 tablespoons of water
Salt to taste

preparation:

1. Into a blender, add soaked and drained channa dal(leaving behind 2 tablespoons of it), green chilies, garlic, ginger, cloves, and cinnamon, and blend it into a coarse paste adding 2-3 tbsp of water.

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2. Into a mixing bowl, add the coarsely ground paste, plus the 2 tbsp of chana dal previously kept apart, finely chopped onion, dill, and salt to taste. Combine everything to get a well-binding mixture.

3. Pour enough cooking oil to fill the bottom of a frying pan and heat it. Once hot enough, take a golf-sized roundel of the vada mixture, flatten it using your palm, gently place the flattened vada in oil, and shallow fry on low-medium heat on both sides until brown.

4. Carefully remove vadas from the pan and place them on a paper towel to drain out excess oil.
5. Enjoy hot dill masala vada as an evening snack or as a side dish with rice-dal.

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note:

• Drain water completely from soaked channa dal else the mixture will become soggy.
• If the mixture becomes soggy, add about 1 tbsp of rice flour and mix well.
• You could either blend green chilies or finely chop them and add them to the mixture while adding onions and dill.
• Add dill generously. More dill = More tastier the vada 🙂
• You could store the vada mixture in the refrigerator and make fresh vadas before consuming. Do not refrigerate vadas as they will lose their crunchiness.