Recipe for killu vadai made with chana dal. Crispy and crunchy vadais made with soaked and ground chana dal mixed with onions and herbs. Perfect for teatime.
This vadai is a slight variation from the traditional paruppu vadai. In this recipe, the batter is ground a little smooth than the traditional vadai batter and its dropped in oil in small random sized pieces. As the pieces are small, it gets crisp all over and has a very nice crunch in each bite. The nice ratio of korak-morak as we call it. My son loved this so much at a family get together recently. In Tamilnadu we get a special dal for making vadai called as vadai paruppu. Its a little bigger than chana dal and it crisps beautifully. If you cannot get hold of vadai paruppu, you can use the regular chana dal. I have used chana dal today for this recipe.
Soak the chana dal in water for 2 hours. Do not soak longer than that or the vadai will consume a lot of oil while frying.
Drain the dal after 2 hours. Grind the dal with the fennel seeds, cumin seeds and salt. Rock salt tastes well for this recipe. Use about 2-3 tablespoon of water while grinding. You should grind the batter to a very slightly coarse paste.
To the ground batter, add in lots of finely chopped onions, chopped curry leaves, chopped coriander leaves, chopped mint leaves, finely chopped green chillies and finely chopped ginger.
Adding lots of onions and coriander leaves adds flavour to the vadai. So be generous with the veggies. Mix well and check for seasoning. Add extra salt if necessary.
Heat oil in a pan until hot. Take small pieces of the vadai batter and drop it in oil. No need to shape the vadais. Just drop it in oil in random shapes. But make sure you are dropping small pieces. The vadai will be very crispy and crunchy as its small.
Cook the vadai until golden brown. Drain on paper towel.
Serve hot as an accompaniment for lunch with rice or as a snack for tea time in the evening.
Note: The ground batter can be stored in the refrigerator and used within a day. Bring the vadai batter to room temperature before frying. If the vadai batter is very runny, add a teaspoon of chickpea flour (besan) to adjust the consistency.
- 1.5 cups chana dal
- 1 teaspoon fennel seeds
- ½ teaspoon cumin seeds
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 onions, finely chopped
- 2 sprigs curry leaves, finely chopped
- ¼ cup finely chopped coriander leaves
- ¼ cup finely chopped mint leaves
- 5 green chillies, finely chopped
- 1 inch ginger, finely minced
- 500ml vegetable oil / sunflower oil for deep frying
- Soak the chana dal in water for 2 hours.
- Drain the dal after 2 hours. Grind the dal with the fennel seeds, cumin seeds and salt.
- To the ground batter, add in lots of finely chopped onions, chopped curry leaves, chopped coriander leaves, chopped mint leaves, finely chopped green chillies and finely chopped ginger.
- Mix well and check for seasoning.
- Heat oil in a pan until hot. Take small pieces of the vadai batter and drop it in oil.
- Cook the vadai until golden brown. Drain on paper towel.
- Serve hot.
Can the coriander be replaced with diff types of spinach?
Sure Aruna. It will work.
nice recipe
Hi Akka, congrats.. yesterday saw ur interview and recipes in aval kitchen magazine… am so happy ka..cute family pic .. All the very best for your future endeavours. Keep going ka.. May God give u success in whatever you do.. love u ka.
Thank you so much Lalitha. Means a lot!