Masala Vada

Masala Vada is my all time favorite in deep fried snack list!!

It is a deep fried snack made with channa dal or Bengal gram which is crisp on the outside and soft inside. Its great snack during tea time. 
Some recipes do not add garlic. I have used garlic, onions, cinnamon, cloves, mint or dil as aromatic ingredients.

Ingredients

2 Cups Benagal Gram or channa dal (soaked for at least 5  to 10 hours)

5 cloves of Garlic

5 Green Chilies

1'' stick of Cinnamon

4 Cloves

1 Onion, chopped

1 small bunch of Mint / Dill or both

1 small bunch of Coriander/ Cilantro

Salt

Oil for deep fry

Method

• Soak Bengal gram | Channa dal for 5 hours.Ccoarsely grind it without adding water

• Make a coarse paste of garlic, chilies, cinnamon, and  cloves

• In a mixing bowl, add the ground channa dal, garlic-cloves-cinnamon- green chili paste , chopped onions, mint/dill , coriander and adjust salt to taste.  Mix well

• Now, divide the dough into equal portions. Take each portion and pat the ball into 1/4th inch thickness

• Using a heavy bottom vessel, heat oil for deep frying. Gently add vada to it. Fry on both sides until it turns to golden brown.

• Serve hot with tea

Tip

• You can use red chilies instead of green chilies and adjust spice level as per taste
• Mint/ dill/ coriander is only optional ingredient. Adding these adds more flavor to this recipe
• Garlic is sometimes added or sometimes not added. Again this is only an optional ingredient