Masala Vadai, a crunchy & delicious deep fried savory snack made from split yellow peas and aromatic Indian spices. There are so many variations in making this masala vadai. In today's recipe, i'm sharing the basic version of masala vadai, it tastes good with a cup of tea or as accompaniment for your special day meal. 

Back in days when we were school goers, Amma used to make paruppu vadai/masala vada with chana dal and we used to call it as "Aama vadai"/ஆமவடை (honestly don't know the reason for the name ) and it's my favorite and like it more than the medu vada/uluntha vadai. On those deepavali days, i was the one who finishes off all the aama vada. 

Though aama vadai/ஆமவடை tastes so good, it doesn't stay crunchy for longer hours like the one we got from the tea shop/restaurant. The key to the restaurant style crunchy paruppu vada is the use of the split yellow peas/pattani paruppu not the chana dal/kadala paruppu. 

Once knew the secret ingredient , i have been using pattani paruppu/split yellow peas only for making the masala vada . Over the past several years away from home country, i have easy access to the split yellow peas(even walmart/local store carries this in their regular grocery section) than the chana dal, that's the another reason for me using split yellow peas for masala vada.

If you're from South Tamilnadu, you might already knew about another type of vada known as  kara vadai those are made from the combination of chana dal, yellow split peas and urad dal. I have been trying to remake the kara vadai at home for a while now but still  couldn't recreate the exact texture and taste. Once i knew the knack, shall share the recipe here. 

Ok, now coming back to today's recipe, it's such a fool proof vada recipe that even beginners can make this delicious vada without any fuss. Make sure to soak the Pattani Paruppu/Yellow Split Peas for at least 2 hrs and grind into coarse mixture, those are the only two things to be taken care for scrumptious & crunchy masala vada. Now, let's check out on how to make this vada.

Masala Vada | Pattani Paruppu Vadai

Preparation Time : 2 hrs | Cooking Time : 15 mins | Makes : 10 small vadai 
Recipe Category: Snacks | Recipe Cuisine: Indian
Masala Vadai, Pattani Paruppu Vadai, Paruppu Vadai, Vadai, Evening Snacks, Savory Snack,Kara Vadai Masala Vadai, a crunchy, delicious deep fried savory snack made from split yellow peas and aromatic Indian spices. There are so many variations in making this masala vadai. In today's recipe, i'm sharing the basic version of masala vadai, it tastes good with cup of tea or as accompaniment for your special day meal.

Sandhiya https://www.facebook.com/SandhiyasCookbook https://www.instagram.com/sandhiyascookbook/

Ingredients
Pattani Paruppu/Split Yellow Peas  - 1/2 cup
Onion - 1(small)
Ginger - 1 inch
Fennel seed - 1/2 tsp
Red chili - 3 
Curry leaves - few
Coriander leaves - few
Salt - to taste
Oil - for frying

Procedure

Soak the pattani paruppu for 2 hrs . First in a blender/mixie jar, add ginger, red chili & fennel seeds and grind into coarse mixture.

Next drain the water from soaked peas and add into the mixie jar and grind into coarse mixture and add into a bowl.

Chop the onions into small pieces and add into the grounded peas along with curry leaves, coriander leaves and salt. Mix it all well together. Take equal amount of vada mixture and make a ball(I found this way easy to flatten the vada later, but making ball is totally optional step.)

Heat the oil for frying, flatten the vada batter and add into oil gently. 

Cook it on medium flame until it's brown and crispy. Drain from oil and place on tissue paper. 

Tasty Masala Vada is ready. For more tea time snacks and chaat items, check out here 
Notes:

• Cook it in low medium flame for crunchy vadai.
• Grind the soaked peas into coarse mixture for crunchy vadai
• Fennel and ginger gives great flavor to the vada. Highly recommend to use that to recreate tea shop style masala vadai.