Vadai or Vade - savoury fried snack

You could use Channa/chickpea Dal or Masoor/Red lentil dal

Ingredients

1 cup Masoor Dal (Red lentils) or Chickpea(Channa) Dal

¾ cups Red Onions

½ tbsp Ginger

1 tbsp Green Chilli

2 tbsp Curry Leaves

½ tsp Chili Flakes

½ tsp Salt

Oil to fry

1 tbsp Maldives dried fish -optional

Method

Wash and soak the dal at least for an hour, then drain the water and grind them in a food processor/bar mix. I take out a handful of soaked dal and keep aside. Then grind the balance, and then I add the handful so it will help with shaping it.

I chop the onion, mince the ginger and green chili. Cut the curry leaves thinly.

Then I mix in the rest of the ingredients add the salt to taste. Add this to the ground Dal and combine everything together well and start to shape them into small golf-size ball and press it into a flat circles or into an oval shape.

Heat the oil in a deep pan on medium heat. Make sure the oil is hot, fry the vada in small batches until they turn to a golden colour. Use a slotted spoon to take them out of the oil and place them on a kitchen paper towel to drain the excess oil. I used a scoop I had to shape them.