Non Fried Chana Dal Vada (Cutlets) Recipe | South Indian Snack

I am back again with another Fritter/ Cutlet recipe. This time it is the Chana Dal Vada, a famous snack from South India and a very popular street food – only the recipe I am giving you here is the non-fried version.

The earlier fritter recipes I had posted were of Corn Zucchini Fritters and Vrat Wali Tikki.

Try this Non-fried version of Chana Dal Vada - the famous South Indian snack. I loved the recipe. Share on X

I have been preparing a variety of fritters for my 11 AM snacks as I find them filling, and tasty. They are amazing with a hot cup of tea (definitely a healthier substitute for biscuits or namkeen or any other fried alternative) and gives me enough energy to keep going until my lunch at 1 PM.

Obviously, if I had kept on making only one type of fritter every time, it would have been very boring, so I ended up trying different variations and combinations – anything for the taste buds. 😘😝 This one especially is crunchy because of the full gram dal that I have kept in the mix.

Let’s quickly see the list of ingredients:

Ingredients

• Chana Dal: 1 cup soaked overnight or for at least 3-4 hours
• Onion: 1 medium size chopped
• Ginger (Adrak): 1/2 inch grated
• Green Chilli (Hari Mirch): 1 or 2 chopped (Optional)
• Cilantro (Hara Dhaniya): 1/2 cup
• Salt: as per taste
• Fennel Seeds (Sauf): 2 teaspoons
• Cummin Powder (Jeera Powder): 1 teaspoon
• Red Chilli Powder: 1 teaspoon
• & my Favourite Sattu (roasted gram flour): 1-1/2 tablespoons

Preparation:

1. Keep a handful of soaked chana dal aside. (to give the extra crisp & crunch to the vadas.)
2. Put the remaining chana dal in the mixer and grind till it becomes a coarse paste, you may use 1/2 cup water, if the mixer is getting stuck while grinding
3. Take out the paste in the mixing bowl and add the chana dal you had kept aside to it
4. Also, add the other ingredients, that is chopped onion, ginger, green chili, cilantro, salt, fennel seeds, cumin powder and red chili powder and mix well.
5. The sattu we will use as a binder (since we will not be frying), we need the mix to have less moisture, here sattu will help. You can also use bread crumbs as an alternative, but sattu is definitely a healthier option.
6. Make small disc-type balls (tikki/ vada/ cutlets shaped) out of the mixture.
7. Keep the vadas aside for 10 minutes.
8. Place the flat pan for heating, once hot put little oil in it and use a brush to spread the oil
9. Once the oil is hot, place the vada on the oil, simmer the gas to medium heat and let it cook for 2 minutes
10. Now brush the other side of the vada with oil and reverse the vada for them to cook on the other side for another two (2) minutes.

The Vada is ready to be eaten.

Generally, the vadas are fried, but in this method, you get to eat this yummy snack, but in a healthier way. It is important that we eat what we like, else our hunger shall never be satisfied and we will be lured by all sorts of food – and this is one of the reasons the binge eating episodes occur.

Experimenting with Food is really going that Extra Mile to achieve your weight loss goal

Try this Non-fried version of Chana Dal Vada - the famous South Indian snack. I loved the recipe. Share on X

In the past few months, since the time I have been on my weight loss journey, I have rediscovered my kitchen as well as my creativity vis-á-vis cooking. Earlier I never experimented so much in the kitchen, in fact, I hated cooking. Now I search for healthier food options and cook them to adjust to my taste buds – some experiments turn out to be successful and some not.😜 

I feel that my journey has been successful because I kept it interesting with my cooking and constant food experiments. I searched various recipes, saw many YouTube videos, sometimes even 2-3 variations of the same and then tried the recipe my way, trying to make it as healthy as possible.

Hope you try this yummy Chana Dal Vada recipe and let me know how was it. Look forward to your comments.

Until the next post… XOXO.