Channa Vada Curry
Being food lovers, our family loves to explore various recipes and the collection found here in our website are our favourite ones, after experimenting them in our kitchen.
I recently came across a Sundal vadacurry recipe, and this particular one posted here is my own variant of the same. Though the name sounds like a curry, this actually is a perfect evening snack! I have used chickpeas instead of dried yellow peas as in the original recipe and incorporated few other changes and hence named it ” Channa Vadacurry”.
The Channa masal and Masal vadai can be eaten as a separate dishes, but together they make an awesome pair, which I can strongly say are “made for each other”.
Masal vadai
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Ingredients:
Yellow split peas (Pattani Paruppu) – 1 cup ( you can also split Bengal gram dal(Kadalai Paruppu)
Red chillies -3
Fennel seeds (sombu) – 1tsp
Cumin seeds – 1 tsp
Curry leaves
Chopped coriander leaves
chopped onion – 1 tbsp
Salt to taste
Method:
Soak the dal for 2 to 3 hours in water. Drain the water and keep aside.
Add the above said ingredients and grind it in a mixer.
The most important thing is to grind (just for a time or two) the mixture coarsely without water.
Now add chopped onion , curry leaves and coriander leaves.
Make these into little balls and flatten each ball in hand.
Heat oil in slow flame. Fry till golden brown. on both sides.
Note: Maintain oil in medium flame throughout the frying process. If the oil is too hot, the vadais get brown on the outer layer but won’t get cooked properly in the inner side.
Channa Sundal masala
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Channa dal – 1.5 cup
Onion – 2
Tomato – 2
Green chillies – 4
Mint leaves
Cilantro/Coriander leaves
Curry leaves
Turmeric powder – 1/2 tsp
Coriander powder 1/2 tsp
Chilli powder – 1.5 tsp
Jeera powder – 1/2 tsp
Dry roasted Fennel (Sombu) powder – 1/2 tsp
Garam masala -1/2 tsp
Freshly crushed pepper
Water
Salt
To garnish and serve:
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Finely Chopped onion
Chopped coriander/cilantro leaves
Lemon drops (optional)
Cooking the chickpeas:
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Soak the chickpeas overnight well for 10 to 12 hours. Pressure cook the chickpeas in water with little salt for more than 10 whistles. Don’t strain off the water. Keep it aside.
Coriander/Mint paste
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Grind urad dal, seeds, red chillies, tamarind (1 seed), a handful of small coconut pieces, salt in a mixer. Add fresh coriander leaves and grind it until all the ingredients blend together.
For the masala
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Heat oil in a pan.
Add finely chopped onions and saute till golden brown.
Add slit green chillies and curry leaves and saute
Then add chopped tomatoes and saute.
When this mixture comes to a fine consistency after the juices ooze out, add turmeric powder, chilli powder and dry roasted fennel (sombu) powder.
Then add little water.
Mix well.
Now add garam masala, coriander powder, pepper powder. Mix again.
Now add boiled chickpeas along with the water in which it was boiled.
Add chopped mint leaves.
Add the 2 teaspoons of coriander/mint paste and mix well.
Finally add the crushed masal vadais and serve when is is still piping hot.
Sprinkle coriander leaves before removing from fire.
Mmmmm..trust me! This is definitely a delicious lip smacking dish to eat on a rainy or a cold winter day.
Tips:
* This mixture should not get dry and should have a flowing consistency.
* While serving layer the masala first, add crushed vadais, sprinkle finely chopped onions, green chillies and lemon drops..
