Vade (Deep fried lentil patties)

These vades can also be used to make dahi vade - vades in yoghurt sauce

Ingredients

• • 2 cups yellow split peas

  • 6 cloves garlic

  • 30g of fresh ginger, peeled

  • 11/2 tsp cumin seeds

  • 1 small onion, finely chopped

  • 1 stalk curry leaves. leaves picked and finely shredded

  • 1 tsp fennel seeds

  • 1 tsp turmeric powder

  • 1 level tsp asafoetida

  • 1 chilli, or to taste

  • 11/2 tsp salt, or to taste

  • 2-3 tbsp finely chopped coriander leaves

  • Oil for deep frying

Method

• 1. Wash lentils well and soak several hours or overnight.

  2. Drain and rinse the lentils. Set aside a small handful of the lentils.

  3. Grind the remaining lentils with garlic, ginger, cumin seeds and chilli. See note below.

  4. Add the reserved whole lentils, onion, curry leaves, whole fennel seeds, turmeric, asafoetida, salt and coriander leaves to the ground lentil and mix well.

  5. Heat oil in a deep frypan or wok.

  6. Take tablespoons of the mixture and roll into a ball, then flatten into a patty by holding the ball in the palm of one hand and using the three middle fingers of the other to flatten and create slight indentations on one side of the patty.

  7. Fry in batches over medium heat until cooked through and golden brown.

  8. Drain well. I like to have a large strainer over a bowl and put the cooked vades to drain in the strainer for a few minutes (or while the next batch is cooking).

Note

I used to use a meat grinder using the medium blade to grind the lentils, but i’ve recently discovered that my hand held stick blender does just as good a job with less hassle.