Parippu vada or lentil fritters

Parippu vada or lentil fritters is a famous evening snack of South Indian states like Kerala and Tamil Nadu.

Crunchy and spicy parippu vada or Dal vada is a popular tea time snack of Kerala. Parippu vada and tea is one of the famous recipe combinations in the state. Toor dal or chana dal is used for making this yummy dish. Chopped or sliced green chillies and dried red chillies are responsible for a spicy flavour. The addition of chopped ginger pieces and curry leaves imparts a unique flavour and aroma. Dal is ground into a course mixture and mixed with green chillies, ginger, curry leaves and shallots or onion. This mixture is then hand pressed to form small, round shaped balls. It’s then fried in coconut oil or any types of cooking oil to form brown coloured delicious tea time snacks. Be prepared with the ingredients mentioned below and have a look at the detailed description about the method of preparation of Parippu vada or lentil fritters.

Ingredients required for making Parippu vada or lentil fritters

• 1 cup of Toor dal or Chana dal (തുവര/കടല പരിപ്പ്)
• 1 piece of ginger (chopped to fine pieces)
• 3 red chillies (sliced to small pieces)
• 10 -12 shallots (sliced to small pieces)
• 1 sprig of curry leaves
• 1 cup of cooking oil
• Salt, as per our requirement

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Method of preparation

• Wash the dal thoroughly and soak it for 2-3 hours. Drain it and keep it aside. Make sure that the dal is drained well.
• Grind this dal to a coarse mixture without the addition of water. Do not grind it to a fine paste. The mixture should be thick so that it can be shaped to small, disc-shaped balls.
• Mix it with sliced and chopped ingredients like ginger, red chillies, green chillies and shallots.
• Mix it well with curry leaves and salt.
• Make your hands wet. Take out a small portion of the mixture to form a lime sized ball. Flatten it with your palm to give it a disc-like shape.
• Repeat the process until all the mixture is turned to small, disc-shaped balls.
• Heat the oil in a deep, frying pan. Slowly add these to the oil and deep fry it in a low-medium flame.
• Once the bottom side is turned to a dark brown colour, turn it upside down so that both the sides will be deep fried to form the crunchy and delicious Parippu vada.
• Once it is fried transfer it to paper towels to drain out the excess oil. Serve it with tea.