Mix Dal Vada

What do you make when you invite people for tea at your place? Thinking of making a snack for tea time always gets you into a chagrin – should it be a lavish tiffin or just namkeen ? Well, stop thinking and try this Mix Dal Vada which is a crispy protein rich snack, a big hit with the kids and am sure the guests too 🙂

Ingredients

Note: Please use a small cup, or you can even measure with a big serving spoon

1 cup Boiled Rice

1 cup Toor Dal

1 cup Moong Dal

1 cup Urad Dal

1 cup Chana Dal

1 tbsp chopped coconut

2 tsp whole pepper

4 -5 Red chillies

Curry leaves

Asafoetida

Salt acc to taste

Oil for frying

Method

Soak the boiled rice and all the dals together for an hour along with the red chillies. Drain the water and grind them into a coarse batter while adding salt. Now that the batter is ready, add freshly chopped coconut pieces, curry leaves,whole pepper and asafoetida to this. Mix well. Fry the vadas in oil and serve with any chutney or sauce of your choice.

The crunchy vadas with whole pieces of coconut and pepper make a good evening snack. I tried coriander chutney with this and it tasted great. You can add a twist to this recipe by giving a tadka (seasoning) of mustard seeds and hing(asafoetida) to the batter before frying.

Use Organic Dals and Cold Pressed Groundnut/Sunflower Oil for the best taste. You can find these ingredients on Amazon here

Cheers!!!

-Bhuvana

Dwadasi Rasam

Today is Ekadasi, the 11th day after the new moon (Amavasya). Traditionally folks used to fast on Ekadasi day. The terms of fasting ranges from full to partial depending on age, and how devout one is.

The following day, Dwadasi, in Tamilian families, they cook a special rasam, called Dwadasi Rasam. The main difference between regular rasam and this rasam is that moong dal is used instead of toor dal. Reason being that coming out of fasting, one should be eating food that is easy to digest. The traditional tamarind and tomatoes are also skipped, and lemon juice is used instead.

I have seen several recipes of dwadasi rasam include toor dal as well. As with the diversity of our country, one can expect many variations in this as well.

Try this dwadasi rasam. Tell us what you think, and please add your variations to the comments section as well.

Ingredients:

Moong Dal (Split) – ¼ cup
Turmeric Powder ½ tsp.
Water 2 cups.
Grated Ginger 1 tbsp
Chopped curry leaves – a few
Lemon Juice 2 tbsp.
Salt to taste.

Roast and Powder coarsely

Urad dal (Split) ¾ tsp.
Chana dal ½ tsp.
Black Pepper 1 tbsp.
Jeera 1 tsp.
Red Chilies 2 no.
Curry Leaves

FOR TADKA:

Oil 1 tbsp (cold pressed groundnut oil or sesame oil works great. Adds a nice aroma) .
Mustard seeds 1/2 tsp
Curry leaves a little
Crushed red chilies 2 no.
Asafoetida (Hing) a pinch
Chopped Coriander leaves for garnish

Method:

Pressure cook the dal with turmeric powder. Mash the dal and add 2 cup of water and dilute it. Transfer into the big vessel.
Add salt, turmeric powder, ginger, curry leaves and Hing and bring to boil on low fire.
In mean time, roast above ingredients (except jeera) and powder it coarsely along with jeera.
Add ground powder and boil , while rasam froths up, remove from the fire.
With one tablespoon oil, fry the mustard seeds ,when they burst add curry leaves crushed red chilies and Hing to it and pour them to the Rasam.
Add freshly squeezed lemon juice and mix well.
Garnish with chopped cilantro.

Note: Lemon juice gives the sourness and pepper gives the taste and strong aroma for the rasam.