Lentil Vada / Lentil Popover

Lentil Vada / Lentil Popover

After a long, long wait, I finally got my own Aappakara / ebelskiver pan.  I generally get scared of deep frying anything, but love those fried(for obvious reasons). Hence, a beautiful compromise is to use this ebelskiver pan to transform all those deep fried goodies, in to pan fried ones for a much healthy option. “Paruppu Vada” or Lentil popover is one such item.  Do try this at home and let me know what do you think of it.  If you do not have this pan, do not worry. You can still use the icecream scoop to drop little balls of batter in to the oil  or, do it the traditional way by making patties by your hand. Enjoy!

Ingredients

• Sprouted Red Chori Beans– 1 cup
• Channa Dhal – 1 cup
• Dried Red chillies – 4 (or according to heat level)
• Salt to taste (I usually measure 1 tsp to 1 cup)
• Asafetida – a pinch
• Chopped curry leaves – handful

Putting it together

• Soak the channa dhal in water for four hours. Once soft, drain the water and keep it aside. (Hold on to the water, since we can use the same for grinding)
• In a food processor, add the dried red chillies and grind down. If you add the chillies along with the dhal it might not get chopped properly
• Keep a handful of the soaked dhal aside and  add the rest to the processor and grind to a coarse paste
• Grind the red beans with the salt and asafetida and add it to the channa dhal puree along with the ones that you kept aside
• In an ebelskiver pan, put down some oil and drop the batter in an icecream scoop / a spoon
• Gently turn it over with a chopstick and remove when golden brown
• Serve it with coconut chutney