Cabbage Dal Vadai is a crispy deep fried snack made with finely chopped cabbage, herbs, spices and ground lentils.

Recipe Snapshot

  • Prep time: 10 minutes
  • Cook time: 25 minutes
  • Total time: 335 minutes
  • Yield: 3
  • Category: Snacks
  • Cuisine: South Indian, Tamil Nadu

Ingredients

  • ½ cup chana dal ((spilt and husked bengal gram))
  • ½ cup urad dal ((spilt and husked black gram))
  • 4 tablespoons water (or as needed to grind or blend the batter)
  • 2 cups finely chopped cabbage ((purple or green))
  • 1 or 2 green chili (- chopped or ½ to 1 teaspoon chopped green chillies)
  • 1 inch ginger (- finely chopped or grated)
  • 1 tablespoon chopped coriander leaves (- optional)
  • 1 tablespoon chopped curry leaves (- optional)
  • ½ teaspoon fennel seeds ((saunf))
  • ½ teaspoon cumin seeds
  • ½ teaspoon black peppercorns
  • 1 pinch asafoetida ((hing))
  • salt (as required)
  • oil (for deep frying, as required)

Method

Preparation

  1. Rinse and soak the urad dal and chana dal in enough water overnight or at least for 4 to 5 hours. Drain the lentils.
  2. Then add the lentils in the grinder jar together with black peppercorns, fennel seeds, cumin seeds and asafoetida.
  3. You can also add these spices whole to the vada batter, instead of grinding them or lightly crush them.
  4. Grind to a smooth and fine batter using very less water. I added about 4 tablespoons of water.
  5. Add the chopped cabbage, coriander leaves, curry leaves, ginger and salt to the batter.
  6. Mix very well and set the batter aside.

Making cabbage vada

  1. Heat sufficient oil in a kadai till its medium hot.
  2. Drop spoonfuls of the batter in the medium-hot oil.
  3. When one side is partly cooked and pale golden, turn over and continue frying.
  4. Flip as needed and fry the vada until golden brown and crisp.
  5. Drain them on paper towel to remove excess oil. Fry the remaining batch of batter in the same way.
  6. Serve Cabbage Vada hot or warm with green chutney, coconut chutney or sambar and rasam.

Kiyaan Singh’s Kitchen Note

Keep this recipe as a working base: cook once as written, then adjust spice, texture, and serving style for your own table.