Beetroot Vada Recipe, Fulfil Your Hunger Pangs With This Healthy Snack Idea

Beetroot vada also known as beetroot vadai is a dish of flavourful fritters that is often enjoyed in the evenings (or any time of the day you'd like!) alongside a cup of authentic Indian filter coffee.

Whether you pack these to enjoy at work or share them with your friends, they are guaranteed to be a hit!

 

Preparation Time: 20 minutes

Soaking Time: 2 hours

Cooking Time: 20 minutes

Measure: 1 Cup = 250 ml

 

Ingredients

• 1 -1 ½ cup grated beetroot
• 1 Cup Channa Dahl (split yellow dal without husk)
• ½ Cup Toor Dhal (yellow sambhar dal)
• ½ Cup Moong Dhal- (yellow small dal without skin used for making khichdi)
• ½ tsp fennel seeds
• 4 red dried chilli, stalks removed
• 1 small stick cinnamon
• 1 clove
• 1 small piece ginger
• 1-2 green chillies
• A few curry leaves, chopped fine
• 2 tsp, chopped coriander
• Salt as needed
• 2 medium sized red onions chopped fine
• Oil for frying

 

Preparation

Making the Batter

1. Wash all the dals together and soak them in water for at least 1-2 hours.
2. Grind in a blender first the cinnamon stick, red chillies, cloves, green chill, ginger, fennel seeds and once the spices are ground coarse, add the dahl (drain out the water completely) and grind the dhal along with the spice mixture into a coarse paste.
3. Sprinkle little water if you need but do not add a lot of water
4. Add the grated beetroot, chopped onions, coriander leaves, curry leaves, salt. Mix well.

 

Frying

1. Heat oil in a deep pan or wok. Allow it get warm enough to for frying.
2. Take a small, lemon sized portion of the vada batter and flatten it before carefully dropping into the oil.
3. Keep the flame medium, to avoid the vada burning on the outside and remaining uncooked in the middle.
4. Toss the vada in the oil until cooked and drain them on to a kitchen towel to drain out the excess oil. Repeat this with the rest of the batter.
5. Enjoy hot vadas with delicious Malgudi Days filter kaapi.

 

Fresh Coconut Chutney

Preparation Time: 10 minutes

Ingredients

• 2 cups fresh grated coconut (or you may use frozen fresh coconut, found at Indian grocery stores)
• Small piece ginger
• 2-3 green chillies depending on hot spicy you want, you can add or delete the number
• Coriander leaves

 

Method

1. Mix all the fresh ingredients in a blender and grind them smooth.
2. Add the fresh coriander in the last and grind for just a minute. 
3. Add required amount of salt.

 

Tomato Chutney

Preparation Time: 10 minutes

Cooking Time: 10 minutes

Ingredients

• 4 x medium sized ripe tomatoes, chopped
• 1 small onion
• One small piece ginger
• 2-3 cloves garlic
• 1-2 tsp fresh coconut
• 3-4 dry red chillies
• A few curry leaves
• Salt as required
• 1 tsp oil

 

Method

1. Take a pan and add little oil and fry the following.
2. First red chillies, then onions, then garlic cloves, ginger and then chopped tomatoes.  Once they all blend well and the water from the tomatoes is drained and dry, allow it to cool. Blend the cooled tomato onion mixture in a blender.
3. Add little salt and if required little sugar.
4. *The tomato chutney can be stored in the fridge for a couple of days.

 

Tempering For Chutneys

Ingredients

• 2 tsp oil
• 1 spoon black mustard seeds
• 1 tsp black gram split dhal without skin
• Pinch of asafoetida

 

Method

1. Heat oil in a pan and add mustard seeds and dhal and allow them to splutter and the dhal to turn golden brown.
2. Pour this on top of your chutneys

 

If you try this recipe, do let us know how it turned out! You can even tag us in your Instagram posts and we'd love to reshare them.