Banana blossom vada

 

Banana blossom are fibrous and is a little indifferent/bland in their taste when you just eat it as it. But it is a good combo when you mix with the right things. One of those right things is with chana. This Bonda/Vada dish results from that combination with Bengalgram dal. And as all vadas go, these are great tiffin/tea items when consumed hot with chutney/ketchup. And if banana blossoms are your kinda things, you can also look at 2 other recipes here – Banana Blossom Stir fry with Kabuli Chana and Banana Blossom Wet Chutney.

What need to have:

Ingredients 

1. Chopped tender Banana blossom – 1 and 1/2 cup

2. Bengalgram dal – 1 cup

3. Kashmiri chili – 2-3

4. Asafoetida (soft) – size of a peanut

5. Green chili -1-2 Less spicy

6. Ginger – 1″ piece

7. Cumin seeeds – 1 Teaspoon

8. Chopped onion – 1 cup

9. Curry leaves 4-5 Sprigs

10. Chopped cilantro – A handful

11. Rice atta – 2-3 Tablespoons

12. Salt – as per taste

13. Cooking oil – 2 cups to fry

What you do with what you have:

1. Chop off the outer layers of the Banana blossom and chop the inner most tender portion fine and soak it in water for about an hour.

2. Soak Bengalgram dal in water for about 4-5 hours till soft (you should be able to pierce easily with your nails) and grind it in the mixer adding red chili and asafoetida to a medium fine consistency without adding water but adding required quantity of salt to the dish.

Washed and soaked dal and blossoms

Ground blossoms, dal, chilli 

3. Wash, peal and chop onions fine, also chop green chili, cilantro too fine and kep it aside.

4. Transfer the ground dal to a bowl and mix in chopped onion, cilantro, and green chili to it and mix well.  Finally add 2 tablespoons of rice atta to it and mix well just before frying.  Check for salt.

Added ingredients to the mix 

5. Pinch out the required quantity of the dough and make round ball and flatten it.

Flattened dough ready to be fried

6. Place a skillet with 2 cups of cooking oil in it on medium flame. On heating just fry the flattened balls in the oil till crispy and dark brown in colour.

Vadas turning brown – will be ready to eat in a while

7. Enjoy hot with either pudina chutney or Tomato sauce.  Yumm!