Keerai Vadai Recipe / Spinach Vada – Ponnanganni Keerai Recipes

• Ponnanganni keerai / Any greens– 1/2 cup
• Chana dal – 1/2 cup
• Red chillies – 3-4 nos
• Jeera – 1/2 tsp
• Hing – 1/4 tsp
• Small onion – 10-15 nos (chopped roughly)
• Mint leaves – 1 handful
• Coriander leaves – 1 handful
• Curry leaves – few
• Salt & water – as needed
• Fennel seeds – 1 tsp (optional)

• Soak channa dal for 2 hours. Drain the water and grind along with red chillies,hing, salt &amp ,jeera and 2 tsp of water..
• First run the chillies,salt and hing together.Then add the soaked channa dal and run once or twice.The dal should be coarsely ground.Some dal would be visible..
• Wash and chop the greens finely..Set aside.
• Mix the keerai , onions , mint leaves and coriander leaves,curry leaves in a  bowl and check for salt. No need to add water.
• Heat oil in a deep frying pan and add a tbsp of hot oil to the vada batter. This helps in making the shape of vada properly and gives crispiness to the vada.
• Mix the batter and take a small ball shaped batter.
• Keep in the center of palm and pat it little to make thick patties.
• Deep fry in hot oil. To check the right temperature of oil , just drop a bit of batter. It raises immediately..
• Now drop the vadas one by one and cook in simmer flame for even cooking.
• Flip the vadas after a few mins and cook on the other side.
• Make in batches..Remove the vadas and serve hot !

Enjoy
with tea or with rice as an accompaniment like we had!!

• If you are planning to make masala vada , just follow the same recipe except spinach.
• Adding fennel seeds gives a nice flavour but I couldn’t use as my hubby doesn’t like its taste..
• I used pink variety keerai and I just ground the keerai once along with channa dal. So my vada was slighlty brownish yellow in color.
• U can make this vada with any greens..The point is just chop it very finely..Mulai keerai, arai keerai , siru keerai , murungai keerai can be used here..
• Usually we add channa, toor and urad dal for masala vada . We call tat as “MUPARUPPU VADA”..But my mom told me to make with channa dal alone.. Yes , adding channa dal alone gives a nice , crispy vadas..