Wash and soak chana dal in water for 2 hours. Transfer soaked dal to a colander and drain the water.

Transfer drained dal to the jar of a mixer grinder.
Add cumin seeds, black pepper, garlic cloves and one green chilli.

Grind until medium coarse texture. If required, scrape the sides and grind the mixture again. It should be okay if a few whole dal remains (this would give a nice chunky texture to vada). Don’t add water while grinding. if required, add only 1-2 tablespoons water.

Transfer it to a medium bowl. Add finely chopped onion, green chilli, ginger, curry leaves, coriander leaves and salt.

Mix all ingredients well. Mixture should not be very moist or dry. If the mixture is too crumbly and it’s difficult to make vadas from it as described in Step-6, then grind 1/4 cup mixture again until smooth and mix with the remaining mixture. If the mixture is too moist and it’s hard to shape vadas, add 2-3 teaspoons of rice flour or gram flour in the mixture.

Grease your palms with oil and divide mixture into 7-8 equal portions. Take each portion of mixture, give it a round lemon like shape and flatten it a little by pressing it in-between your palms and give a pattie like shape. Place all vadas in a plate.

Heat oil in a deep frying pan over medium flame. When oil is medium hot, slide 2-3 vadas in oil from the side of pan and deep fry them until golden brown and crispy.

Transfer them to a plate on paper napkin. Deep-fry remaining vadas. Masala Vadas are ready to serve. Serve them hot with green chutney or tomato sauce.