Moong Dal Appe-South Indian style

Moong Dal vadas without the fat! High protein, lots of flavor and made in one spoon of oil in an appam pan, appetizers don’t get better than that! Enjoy a guilt free appetizer without missing out on taste. These Moong dal vadas , with a south Indian tarka of mustard seeds and curry leaves makes the moong dal appe so tasty.  I wanted to make the Moong dal vadas without the calories and the fat that comes with frying, so tried to make these flavorful, high protein, low fat Moong dal vadas in an appam pan.

I also wanted to give it a boost of flavor by adding tarka to it. The flavor of the mustard seeds, along with green chilies and curry leaves really does take the simple moong vada to a whole new level.

It tastes even better when cooked in coconut oil, though for some coconut oil is an acquired taste. I added chopped onions and cilantro, though you can add some coconut, peanuts, fresh ginger as a variation .

Have it with a cup of hot tea or serve it with drinks as an appetizer. For making dahi vadas out of these appam, soak them in hot water for a few minutes, squeeze out the excess and dunk in yogurt. Top wit chutneys for delicious chaat.

Recipe updated with new pictures on 9/21/2020

Some other healthy, low fat recipes made in the appe pan are-

Healthy Farali Pattice in Appe Pan

Hariyali Sabudana Appe/Sabudana Appe in Green Chatni 

Appe from Dosa Batter

Litti Chokha in Appe Pan

Lauki ke Appe/Kofte

Moving on to the recipe, here is the written recipe followed by the step by step pictorial one-

Moong Dal Appe-South Indian style

Aanchal Gupta

Moong Dal vadas without the fat! High protein,lots of flavor and made in one spoon of oil,appetizers don’t get better than that! Enjoy a guilt free appetizer without missing out on taste.

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Prep Time 10 minutes mins

Cook Time 10 minutes mins

Total Time 20 minutes mins

Course Breakfast, Party Appetizer, Snacks

Cuisine Indian

Servings 14 appe

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

• 1/2 cup yellow Moong Dal
• 1-2 Green chili/ 1/2 tsp minced green chilie
• 1/2 inch piece of ginger/ 1/2 tsp minced ginger
• 2 tbsp chopped cilantro/coriander/dhania leaves
• 2 tbsp chopped onion
• 1 chopped Green chili optional
• salt as needed I used a little over 1/2 tsp
• 3/4 tsp Eno

For Vaghar/Tarka

• 1 tsp oil
• 1/2 tsp Mustard seeds/rai
• 1/2 tsp Urad dal
• 1 chopped Green chili
• Few curry leaves

Instructions

 

• Wash and soak dal overnight.
• Rinse well and grind with ginger and green chili or add minced ginger and green chilies to ground dal

For Vaghar/Tarka

• Heat Oil and add mustard seeds and urad dal,cook till Urad dal turns golden.
• Add chopped Green chili and curry leaves(tear the curry leaves into small pieces)
• Add tarka to ground dal
• Add chopped onion and cilantro/coriander leaves/dhania
• Add salt as needed
• Heat Appe pan and put few drops of oil in each cavity,let oil in the cavities heat
• Add Eno to the batter and immediately put a small amount into the Appe pan.
• Cover and cook on both sides till golden.
• Serve with chatnis.

Notes

I have a small Appe pan ,so I like to add Eno to only half the quantity, when I am ready to put in the second batch, I add Eno again just so they all stay soft and fluffy. 1/2 cup soaked dal yields 1 cup of ground dal.

Keyword high protein, lentil fritters, low fat moong dal vada, moong dal appe, no fry moong dal vada

Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

Here is the step by step pictorial recipe-

Grind soaked Moong dal with ginger and green chili.

Make tarka by adding mustard seeds, Urad dal, chopped green chilies and curry leaves to hot oil.

Add tarka to ground dal

Add chopped onions and cilantro/coriander/dhania to batter

Mix well and add Eno just before cooking in heated Appe pan

Cook both sides till golden.

Enjoy with Green chatni and Instant Apple Butter Sweet Chatni