Banana Flower Vada / Patties

“Variety’s the very spice of life that gives it all its flavor” – William Cowper. As the saying goes, eating variety of healthy foods will keep you away from all chronic illness. Always you know that prevention is better than cure, so what’s wrong in following it? Some vegetables go untried by many people just because they don’t know how to cook it. One such veggie is the banana flower. I have made a yummy, luscious vada using it which can be both a side dish for your meal and an any time snack with nice mango pickle on side when there is a rainy weather accompanied by some coffee or tea. It can give you the pleasure and happiness that you have never experienced before since it keeps your tummy happy.

• Banana Flower – 1 Number
• Toor Dhal – 1 cup
• Urad Dhal – 2 table spoons
• Red Chilies – 5
• Fennel Seeds – 1 teaspoon
• Cumin Seeds – 1 teaspoon
• Turmeric Powder – 1 teaspoon
• Hing – ¼ teaspoon
• Small onions – 10 numbers chopped / Big onion – 1 number chopped
• Curry leaves and Corriander leaves – finely chopped 2 to 3 table spoons (as per your requirement)
• Salt to taste and
• oil for frying
• Butter milk – 20 ml (used while cutting banana flower)

Even though this is a time consuming process, it’s worth the effort dudes as it has a rich source of dietary fiber. Including it once in a fortnight in your diet is a must for your body too.

1. Keep a bowl of water with diluted butter milk ready.

2. Remove the outer petals to get the florets inside which is used for cooking

3. Take each floret and remove the stamen inside it as I have indicated with the arrow in the picture below.

4. As you keep on be taking the florets at one stage the outer petal will become so small that you can’t remove the florets anymore. At this stage you can either eat it raw or chop and add it while grinding for vada.

5. Chop the florets and keep it in the diluted butter milk to prevent discoloration. This can be done the previous day itself and kept ready for use as it helps you to save time when you cook.

Wash well and soak the toor dhal and urad dhal for 2 hours. This helps you to grind it easily in a mixer.

Add red chilies, fennel seeds and cumin seeds into your mixer and grind it for 2 to 3 seconds. Now, drain the water from toor dhal and urad dhal and add it to the mixer along with turmeric powder, hing and salt, grind it further 2 to 3 seconds. Then add the chopped banana flower after draining the excess butter milk completely and grind it coarsely (may be pulse run once). Only then you can get crispy vadas. Please do not operate the mixie at a stretch because the batter becomes a smooth paste and it does not taste good.

As a last step in preparation of vada batter, add chopped onions, curry leaves and coriander leaves. Mix well.

Heat oil in a kadai and while it is getting heated make the batter into lemon sized balls and flatten it with your hands to make it into a discs / patties. Once the oil is hot reduce it to medium flame and drop the prepared discs / patties gently into the oil. Fry both sides until golden brown and drain excess oil by placing it on a paper towel / tissue. You can fry 4 to 5 patties at the same time depending on the quantity of oil you heat. Repeat the process for the remaining batter.

Delicious, mouth-watering vadas are ready as a side dish for your sambar, rasam and curd rice or the regular puliyogare, tomato or lemon rice. This is an ideal snack during winters.Enjoy making and eating them as these patties act as the best cleansers for your body!