Baked Olive Lentil Fritters aka “Dal Vada”
By posting this recipe I am entering a recipe contest sponsored by California Ripe Olives and am eligible to win prizes associated with the contest. I was not compensated for my time.
Growing up in Sri Lankan, “Dal Vada” or Lentil Fritters were a popular snack in our home. My mom used to soak and grind up lentils along with a whole slew of spices and green chilies. She would then form them into little discs and fry them. Today, I figured I would attempt to make a baked version of my mom’s dal vada! And, instead of green chilies, I added in California Black Ripe Olives for extra flavor!
Now, these baked fritters contain ground up oats. But, when my mom used to make these, it always blew my mind how soaked and ground up lentils can be formed into pretty much any shape and fried – without any eggs or flour to bind them! Even when chopped up onions are added to the mix!
For these fritters, I ground up ginger and garlic along with the lentils and cumin to distribute their flavor throughout each fritter. The chopped up onion and olives so enhanced the flavor and texture of these baked fritters that my mom gave them a thumbs up, even though they were not fried!
These Baked Olive Lentil Fritters are a fusion of Sri Lankan and Mediterranean cuisines. California Black Ripe Olives are so versatile and are cholesterol free – containing monounsaturated fat (the good fat) and no trans fat (the bad fat). I adore black olives for their unique flavor, texture and color. And, the fact that they contain .25 mg of vitamin E, .49 mg of iron, 60 IU of vitamin A and 0.5 grams of fiber per serving makes them the icing on the cake, or should I say the olives in the dal vada!
[Tweet “Baked Olive Lentil Fritters aka “Dal Vada” #TheRecipeRedux @RunninSrilankan”]
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons rolled oats
- 1 cup dry lentils - lentils need to be soaked for 1-4 hours. Once they are soaked I used red, they double in quantity and 1 cup dry lentils yields about 2 cups soaked lentils
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1/2 inch piece of fresh ginger
- 1 small onion chopped about 4 tablespoons
- 2/3 cups chopped California Black Ripe Olives
- 1/2 teaspoon cumin
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 jalapeno chopped seeds removed according to your love of heat
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- Olive Oil - for brushing
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees
- Add the oats, soaked lentils, ginger, garlic, cumin, salt into a food processors and pulse till lentils are like powder almost.
- Stir in the chopped onion, California Black Ripe Olives, jalapeno and baking powder
- Form into circles
- Flatten each circle
- Brush with olive oil
- Bake for 20 minutes
- Eat while still warm with ketchup or sambal oelek.
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OMG this looks awesome! I love how they come together without the aid of eggs!!!! This gives me tons of ideas 🙂
I know right?! Soaked lentils are so versatile – the possibilities are endless! Looking forward to seeing what you come up with and Thanks so much Mila
The fritters are really wonderful, best of luck in the contest and let us know if we can vote for you. I love that you added olives, a real fusion and explosion of flavor.
Aww-Thanks so much Suzanne – I really appreciate the offer to vote – but, there are judges involved I think
These sound great, Shashi! Two thumbs up for being vegetarian/vegan!
Thanks so much Julie
What a great blend of cuisines. I do love the sound of all the spices flavouring the lentils. And the addition of black olives is brilliant xx
Thanks so much Charlie! Haha – these are indeed a blend of cuisines – if these were dogs, they’d be called mutts! 🙂 xx
These fritters sound perfect Shashi, and since your mom gave them a thumbs up, so do I!!! I’ve never had anything quite like this before and would love to try these. Maybe it’s time for ME to get on the jet plane….
YES!!! YES get on that jet plane Allie!!! I’ll make a batch of these especially for YOU!!! BTW Thanks so much sweet friend!
I’m really ashamed to admit that I never had Dal Vada in my life…how provincial am I?
Time to make amends then. These bad boys will happen in my kitchen in the near future, Very near future!
Now I am stupefied! You seem to have tried just about everything from India and Sri Lanka Mike – well, it’s not too late to get on the dal-vada bandwagon! BTW – When you use soaked channa dal, these work out even better – I was out and that’s why I used red dal/lentils.
These fritters look so good! Love them! I just made lentil soup! Pinning to try this recipe!
Thanks so much Mira! BTW I love lentil soup! 🙂
Never thought about how lentils are more ‘packable’ than beans….no egg needed. I want to make these now. “Love the stories of how you grew up eating such yummy foods!
Thanks so much Serena! Yes – lentils are so “packable” when soaked – some other lentils like channa dal works better in vadas but I wanted a pop of color and I also happened to be out, so I used red lentils instead.
Shashi, this is a very cool recipe. Thanks for the share. Lots of my favorite flavors!
Thanks so much Melissa!
Yum! I love lentils. Although I am not a huge fan of olives, so I may leave them out 😉 Pinning for later!
Thanks so much Ashley! Actually, originally dal vada are made without olives and they are delicious!
I’ve never seen fritters made like this before! Very cool. Love how high protein and big on flavor they are!
Thanks so much Joanne! You could fry these if you wanted too – they are even better when fried!
Oh wow, these sound amazing! I definitely need to try these!
Thanks so much Marye!!!
I adore vada and I am so excited that these are baked and not deep fried!! Wooohooo! I must give this a try. 🙂 You really got some good color on them too… at first glance they definitely looked fried… lovely color. Kudos!!
Thanks so much Nazneen!!! The color is thanks to those red lentils! 🙂
I am amazed by this recipe.
I’ll have to look about to see if I can get California black ripe olives, but the combination and twist of the flavours – Sri Lankan and Mediterranean cuisines together is an eye opener. You’re making my mouth water here and it’s only 9am!
I love how these are baked too, rather than fried. So much more healthier. Oh and the spices….. I could go on.
Now wouldn’t these be delicious as a “starter” to compliment my latest curry recipe? 😀
Neil – these would be an amazing starter to your curry recipe!!! You know, my mom would have vada for breakfast some mornings – talk about a plant based protein kick to start the day with!
BTW Thanks so much – your kind and supportive words are always so welcome
Awesome twist on Dal Vadas, Shashi! I love the addition of olives too- definitely not an ingredient I would usually think to add :)! This recipe is proof that almost any dish can be made more nutritionally with just a few simple swaps e.g. oats for all-purpose flour which is usually used!
Thanks so much Khushboo! I never have all purpose flour in the house – so I am always improvising 🙂
Simple yet so gorgeous! I would eat the whole batch at one go.
Thanks so much Angie!