This post contains affiliate links. Please see ourย disclosure policy.
Mung Dal Fritters โ Baked Moong Dal Pakoda. Petite yellow lentils (split and skinned mung beans) soaked and blended to a batter to make pakoda/Bhajji with onions and greens. Use red lentils or chickpea flour for variation. Vegan Gluten-free Recipe
These easy fritters use moong dal / Mung dal which are split and skinned green moong beans. Moong Dal is often used to make dishes where chickpea flour is used, such as pancakes, fritters /pakora etc. ย Moong Dal is often called petite yellow lentils in grocery stores like whole foods. See Dal names and photos here. Mung Dal makes soft nutty fritters. Add just onions and greens or add shredded veggies of choice to this versatile batter. You can use red lentils (split red lentils) to make these fritters as well. Red lentil batter does not hold its shape as well.ย
There are many kinds of pakoda/ pakora/bhajji/fritters in Indian cuisine. Some use besan(gram flour), chickpea flour, other bean or pea flour, some others use soaked moong dal or urad dal to make the batter. Some are simple spiced with cumin, mustard or carom seeds, some use have a tempering with curry leaves, and some others use spice blends.ย Most are deep fried.ย
Make these moong dal pakoda forย a changeย from chickpea flour fritters. Serve with Mint Cilantro Chutney or other chutneys of choice or withย Kadhi (spiced yogurt sauce). You can also use the batter to make thin pancakes like chickpea flour pancakes and serve for snack or breakfast. Let me know in the comments how they turned out!
More Indian Snacks from the blog
- Baked Masala Vada with split peas and lentils.ย GF
- Baked Popcorn Okra
- Samosa Pinwheels.ย
- Baked Mung Dal Samosas
- Baked potato rice crackers โ gluten-free
- Baked Maida Papdi โ Cumin seed Crackers
Crunchy on the outside and soft inside.ย
Mung Dal Fritters - Baked Moong Dal Pakoda
Ingredientsย ย
- 1 cup moong dal, petite yellow lentils
- 1 inch knob of ginger
- 1 hot green chili , or cayenne to taste 1/4 tsp
- 1/2 to 1 tsp garam masala, or curry powder
- 1/2 tsp turmeric
- 3/4 to 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 2 tsp oil
- 1/3 cup or more water
- 1/2 cup finely chopped cilantro, loosely packed
- 1 1/2 cup lightly packed finely chopped spinach , or rainbow chard loosely packed
- 3/4 cup finely chopped red onion, heaped
- 3 cloves garlic , minced
Instructionsย
- Soak the Mung dal in hot water for 15 minutes or 1 hour. Longer works best. Drain and add to blender. Add ginger, chili, garam masala, turmeric, salt, baking powder, oil and 1/4 cup water. Blend to a smooth thick batter. Add more water if needed. Keep the batter thick so it can hold its shape while baking. Thinner batter tends to flatten.
- Pre-heat the oven to 425 degrees F / 220ยบc.
- Add the chopped cilantro, greens, onion and garlic and fold in. Using a Tablespoon or ice cream scoop, drop spoonfuls of the batter on parchment lined baking sheet.
- Lightly spray oil on top. Bake for 17 to 19 minutes until golden on the edges.
- Add sprinkle of chaat masala on the fritters (optional). Serve with chutneys Mint Cilantro Chutneyย or tomato chutneyย or ketchup or add to kadhi (non dairy yogurt sauce) or curry.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
all your food looks good. i hope you can help me with my question.
i am not indian nor do i have mixie nor grinder. i;m american and i always take
the easy road.
its so hard to find recipes thats use the ingredients already ground and store bought.
do you know any websites that use the flours vs. beans?
or is there a way to convert your recipe suing mung bean flour and lentil flour which is just sitting.
thank you
the flours work in some recipes and dont work in some recipes. You can make a thick muffin like batter with the flour, ad the salt, spices, onion and greens and bake it. The fritters will bake a bit faster so check earlier. Mung dal flour is not easily available while the beans are. If you have flour available then you an generally use it in similar recipes.
thanks for reply but you use a cup of the lentils how would that translate into how much flour i could use? or in general when i see ground batter
Use the same amount of flour and add water a few tbsp at a time to make a thick batter. If the batter gets too thin, just add more flour. You might also want to add a bit more baking powder (1/2 tsp more)
Wonderful Recipe!! It turned out awesome! So easy to make. Very nice instructions.
Very tasty with the least oil possible.
Thank you Richa!
mmm these look yummy, just what I have been looking for to take with me on a weekend away for snacks. canโt wait to try them. Susan
Hi how much water do you use to soak? Just to cover or more? Canโt wait to try!
just enough to cover really well
Ok thank you
Thanks so much for the great recipe! Iโve made the chickpea flour version several times now, itโs so awesome I even wrote a blog post about it, https://chowvegan.com/2017/06/07/easy-indian-fritters-baked-pakoda/ ๐
This is an awesome recipe Richa. Super yummy! My husband and my son want these for breakfast every morning now with tomato onion chutney. I added diced potato to fill them up more so they wouldnโt eat them so fast, and actually, the potato makes a nice addition. Thanks very much for the recipe. A new staple in our house!
Made these for lunch and served with chutney and roasted veggies. Fabulous!
This was a disaster. The โbatterโ almost broke my high tech power blender. I added extra water and still got warnings messages from my blender. I had to transfer to the โbatterโ my food processor and I still ended up with a dough. I was reluctant to add much more water than I already had because the recipe says to keep the batter thick. Between the fine chopping, the mess and doughy not very tasty baked balls I ended up with, I have to say this was not easy, nor was it worth my time. Vegan Richa has never let me down before. I think some pictures of the batter may have been helpful, but I canโt figure out why this went so badly.
Hmm, I am not sure what happened. I use both a Nutribullet which is a small blender and Blendtec which is a high powered blender without issues. Many people also made this on Instagram with almost similar looking results.
Maybe you used a different lentil? Did you use Moong Dal? Or maybe the lentils were really old and did not soften on soaking. With harder lentils or things which take longer to cook such as whole lentils, whole chickpeas, split peas etc. The beans dont soften enough to blend and might jam up under the blender blades. I will add pictures of the batter in a day or so. I think the flavor and texture was doughy because of the blending issues. Can you message me (on social media) or email me the pictures if you have them so I can troubleshoot better.
Thank you for your response. I didnโt take any pictures. I used a high-powered blend tech and I bought the correct lentils recently from a bulk bin. I am thinking the lentils could have been old, but I soaked them for an hour and my โbatterโ wasnโt gritty.
iโll add photos tomorrow so you can compare. Maybe the lentils needed a bit more water or they were pretty old. The above points are what I can think of for the issue. even with less water the mixture is generally a smooth slightly stiff batter.
Iโve always avoided these kinds of fritters because of the deep-frying methods, but I was awestruck by how these look like they were deep-fried even though they are baked! This is amazing, I have to try them out!