Mung Dal Fritters – 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. 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.
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. Most are deep fried.
Make these moong dal pakoda for a change from chickpea flour fritters. Serve with Mint Cilantro Chutney or other chutneys of choice or with 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. GF
- Baked Popcorn Okra
- Samosa Pinwheels.
- Baked Mung Dal Samosas
- Baked potato rice crackers – gluten-free
- Baked Maida Papdi – Cumin seed Crackers
Crunchy on the outside and soft inside.
Mung Dal Fritters - Baked Moong Dal Pakoda
Ingredients
- 1 cup (192 g) 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 (0.5 tsp) turmeric
- 3/4 to 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 2 tsp oil
- 1/3 cup (83.33 ml) or more water
- 1/2 cup (8 g) finely chopped cilantro loosely packed
- 1 1/2 cup (45 g) lightly packed finely chopped spinach or rainbow chard loosely packed
- 3/4 cup (105 g) finely chopped red onion heaped
- 3 cloves garlic minced
Instructions
- 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 / 220ºc.
- 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 Chutney or tomato chutney or ketchup or add to kadhi (non dairy yogurt sauce) or curry.
Notes
Nutrition
Irma says
April 18, 2017 at 6:17 amin the ingredients it says the lentils should be soaked and in the instructions it says to soak them in hot water… is that a double soak? if so, how long should i soak them?
Richa says
April 18, 2017 at 8:13 amOh yes, its soaked only once. I removed it from the ingredients. soak for atleast 15 minutes and if you have time then for an hour.
Aditi says
April 20, 2017 at 12:29 pmcan i make the batter the night before?
Richa says
April 20, 2017 at 1:56 pmYes, but keep the veggies (onions, greens) separate. Mix when ready to bake.
Aditi says
April 20, 2017 at 2:57 pmPerfect! Thank you so much Richa. I’m looking forward to making fritters. If the dish turns out well, i’ll tag you in my post on instagram
Antonet Roajer says
April 18, 2017 at 11:11 amI cooked moong pakora in an appe pan it turned yummy just like the fried ones. Baked one looks good.
Richa says
April 18, 2017 at 11:24 amyes appe pan works too!
Michèle says
April 18, 2017 at 5:00 pmWould it work in an air fryer?
Richa says
April 19, 2017 at 2:35 pmit should work fine. The texture might be slightly different.
Pym says
January 6, 2020 at 1:45 pmI have moving call flour can I use that?
pym says
January 6, 2020 at 1:47 pmOops moong dal flour
Richa says
January 6, 2020 at 4:06 pmyes
Maureen Cram says
April 19, 2017 at 3:02 amI can’t easily (as in I can’t get it anywhere close to me) get the yoghurt in South Africa. Any suggestions?
Richa says
April 19, 2017 at 9:36 amyou can serve it with chutneys.
Trixilie & Bea says
April 19, 2017 at 6:17 amHi Richa,
This recipe sounds reeeeally delicious. We want to prepare it at the weekend. Is it possible to freeze the Baked Moong Dal Pakoda or would they lost the taste or consistency?
Hugs and Kisses
Trixilie & Bea
Richa says
April 19, 2017 at 9:37 amtry to freeze a few to see. the texture should be ok, but in general a reheated pakoda will be dryer.
Trixilie & Bea says
April 19, 2017 at 10:04 pmokay, we will try it 🙂 Dryer would be okay, that means we “need” more mint chutney 😉 Thanks for your fast answer. Have a nice day 🙂
V G says
April 19, 2017 at 9:38 amso good!
Richa says
April 19, 2017 at 12:04 pmthanks!
Paige says
April 19, 2017 at 5:01 pmMade these for dinner and they were great! Used red lentils and soaked for about 35 mins/cooked for 20 and they turned out excellent. I had some leftover vegan tzatziki sauce which was a perfect accompaniment. Thanks, Richa!
Richa says
April 19, 2017 at 8:36 pmAwesome!
Marty says
April 20, 2017 at 11:04 amCan’t wait to try this. Just ordered your first book, Indian Cooking. Can’t wait to get it next week!
Richa says
April 20, 2017 at 6:28 pmAwesome!! Thanks!
Iris says
April 21, 2017 at 5:48 amjust made a double batch of those ( fried …) and they came out great !
clara veen says
May 3, 2017 at 1:05 amOh my goodness these look so good!
Cassie Autumn Tran says
May 10, 2017 at 9:25 amI’ve 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!
Mia says
May 18, 2017 at 2:34 pmThis was a disaster. The “batter” 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 “batter” 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 can’t figure out why this went so badly.
Richa says
May 19, 2017 at 10:50 amHmm, 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.
Mia says
May 20, 2017 at 1:28 pmThank you for your response. I didn’t 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 “batter” wasn’t gritty.
Richa says
May 20, 2017 at 6:57 pmi’ll 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.
Emily says
May 18, 2017 at 2:38 pmMade these for lunch and served with chutney and roasted veggies. Fabulous!
Cherry says
June 7, 2017 at 8:53 amThis 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 wouldn’t eat them so fast, and actually, the potato makes a nice addition. Thanks very much for the recipe. A new staple in our house!
chow vegan says
June 7, 2017 at 10:50 pmThanks so much for the great recipe! I’ve made the chickpea flour version several times now, it’s so awesome I even wrote a blog post about it, http://chowvegan.com/2017/06/07/easy-indian-fritters-baked-pakoda/ 🙂
francoise says
July 30, 2017 at 9:50 amHi how much water do you use to soak? Just to cover or more? Can’t wait to try!
Richa says
July 31, 2017 at 10:56 amjust enough to cover really well
Francoise says
July 31, 2017 at 11:48 amOk thank you
susan wyllie says
January 3, 2018 at 4:33 pmmmm these look yummy, just what I have been looking for to take with me on a weekend away for snacks. can’t wait to try them. Susan
Deepta says
April 8, 2018 at 7:28 pmWonderful Recipe!! It turned out awesome! So easy to make. Very nice instructions.
Very tasty with the least oil possible.
Thank you Richa!
olivia says
April 17, 2018 at 9:32 amall 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
Richa says
April 17, 2018 at 10:01 amthe 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.
olivia says
April 17, 2018 at 10:06 amthanks 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
Richa says
April 17, 2018 at 10:21 amUse 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)
olivia says
April 17, 2018 at 10:30 amthanks again
Mae says
February 18, 2019 at 11:08 amI made these over the weekend as a snack to bring camping. They are so delicious, and so easy! I used a 1/4 cup scoop for bigger fritters. I also made the cilantro mint chutney as you suggested – also amazing! I want to put it on everything! Initially I found the chutney to be a bit too thin (I’m wondering if it would have been better to use the food processor) so I added quite a bit more cilantro (probably an entire bunch), some spinach, and yogurt. It was the perfect snack to have on the road and in our camper!
Richa says
February 18, 2019 at 12:23 pmawesome! yes use a processor and use more of the cilantro etc
Sanah says
September 15, 2019 at 11:35 pmHey, new to this whole thing but I’m a student and we don’t have a blender or food processor in our uni house. Is there a way to make the batter without the use of those appliances?
Thank you
Richa says
September 16, 2019 at 10:28 amtry my other pakoras with chickpea flour then. Chop the veggies with knife and add flour https://www.veganricha.com/2016/02/mixed-vegetable-pakora.html
Heather says
September 19, 2019 at 12:22 pmThis looks like an interesting recipe. I don’t care for the taste of spinach. Would these still turn out okay if I omit the ingredient?
Richa says
September 19, 2019 at 1:54 pmyes, add some herbs or cilantro
Preeti says
October 24, 2019 at 8:16 amMade your other pakoras multiple times and they turned out GREAT!
Can I use mung chilka daal vs mung daal?
Thank you,
Preeti
Richa says
October 24, 2019 at 11:39 amYes,the color will bedarker
Preeti says
October 24, 2019 at 1:01 pmThank you! And one other question, if I want to double the yield of the recipe to something like 32-36 pakoras, do I just double each item? Or do you have any recommendations of how to think about this?
Richa says
October 24, 2019 at 1:55 pmyes double everything except water. Add only 1.5 times and add moreonly if needd.You want a thick batter,so use less water to begin with
Frannie says
November 17, 2019 at 11:01 amFinally got around to making these fritters. As with all of your recipes, it is super easy, very easy to prepare, and absolutely delicious! We made some jalapeño mango chutney to go with them.