Vazhaipoo vadai (Banana flower vadai)

Vazhaipoo vadai or banana flower patties are gluten-free snacks prepared with banana flowers & yellow peas. These are delectable flavorsome patties with crispy skin and soft flesh. We can include banana flowers into our diet in the form of patties (vadai), stir-fry (poriyal), coconut curry (kootu), lentil crumble (paruppu usili), soup, or salad.

Health benefits:

Banana flowers have flavor similar to that of artichokes. They are good sources of dietary fiber and hence useful to prevent constipation. They are also of the low glycemic index (low-GI) and hence beneficial to diabetics and weight watchers. Banana flowers are particularly beneficial to women as they keep the uterus healthy, regulate the menstrual cycle, control excessive bleeding, prevent constipation during pregnancy and improve lactation.

Yellow peas are rich sources of protein & dietary fiber much needed for everyone young or old. You may refer to the site for American Institute for Cancer Research to know more about the nutrition facts of dried peas. 

Vazhaipoo vadai recipe:

Time Taken (excluding soaking time) : 30 min

Serves : 16 vadai

Ingredients:

1. Whole yellow peas (pattani payaru) – 1 cup (200 g)
2. Banana Florets – 50-60 Nos
3. Shallots – 25 Nos
4. Red chillies – 8 Nos.
5. Curry leaves – 3 sprigs
6. Salt – 1 tsp
7. Oil for deep frying

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How to prepare vazhaipoo vadai:

• Wash yellow peas & soak in water overnight; wash again in the morning and drain the water completely.
• Peel the skins of shallots, chop them and keep aside.
• Remove stamen from banana florets.
• Grind red chillies & banana florets without adding water.
• Add yellow peas and grind into a coarse paste.
• Transfer patties dough to a bowl, add chopped shallots, curry leaves & salt.
• Mix them well and roll into large lemon sized balls.
• Heat a deep frying pan with oil (one inch deep) in high flame; when oil reaches about 200 deg C reduce the flame to medium.
• Pat each ball into 5-cm patties and gently slide patties (4 to 6) one after another into hot oil.
• Move them gently (using straining ladle) so that they don’t touch one another and flip them over to get them fried evenly on both sides.
• When patties turn golden and sizzling sound stops, remove them from oil.
• Place them on paper towels to drain excessive oil.
• Serve hot with coconut chutney.

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Recipe notes:

• I used sunflower oil for deep frying; instead you can use groundnut oil.
• Do not soak legumes when you intend to grind into a dough; you can soak them in hot water only when you intend to cook them.
• We can prepare vazhaipoo vadai with other pulses also and you can refer to the table below for their soaking time:

Pulses	Soaking time
Whole chickpeas (kondai kadalai or chana)	8 hours
Whole yellow peas (pattani payaru)	6 hours
Whole green gram (paasi payaru), split yellow peas (pattani paruppu), split chickpeas (Bengal gram/ kadalai paruppu), red gram (thuvaram paruppu)	3 hours
Split green gram (paasi paruppu)	30 min