BEST! Wade (Sri Lankan Split Chickpea Fritters)

Discover How to Make Wade (Sri Lankan Split Chickpea Fritters)! Wade, also known as Parippu Wade is one of the classic Sri Lankan street foods and all-time favorite teatime snacks made with split chickpeas (chana dal), commonly served with a hot cup of sweet tea.

Parippu Wade
(Sri Lankan Split Chickpea Fritters)

Bring a Touch of ‘Sri Lanka’ to Your Kitchen! In this post, I’ll show you how to make ‘ Wade’ an easy way at home from scratch. Here you’ll find an easy-to-follow recipe with step-by-step pictures, helpful info plus top tips. I hope you will try the recipe and enjoy ‘Wade’ as much as I do!!

Wade is usually considered a teatime snack, typically served along with hot sweet black tea or milk tea that makes a great combo, also a perfect snack for a picnic, party, potluck, or as a side dish. Vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free, low-carb friendly, and a good source of protein.

What is Parippu Wade?

These Split Chickpea Fritters are called Parippu Wade (or just Wade or Vade) in Sinhalese and Paruppu Vadai (or Masala Vada) in Tamil. It is also more or less similar to Middle Eastern Falafel.

In Sinhalese, ‘Parippu’ means ‘lentil’, ‘Wade’ means ‘fried fritters’.
So, ‘Parippu Wade’ means ‘Lentil Fritters’
Wade is also spelled Vade, Vada, and Vadai. 

Vada or Vadai (in Tamil) is a category of savory fried snacks or fritters native to South India. The Sinhalese word ‘Wade’ or ‘Vade’ is derived from the Tamil word ‘Vada’ or ‘Vadai’.

Falafel is a savory fried snack popular in some Middle Eastern countries (Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Turkey, and Israel) is made from whole chickpeas or fava beans, sometimes both, plus fresh herbs and spices.

About ‘Parippu Wade’ Recipe

These chickpea fritters or Wade are remarkably easy to make. Apart from the soaking time of split chickpeas, it takes very little time to prepare and serve.

My method for making the Wade mixture is pretty easy as I leave the hard work of preparing the paste to the food processor. So you don’t need to grind the lentils separately or dice the fresh ingredients up finely.

They are traditionally deep-fried, so, they have a crispy-crunchy outside with a bit soft inside.

Difference Between
Chickpeas and Split Chickpeas

Chickpeas, also known as garbanzo beans, are a type of legume that is high in fiber and protein. There are two main types of chickpeas: white chickpeas and black chickpeas (or brown chickpeas).

White Chickpeas

White chickpeas, also known as Garbanzo beans or Kabuli chickpeas, are the most common type of chickpeas. They are larger and lighter-colored, and have a soft texture with a nutty, buttery flavor. White chickpeas are harvested mainly in the Mediterranean and South America and are commonly eaten whole or made into falafel and more. White chickpeas are ground into gluten-free chickpea flour.

Black (or Brown) Chickpeas

Black (or Brown) chickpeas, also known as Desi chickpeas or Kala chanas, are more commonly found in Indian cuisine. They are smaller, darker brown, and have a nuttier flavor and firmer texture. They are used in making soups, stews, and curries. Black chickpeas can also be ground into besan or gram flour, which is gluten-free and full of protein and fiber.

Split Chickpeas

Split chickpeas, also known as Chana dal, Bengal gram lentils, or Black chickpea lentils, are a split pulse made by removing the outer layer of black chickpeas and then splitting the kernel. Chana” is chickpeas, and “dal” is split lentils, peas, or chickpeas. In Sri Lanka, split chickpeas are called ‘Kadala Parippu’ in Sinhalese and ‘Kadalai Paruppu’ in Tamil and are widely used to make ‘Wade’ (or ‘Vada’) and curries.

NOTE: Split Chickpeas (Chana Dal) and Split Yellow Peas (Toor Dal) look very similar but they are not the same thing.

Ingredients

Here are the ingredients you’ll need to make this recipe. For the quantities of each ingredient, check out the printable recipe card at the end of the post.

Dried split chickpeas– It is the main ingredient. If you can’t find split chickpeas, you could use whole chickpeas as well, but they’ll require a longer soaking time than the split peas and the taste and texture will be somewhat different to the Wade made with split chickpeas.

Veggies & Herbs: I used onions, garlic, ginger, green chilies, and curry leaves. If you cannot find curry leaves just skip it or use coriander leaves.

Spices – I used turmeric, chili flakes, and salt. Apart from that I used soaked whole dry red chilies and then ground them with the veggies. You can also use chili flakes as a substitute.

Rice flour – Rice flour is used to absorb some moisture and firm up the mixture so you can form it into balls. You can also use plain flour as a substitute.

Steps to Make Parippu Wade

1. Soaking the chickpeas
2. Making the mixture
3. Shape
4. Deep-frying

Useful Tips

The texture of the ground paste is important to get the perfect textured Wade with a soft inside and crispy and crunchy outside—all in one bite! If we grind chickpeas into a homogenous fine paste, we cannot get the desired texture.

There should be some whole split chickpeas visible in the Wade after frying it. For that make sure to reserve 2 tablespoons of the soaked chickpeas without grinding so that we can add them later into the prepared mixture.

Then, grind the remaining chickpeas in two steps into two different textures; crumble and fine. The first half is coarsely ground to make a crumble paste and the second half is ground to a fine paste with the rest of the fresh ingredients.

The coarsely ground chickpeas and whole chickpeas give the wade crunchy texture while the mashed chickpeas act as the binder holding everything together.

However, if your mixture is too crumbly, the Wade will crack when you fry them. So, there should be enough fine chickpea paste to hold everything together.

Make sure to fry a test Wade to find out the preferred texture and then you can adjust the mixture accordingly.

Troubleshooting

The mixture should be thick to shape the Wade properly. If your mixture is watery, it will be difficult to shape, and it will absorb more oil when deep-frying.

To make a mixture with less water

• Soak the split chickpeas for sufficient time until soft but not too soft
• Make sure to drain thoroughly after soaking and grind them without adding water.
• Do not add too much onion as they release water making the mixture too watery.
• Make sure to pat dry all the fresh ingredients with kitchen towels before grinding

Is your mixture too wet?

• If your mixture seems loose, add more rice flour to thicken it, 1 tbsp at a time, until the mixture is firm enough to shape into balls.
• Don’t add too much rice flour or it will change the taste and texture of the wade.
• After making the mixture, you can refrigerate it for about 30 minutes or so before shaping it.

Serving Suggestions

The best way to enjoy them is to eat them while hot, fresh out of the oil pot, because cold Wades will lose the crispiness as well as the taste. It is commonly served just plain without garnishes mostly as a snack with a hot cup of plain tea or milk tea. You can also stuff them between two slices of bread.

Storing Suggestions

If there are any leftovers, you can refrigerate them in an airtight container for about 2 to 3 days. Alternatively, you can also freeze them for several months in a tightly sealed container or ziploc bag. Reheat them in an oven or oven toaster for a few minutes until crisp. Or re-fry them again in hot oil for about one minute.

More Snack Recipes to Try

Parippu Wade (Sri Lankan Split Chickpea Fritters) Step-by-Step Recipe

(Check out the printable recipe card at the end of the post)

Prep Time: 15 mins
Soaking Time: 2 hrs
Cook Time: 15 mins
Serving: 10

Ingredients

200g of split chickpeas (chana dhal), soaked
2 small dry chilies, soaked
2 tbsp onion, chopped
10 curry leaves
1 green chillies, chopped
1-inch fresh ginger, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 tsp red chili flakes/powder
1/2 tsp turmeric
1 teaspoon salt
Oil for deep frying

Note: You can use chili flakes instead of soaked chilies and adjust the amount of chili to your taste preferences.

Instructions

Soaking

You will need split chickpeas (Chana dal or Kadala Parippu) to make this recipe.

Rinse & soak split chickpeas in water for about 2 hours.

Drain well. Make sure you drain thoroughly otherwise too much liquid will make the mixture too loose and difficult to handle.

Making the Mixture

• Remove 2 tablespoons of chana dal and set it aside to use later.
• Then divide the rest of the chickpeas into two parts.
• In a food processor, add the first half and pulse a few times to coarsely grind with some whole chickpea chunks still visible without adding water.
• Remove to a bowl and set aside.

Add the remaining soaked chana dal to the same jar and pulse and grind to a coarse paste without adding water.

Here are other fresh ingredients you will need. Leave the hard work to the food processor. So you don’t need to dice anything up finely.

To the chickpea paste, add the fresh ingredients. Pulse for few times until the ingredients are finely chopped. Make sure to not grind it to a too-smooth paste. Do not add water. Now transfer it to the same bowl.

Add the reserved soaked chickpeas into the bowl with coarsely ground chickpeas and finely ground chickpeas with fresh ingredients. Mix well to combine with your fingertips.

To this add salt, turmeric, chili powder, and rice flour. Mix well to combine with your fingertips.

Your Wade mixture is ready.

Shaping

• Take a small lemon-sized batter and make a ball.
• Flatten it into a patty by pressing the ball between your palms and shaping them and make sure there are no cracks around the edges.
• Grease your palms with oil before shaping. (I used cooking gloves).
• Arrange all the shaped wade on an oiled plate for deep-frying.
• You can refrigerate them covered for frying them later.

You can also do shaping using 2 pieces of parchment paper as shown in the photo.

Frying

• Now heat oil for deep frying (around 350 °F /175 °C).
• Drop a pinch of the dough into the oil and if it rises immediately to the top, then the temperature of the oil is ready for deep-frying.
• Gently drop the Wade one by one into the heated oil without breaking.
• Fry them one by one or in batches until they turn golden brown and crisp.
• Turn them gently with a ladle so that they can get cooked well on both sides.
• Make sure to keep the flame at a lower medium and control the heat as needed to ensure even cooking.

• If you use parchment paper, carefully place each into the oil with one parchment paper under the wade.
• Fry until the bottom side is golden brown and crisp.
• Flip and remove the paper and fry until the other side is also crisp.

Drain excess oil before serving. Serve with a cup of hot tea.

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If you make any of my recipes, I’d love to see pics of your creations
 #joyofeatingtheworld or @joyofeatingtheworld

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