Soak urad dal or white lentils in water for 4-5 hours. Drain it well and blend it in the mixer with ginger. Or you can add finely chopped ginger to the blended dal or lentil. Make sure you leave the dal mix slightly coarse with some dal remaining whole or semi whole. Let it be very thick and don't add water.

Now heat 2 tsp. oil in a kadhai or non-stick pan. Add 1 tsp. cumin seeds and let it sputter. Dry roast pepper, fennel and coriander seeds and coarsely powder them.

Tip in the blended dal mix and add in the powdered dry masalas along with turmeric powder and amchur powder. Now slowly cook the dal mix on a low flame till it gets completely cooked. It takes about 10-15 minutes for this. Let it cool completely. Taste and adjust seasoning if needed.

For the outer shell, make a stiff dough by adding flour, sooji, salt and carom seeds. Then add the oil and mix well till you get a sand-like consistency. Add water little by little after that to knead the dough. Keep it aside for half an hour covered with a damp cloth.

Divide the dough into 10-12 balls. Make a round ball and roll it out a bit. Then make a pocket in the ball so that you can put the filling in.

Put a generous portion of the filling and bring the edges together and seal them on top to form a big round ball. Roll them out with a rolling pin till they are poori sized.

Kachoris are fat and small so don't roll them out too much. Never overfill the kachoris or the filling will seap out later.

Heat oil in a kadhai and deep fry these kachoris till golden on both sides. Don't overcrowd the pan. Always deep fry on medium heat.

Preheat Air fryer to 200 C or 390 F for 4 minutes. Brush the air fryer basket and put 2-3 prepared and rolled out kachoris depending on the size of your Air fryer.

Now Air fry for 5-6 minutes till the kachoris look lightly browned and done. They also puff up a little.

They look drier than the deep fried ones but are very flaky and tasty.