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Urad Vada

Urad vada is a traditional South Indian dish prepared using urad dal/black gram and deep fried in oil. Most of South Indian breakfast dishes like idli, dosa, venpongal, upma etc comes with a combo of urad vada, and tastes good with sambar and chutney. It is a must dish during festivals, made as an offering to God.
Urad dal/Black lentils are rich in folic acid, calcium, fiber, magnesium and potassium and a good source of protein. It’s said, home made urad vada using good oil, has the power to heal mouth ulcers, stomach ulcer, backache etc.
Apart served along breakfast, it is a healthy evening snack too.
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Prep Time 1 hour
Cook Time 15 minutes
Servings: 10
Course: Appetizer, Breakfast, Snack
Cuisine: Indian
Ingredients Method Notes

Ingredients
  

  • 1 cup Urad Dal
  • 1 tbsp Raw rice
  • 1 Green chilli
  • 1 inch Ginger
  • 1 Onion
  • 2 pinch Hing powder (Asafoetida)

Method
 

  1. Wash and soak Urad dal & Raw rice for an hour.
  2. Drain away the water and transfer dal to mixie. Add 1 green chilli, ginger and grind it smoothly. The mixture is very thick so sprinkle some water in between and grind. Add Salt and give a last grind. Salt tends to release water. So be cautious in adding water as the dough should be very thick.
  3. Add onions, curry leaves, two pinches of asafoetida and mix well.
  4. Keep oil to heat.
    This dough is really sticky. So take some water in a bowl, dip fingers into the bowl and wet your fingers. Now take a small portion of dough, pat it flat in your fingers, place a hole and drop into oil when its hot enough.
    (Alternatively you can also do it using a wet towel or banana leaf. Spray some water, place a small portion of dough, pat it flat, place a hole in the center and drop into oil.)
  5. Fry in low/medium flame as it tends to burn out leaving the core raw/undercooked. Also make sure the temperature is right enough, if its too low, it tends to absorb oil.
  6. Enjoy it as a evening snack or along with breakfast with sambar and chutney.

Notes

  1. If at all you feel the batter to be thin and watery, add some rice flour to thicken it. Adding rice flour makes vada even more crispier.
  2. Substitute green chilli with pepper. Just need to crush it. It tastes even better and good for health.