Medu Vada | Crispy and Spongy

ABOUT

Medu vada is a famous South Indian breakfast snack in donut shape with crispy crust and spongy, fluffy interior. It is basically made with urad dal and is a perfect snack to have with your coffee or tea. In Tamil we call it Ulundu vada!!!;

In South of India , it is mostly served in form of breakfast along with dosa , Idli and pongal. You can’t find single South Indian restaurant without serving this delicacy, especially in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. You can also find it as sambar vada with piping hot sambar over it or as Thayir vada (curd vada) , where it is soaked in curd for long time and is generally served like chaat.

My mom is a fan of this medu vada, however I have more affinity towards Paruppu vada :D, because it is crunchy throughout! and also easy to make ;)! Whatever it is, I definitely have medu vada with either sambar or curd as thayir vada whenever my mom makes it. This is again one of the iconic recipe that needs more effort to crack. It took me like two attempts to perfect it!!

TIPS AND NOTES

1. Make sure to use good quality whole urad dal, trust me that makes a huge difference in your batter quantity.
2. It is best to use a grinder than mixer jar, since the former makes the batter more fluffier and yields more quantity than the latter. Also mixer jar will make the batter heat so fast and it does requires quite amount of water to grind finely
3. Always soak 30 minutes minimum to max 1 hour. If soaking time increases the batter yield will be less.
4. In case you are using a mixer jar, after soaking 30 minutes, put it in the fridge for 15-20 minutes. This gives you fluffy batter. You can also add ice cubes to grind but this will make the batter too loose to hold.
5. Water quantity should be bare minimum. Just sprinkle and grind. Only then it would be easy to make shapes, also oil absorption will be less. If water is more, it will absorb more oil and become too oily
6. Rice flour should be added only in minimum quantity specified because vada will become too hard to consume.
7. Before shaping the vada, dip your hands in water, and proceed. This is to be followed for each vada. Do not use oil for coating your hands.
8. Take a small ball of batter and drop in water, it should float. Then your consistency is right!! Good to go!!

STORAGE

Medu vada is always great if you eat hot!!. In case there are left overs make thayir vada/curd vada and store in fridge which can last up to 1 week.

INGREDIENTS

Urad dal

Choose whole, good quality urad dal. Soaking time is important and method of grinding makes the batter fluffier and soft as mentioned in tips and notes

Rice floor

Rice flour gives that crispy crust to the vada, but just incase you add excess to adjust then the consistency will make it hard. So keep an eye on the quantity!

Water

This is one of the major ingredient which contributes to your consistency of batter . Hence it has to be optimum. In case water is too low, grinding is difficult and results in very hard vada. In case water quantity increases, it becomes loose and leads to higher oil absorption and difficult to make shapes

Onion

You always have an option to skip onions, incase you are in a fasting or making it as prasadam /offerings to God. However ,adding onions will help you get a crunchy and crisp feel while you take a bite. It enhances the flavor.

Ginger

Since dals/lentils are famous for bloating and gas. So ginger comes as a rescue!!! So it is a must in all your vada recipe. In addition to the above, it also gives a great flavor to the recipe. If you don’t like ginger pieces in your vada, you can grind it with batter. Simple!! 🙂

Chilli & Pepper

There is always a fight when it comes to adding whole pepper, some like and some doesn’t. On other hand we don’t want chilli either!!! Pepper gives you amazing taste to vada. In temples they use pepper and not chilli. So you can powder the pepper coarsely and add! Chilli can be avoided in case of pepper. However we use both in my recipe which brings all the flavors intact

Oil

Currently many are health conscious, so if you feel to avoid fried item, make a baked or air-fried version of them by just spraying oil. Batter should be thick in this case. Oil makes them crispier, however in its absence, you can make sambar/curd vada which can nearly match fried vada. So try it!!

STEP BY STEP INSTRUCTIONS WITH PHOTO

1. Take 1 cup urad dal, wash twice and soak for 30 minutes
   
   
2. After soaking, it would have doubled its size. Now in a mixer or grinder, add required water around 4-5 tbsp and grind to fine thick batter
   
   
3. Now to the grounded batter add rice flour and mix well
   
   
4. Add ginger, pepper, chilli, onion , salt, coriander leaves & curry leaves and mix well to get fluffy batter.
   
   
5. Without resting further , deep fry in oil by dipping your hands in water and making donut shaped vadas
   
   
6. Fry until they are crispy and golden.
   
   
7. Serve hot and Enjoy!!
   
   
   Happy Eating!!!! 🙂
   

*For Information Purpose only. Values are approximate