Medu Vada

Medu Vada can be a tough recipe to crack but I have detailed step by step + tips to give you a foolproof recipe for crispy, fluffy vadas

Course Side Dishes

Cuisine South Indian

Diet Gluten Free, Vegan, Vegetarian

Prep Time 20

Cook Time 15

Total Time 35

Servings people

Calories 114kcal

Author Richa

Ingredients

1 Cup Urad Dal dehusked urad dal
5-6 Tablespoons Water
¾ Teaspoon Salt
½ Teaspoon Hing asafoetida
2 Tablespoons Rice Flour
1 Teaspoon Jeera cumin seeds
1 Teaspoon crushed Black Pepper
1 Tablespoon chopped Coriander

Instructions

Wash and soak urad dal overnight.
Place the urad dal in a sieve to drain all the water
Add it to a mixer grinder, add a tablespoon of water at a time (I used between 4-6 tablespoon water), and grind it to a smooth paste. You may need a little less or a little more water, but try to use as little water as possible. This entire process can take up to 6-8 minutes. It's important to keep mixing it with a spatula and grinding.
Mix salt and hing in the ground urad dal and set it aside for ten minutes. The hing acts as baking soda and helps make the batter lighter.
Place the oil in a kadhai for heating while you whisk the batter
Use a hand whisk to whisk the ground urad dal until it's light and fluffy - approximately 5 minutes. You’ll feel the batter becoming airy and fluffier and also getting lighter in colour from a yellow to pale white.
Once the batter is whisked, mix in rice flour, jeers, crushed peppercorns and coriander. Add another teaspoon of water if required. Whisk again for a minute or two
To make vadas, dip both your hands in water. Take a lime-sized amount of batter in your dominant hand (in my case, my right hand) and place it on the palm of the subservient hand (in my case, my left hand). Using the fingers of the dominant hand, form it into a circle and then make a hole in the centre. Dip the dominant hand in the water again, and place the formed vada on the fingertips of the dominant hand.
Gently drop the vada in hot oil by turning the hand over the kadhai (close to the oil so the vada doesn't splash into it) and moving the fingers slightly so the vada slides into the oil.
You should see it start to puff up slightly. Cook it on a medium flame for 2-3 minutes till golden brown on both sides.
Repeat till all the vadas are fried. Serve hot with piping hot sambar and chutney.

Video

Notes

Soak and drain the urad dal for at least 6 hours or overnight before grinding.
Add only a few tbsps of water while grinding. Too much water while grinding will make the batter too runny, making it difficult to form the vadas later because urad dal has a silky consistency so it slips from your hand. The batter should be more like thick cake batter
Mix hing (asafoetida) and salt and set it aside for 10-15 minutes to help aerate the dough. (Hing acts a little like baking soda in this recipe!)
The most important step in this recipe is to whip the batter in a unidirectional circular motion either by hand or with a whisk for 5-6 minutes to aerate the mixture. You will see the batter become lighter in colour and become fluffier as you whisk. It’ll also increase in size and volume. That’s when you know the batter is ready.
Avoid using a hand blender for whipping the batter as the high speed ends up deflating the batter. I tried this and wasn’t happy with the results compared to whisking by hand
I like to add some rice flour (a trick I learnt from a cook in Bangalore) to the batter for an extra crispy outer layer.
To form the vadas, both hands should be dipped in water so that the urad dal batter doesn’t stick and slides off easily.
To shape, take some batter into your wet hand and move it in a circular position to create the base. Use your thumb to create a hole in the center. Transfer it to the other hand and gently slide it into hot oil
If you are making these for the first time and having trouble shaping them, don’t worry too much and just drop lime sized rounds of batter into hot oil. They won’t look like a donut shaped vada but will definitely taste amazing!
Fry the vadas on a medium low flame to give them a chance to cook well from the inside.
Do not overcrowd the pan when frying – fry in small batches for the best result.

Nutrition