My second post to the Ugadi special theme is Ulli Garelu or Onion Medu Vada. It is a traditional favourite breakfast and snack of south india which features not just in everyday cuisine but is also an indispensable part of the menu on festivals and puja days.
Foods are filled with nostalgic memories. When I cook such food, I get the feeling that my complete family has gathered together. So, today I decided to share this fried snack that could bring back those beautiful memories of my family and hometown. I cannot remember a single festival my parents celebrated without this scrumptious snack and the tradition continues even till date.
The number of dishes that are made from this basic Gare or Vada is mind blowing, starting from Sambar Vada to Thayir Vada or Perugu Garelu and many more. Variations are abundant and each one of them is equally enjoyable as the other. But this most basic version of Gare or Vada so important in making any of the above mentioned. The key to the success in making basic version of vada is the consistency of the batter. If the batter is too thick, then Gare or vada turns out hard. If it is too runny then they won’t hold their shape and absorb lot of oil.
Ulli Garelu or Onion Medu Vadas are uncomplicated to make but require a little practice to get the perfect shape. Try out my recipe and you’ll be a pro… very soon!! If you don’t manage to get the shape, I have an alternative for you
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This traditional South Indian Fried Snack with a cup of hot tea or coffee in the evening is a pure bliss for anyone…Btw…I am a coffee freak 
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Did you check out my first post to the Ugadi special theme….If not have a look at the combo in the picture below to take a guess and click here to view full recipe!!
Moving on to the recipe…
Step-by-Step process in making Ulli Garelu or Onion Medu Vada:
PERFECT SPONGY MEDU VADA RECIPE VIDEO
It mainly involves 3 steps-
- Soaking and grinding lentils to a batter
- Seasoning the batter
- Deep-frying Ulli Garelu or Onion Medu Vada
Let’s go through each step in detail.
1. Soaking and grinding lentils to a batter to make Ulli Garelu or Onion Medu Vada:
- Clean lentils under running water 2 to 3 times to remove any impurities..
- Soak lentils along with rice and ginger in enough water for about 3 hours.
- Grind lentils in a mixer or stone grinder to a thick paste. Grinding the batter to fluffy texture will yield crispy vadas. Grinding the batter for long time will make the vadas rubbery, so do not grind more than 15 minutes. Batter should be very light and fluffy, if its too thick and tight, then batter will sink and fried vadas will turn out very hard.
- After grinding lentils to a coarse paste, pour the batter into a large bowl. Using your hand, beat the batter and combine well for at least 5 minutes, this will create air inside the batter. And you will get to enjoy soft, fluffy vadas.
- Use very little water to grind the soaked lentils into paste or thick batter.
2. Seasoning the batter to prepare Ulli Garelu or Onion Medu Vada:
- Finely chop onions, green chillies, coriander leaves and curry leaves.
- To the above batter, add all the chopped ingredients, cumin seeds and salt.
- Mix it well with your hand to incorporate all the stuff into the batter.
- Make vadas immediately after grinding. Once you add salt and onions to the batter it will start to release water slowly turning the batter watery, so try to fry them all immediately after grinding.
- In case you are not going to use the batter immediately, keep it covered in refrigerator till use. Add seasoning and salt only before making vadas.
3. Deep-frying Ulli Garelu or Onion medu vada:
- Heat oil in a heavy bottomed pan over medium heat.
- Check the temperature of oil by dropping a pinch of the batter. If it rises up immediately, oil is ready to deep-fry.
- Wet your hands and make small balls out of batter. Flatten the ball and make a hole at the center using thumb finger. Gently slide the vada into the oil by tilting your fingers..
- Alternatively you can take the ball on a plastic cover by wetting your hands occasionally and form a disc shape. Place a hole in the centre and drop them in hot oil for deep-frying.
- Drop the garelu/vadas carefully into hot oil and deep-fry them on both sides till they turn golden colour.
- Remove and drain them on absorbent tissue paper to remove excess oil.
- Serve hot with any chutney of your choice like peanut chutney, onion chutney, or carrot chutney on a healthy note, or any other chutney. Today I have served with tomato chutney…Recipe follows soon…Do come back for the recipe!!
If you can’t manage to get the shape, then just make small balls and fry …just like what you can see on the right side in the below picture…Taste of Ulli Garelu or Onion Medu Vada is anyway going to be the same
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CLICK HERE FOR VIDEO RECIPE
Ulli Garelu or Onion Medu Vada
Ingredients
- To Grind:
- 1 Cup Whole Black gram Urad dal or Minapa pappu
- 2 Teaspoons raw rice
- 1 inch chopped ginger
- To season the batter:
- 1 large onion finely chopped
- 2 to 3 green chillies finely chopped
- A spring of curry leaves finely chopped
- ½ cup finely chopped coriander
- 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
- Required Salt
- To deep-fry:
- Required oil for deep-frying
Instructions
- Grinding Lentils:
- Clean the lentils using runing water 2 to 3 times to remove any impurities..
- Soak lentils along with rice and ginger in plenty of water for about 3 hours.
- Grind lentils in a mixer or stone grinder to a thick paste.
- Use very little water grind the soaked lentils into paste or thick batter (see notes).
- Seasoning the batter:
- Take the batter in a bowl and add all the ingredients under the heading “To season the batter”.
- Mix it well with your hand to incorporate all the stuff into the batter.
- Deep-frying:
- Heat oil in a heavy bottomed pan over medium heat.
- Wet your hands and make small balls out of batter. Flatten the ball and make a hole at the centre and gently slide it into the oil.
- Alternatively you can take the ball of batter on a plastic cover by wetting your hands occasionally and form a disc shape. Place a hole in the center and drop them into hot oil for deep-frying.
- Drop the garelu/vadas carefully into hot oil and deep-fry them on both sides to golden colour.
- Transfer Garelu/Vadas on to an absorbent tissue paper to remove excess oil.
- Serve hot with any chutney of your choice like peanut chutney, onion chutney, or carrot chutney on a healthy note, or any other chutney.
My Notes:
- Be very careful while adding water to grind the batter, just add enough for grinding. Making the size of the garelu/Vada is your choice.
- Skip onions in Vada/Garelu while offering as prasad to God!! You can include any other extra seasonings of your choice to the batter.
- Keep the batter covered in refrigerator till use. Add salt & onions only before frying the vadas.
- Beat the batter before frying to provide aeration which is very important to get crispy,light vadas. Season only after that.
- Do not add salt while grinding. Add salt just before frying the vada.
- Grinding the batter to fluffy texture will yield crispy vadas.
- Rice included in grinding aids to get crispy vadas. Instead you can also substitute with 1 tablespoon of rice flour after grinding.
- If for some reason if your batter is too thin because of too much water then add 1 teaspoon of rice flour or maida to bring it to a thick consistency. But do not add more than this, otherwise you end up getting hard vadas.
This post is a part of the Ugadi special blog hop.
You might also like other popular festival recipes from my blog- Rice Kheer, Kajjikayalu, Carrot halwa, Beetroot halwa, Sweet Pongal, Puliyodharai, Ven Pongal, Coconut Burfi, Bobbatlu many more to come…..Stay Tuned!!
Many more to come!!…..STAY TUNED!!
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Happy Cooking 🙂
Cheers!!
Padma
