Medhu vadai or ulundha vadai is a gluten-free savoury doughnut prepared using black lentils (urad dal). Any feast or festival in South India is incomplete without serving soft vadai with crispy golden skin. Nevertheless medhu vadai is a commonly prepared evening snack in our family particularly during monsoon.
It can be served as rasa vadai, sambar vadai or thayir vadai as shown below.
How to serve rasa vadai, sambar vadai or thayir vadai:
For rasa vadai or sambar vadai we need to soak medhu vadai in hot rasam or sambar for few minutes, for thayir vadai we need to blend curd (half cup) & coconut chutney (1 tbsp) and pour over warm vadai. Garnish with finely chopped onions and coriander leaves before serving. Please note that we need to prick holes using toothpick or fork before soaking so that it gets soaked quickly, evenly and completely.
We usually serve medhu vadai with hot sambar and coconut chutney.
Medhu Vadai Recipe:
I have been trying a unique method to incorporate air into the vadai dough to make soft fluffy medhu vadai, and I find this method useful particularly while making it in small quantities. Now the recipe for making restaurant-style soft spongy vadai.
Time taken (excluding soaking time) for making vadai: 30 min
Yield : 16 Nos.
Ingredients:
- Black gram (muzhu ulundhu) – 1 cup (200 g)
- Green chillies – 3 Nos.
- Cumin seeds – 1/2 tsp
- Shallots – 15 to 20 Nos.
- Curry leaves – 2 sprigs.
- Salt – 1 tsp
- Sunflower oil for deep frying
Medhu Vadai dough:
- Wash & soak black grams for 1 hour.
- Chop shallots & curry leaves and keep aside.
- Strain water completely from soaked lentils.
- In a mixer-grinder jar add green chillies & grind for 30 sec.
- Add lentils and grind for few min.
- Add 2 tsp water and grind into a smooth paste.
- Transfer lentil paste to a large bowl.
- Beat the dough with electric beater (at high speed) until it becomes fluffy & whiter (approx. 3 min).
- Add salt, cumin seeds, chopped shallots & curry leaves and mix well.
How to prepare savoury doughnuts:
- Heat a frying pan with oil (about 2 inch depth) in medium flame.
- Divide lentil dough into 16 balls of equal size.
- Place lentil ball on a greased leaf (or a plastic sheet), make a hole through the center of ball and flatten it to form a doughnut shape.
- Check oil by dropping a pinch of dough, if it comes up to the surface, it is ready for deep frying.
- Turn over the leaf gently onto your hand and drop carefully into hot oil.
- Repeat the steps #3, 4 & 5 to fry a batch of upto 5 vadai depending on the size of pan.
- Gently flip them to other side using frying spoon.
- When they turn golden transfer to a plate lined with paper towels.
- Repeat the same with rest of the dough.
- Hot spongy delicious vadai is ready to serve.
Tips:
- If you are making dough using wet grinder, there is no need to use electric beater.
- We can use groundnut oil instead of sunflower oil, but sesame oil is not recommended for deep frying.
- We need to fry vadai constantly in medium flame without adjusting the flame.
- You may add finely chopped ginger, coconut or coriander leaves.
- If you are offering these to deities at home, you can replace chillies with pepper and omit shallots.
- You may refrigerate the dough for a day or two in an air-tight container.
Seems like you have shared all my fav dishes here. Thanks again for this recipe.
You are most welcome!
Fabulous!!!
Thank you.
Fabulous!!!
Thank you.
So yummy
Thanks for stopping by !
Yummy! These sound like something I should definitely make! How exciting… another visit to my local Indian store I think! 😀 Thanks so much for sharing! 🙂
Yummy! These sound like something I should definitely make! How exciting… another visit to my local Indian store I think! 😀 Thanks so much for sharing! 🙂
Thank you so much for stopping by!
I wish you could cook for me for a week! I would love to try all your food…so different than ours and I love to eat new things.
I wish you could cook for me for a week! I would love to try all your food…so different than ours and I love to eat new things.
Hahaha! Thanks for your kind words! Please do make a visit to India to try all of them!!
I would love too!
Spongy, savory donuts, oh my! 🙂 Are they spicy?
They are not spicy and absolutely you can’t feel the heat of green chillies.
Spongy, savory donuts, oh my! 🙂 Are they spicy?
They are not spicy and absolutely you can’t feel the heat of green chillies.
It looks tasty
It looks tasty
Yes, truly they are! Thanks for dropping by!
My all time favorite and one I can have for breakfast, a snack or dinner time. Will try the new method of beating it, never did that before. Thank you, Megala for the tip.
My all time favorite and one I can have for breakfast, a snack or dinner time. Will try the new method of beating it, never did that before. Thank you, Megala for the tip.
Glad that you like them so much! Thanks for dropping by!
Oh we have something like this in Malaysia too!
That’s where I come from.
I miss murukku so much too.
Indian food in England is mild and creamy.
In Malaysia, it’s very spicy and dry.
Oh! Nice to know that!
Yes, we all like murukku, but thats quite different from this vadai!
Will soon post recipe for murukku also! 🙂
By the way, thanks for dropping by!
Oh we actually have something like vadai but it’s made of chickpea powder or lentil (I can’t remember), bird’s eye chilis and curry leaves.
Do you know the name of this dish?
Oh I just had a quick check online, it’s parippu vada. 🙂
He he… I only know two words in Tamil, vanakkam and nandree.
Oh we have something like this in Malaysia too!
That’s where I come from.
I miss murukku so much too.
Indian food in England is mild and creamy.
In Malaysia, it’s very spicy and dry.
Oh! Nice to know that!
Yes, we all like murukku, but thats quite different from this vadai!
Will soon post recipe for murukku also! 🙂
By the way, thanks for dropping by!
Oh we actually have something like vadai but it’s made of chickpea powder or lentil (I can’t remember), bird’s eye chilis and curry leaves.
Do you know the name of this dish?
Oh I just had a quick check online, it’s parippu vada. 🙂
He he… I only know two words in Tamil, vanakkam and nandree.
Now I got it, you can check here for its recipe: https://megalaskitchen.com/2017/01/27/deep-fried-lentil-patties/
Nandree! 🙂
This is a good snack. Thank you for sharing this. Looks delicious!
Thank you!
This is a good snack. Thank you for sharing this. Looks delicious!
Thank you!
Yum!
Thanks!
Yum!
Thanks!
Mmmm. These look really yummy! 🙂
Mmmm. These look really yummy! 🙂
Thanks, and thanks for visiting my blog!
You’re welcome. Xx
Crisp vadas are my weakness!
Yes, me too! 🙂
Crisp vadas are my weakness!
Yes, me too! 🙂
All time favorite vada lovely
Thank you!
Happy that you like them so much!
We also do the de-husking of black gram lentils sometimes.
We soak lentils for 2-3 hours, when they are soaked we scoop out a handful of lentils and rub them between fingers & palm while immersing palm inside water. We repeat the same for another batch of lentils until skins are separated completely. Then we have to shake the bowl gently so that the skins would start to float and lentils stay at the bottom. Now floating skins can be poured out with water and we add some water to repeat the same until skins are poured out. It wont take not more than 10 min.
If you find any difficulty in this method above, you can try this: When lentils are soaked, you can drain the water completely, spread evenly on a towel and cover them with another towel. Now you can roll a polling pin over the top towel several times until the husks are separated and take them out one by one.
Hope this would be helpful, do let me know whether this works for you!
Happy that you like them so much!
We also do the de-husking of black gram lentils sometimes.
We soak lentils for 2-3 hours, when they are soaked we scoop out a handful of lentils and rub them between fingers & palm while immersing palm inside water. We repeat the same for another batch of lentils until skins are separated completely. Then we have to shake the bowl gently so that the skins would start to float and lentils stay at the bottom. Now floating skins can be poured out with water and we add some water to repeat the same until skins are poured out. It wont take not more than 10 min.
If you find any difficulty in this method above, you can try this: When lentils are soaked, you can drain the water completely, spread evenly on a towel and cover them with another towel. Now you can roll a polling pin over the top towel several times until the husks are separated and take them out one by one.
Hope this would be helpful, do let me know whether this works for you!
These look soooo tempting Megala. I was wondering if I could get your help for something? I have recently made dosa batter and now thinking of making these 🙂 but I have a bit of a problem. Here I have only found urad dal or black gram with the husks on, and although I tried to soak them overnight or rub them off, I haven’t found any simple way to remove or separate the black skins in bulk. I had spent about two hours doing it last time (after soaking), and although I guess it would be worth it for a delicious recipe like this 😉 I was wondering if you could advise a better method for me or what I am doing wrong? Many thanks!!
These look soooo tempting Megala. I was wondering if I could get your help for something? I have recently made dosa batter and now thinking of making these 🙂 but I have a bit of a problem. Here I have only found urad dal or black gram with the husks on, and although I tried to soak them overnight or rub them off, I haven’t found any simple way to remove or separate the black skins in bulk. I had spent about two hours doing it last time (after soaking), and although I guess it would be worth it for a delicious recipe like this 😉 I was wondering if you could advise a better method for me or what I am doing wrong? Many thanks!!
looks tempting!!
Thank you!
looks tempting!!
Thank you!
Lovely vadas????
Lovely vadas????
Thank you so much!
🙂
🙂
A fav nytym ??
So exotic and interesting idea. I am so glad you shared this recipe !! 🙂
Thanks!
Wow, they look delicious! 🙂
Thank you so much!
Thank you so much!
Yummmm – they look so tempting!
Love love love!!!
Thanks thanks thanks!!! 🙂
😀 😀
They look amazing! 😀
Thank you!
M Drooling :):):) Thumbs up for Vada and sambar
Thank you so much!
Vada is my all-time favorite. Nice share ?
Thank you so much.