Uddina Vade: Crunchy Mangalorean Urad Dal Snack

Some dishes are so common and yet so loved that they become embedded in our lives and need no introduction at all. One such staple morning meal snack from Karnataka is Uddina Vade. These crunchy and plump snacks are eternal companions of soothing and soft idlis but their preparation is more convenient than which involves merely 2 hours of soaking urad dal. This follows up with making a batter of ground urad dal and chopped ingredients and deep frying them to get the savoury snacks. Uddina Vade is much delight when eaten with easily-prepared green chutney by grinding lightly sauteed green chillies and flavourful herbs including mint and curry leaves.

Medu Vada- A Popular Name For Uddina Vade

The doughnut-shaped Medu Vadas are an extremely loved food of South India and are a part and parcel of breakfast. These vadas prepared with split black gram lentils or urad dal are eaten in combination with idlis, chutney and sambar. The Medu vadas get their name for being very soft from the inside as medu means soft in Tamil and vadas denote fritters. The name also helps in distinguishing these vadas from Parippu vada which have a comparatively hard batter. In Kannada, these are known as Uddine Vada, and Medu Vadai. Renowned Food critic, Vir Sanghvi attributes the origin of medu vada to the Maddur town in present-day Karnataka. 

Medu Vadas are made with coarse ground urad dal mixed with a few spices and chopped onions and herbs deep fried to get crispy and fluffy vadas. The characteristic hole in the centre of the vadas makes them Medu Vadas are one of those South Indian staples like Idlis and Dosas that have long crossed the state borders and are eaten and sold throughout restaurants and streets in India.

Cooking: 30 minutes

Servings: 10-12 vadas

Ingredients: 

• 250g urad dal 
• 2 finely chopped onions
• Finely chopped coriander leaves
• Finely chopped raw coconut
• Finely chopped curry leaves
• Salt to taste

For Chutney

• 1 tbsp oil
• A few curry leaves 
• 5 green chillies
• Fresh mint leaves
• Coriander Leaves
• 50g grated coconut 
• 5 gm tamarind
• Salt to taste
• A pinch of sugar
• Water as required

Method:

• Wash urad dal thoroughly and soak it for about 2 hours and then grind them into a thick paste. In the process of grinding, just add 2 tbsp of water to the urad dal.
• In another bowl, keep all the chopped ingredients, and then add the urad dal coarse paste to it.
• Mix the urad dal paste nicely with chopped ingredients and salt and keep it aside.
• Meanwhile, to prepare the chutney, heat oil in a pan and green chillies and saute them for a minute, then add curry leaves and saute until the raw smell goes off.
• To this add fresh mint leaves, coriander leaves and saute for a minute and turn off the flame. Add grated coconut to this and mix with the other ingredients. 
• Take out the mixture and let it cool. Then transfer them into a blending jar, add salt to it, and the soaked tamarind. 
• Lastly, add a pinch of sugar to the mixture and little water and grind everything into a fine and flowing paste.
• Now, prepare vadas, by making small balls of urad dal mixture. Gently press in the centre of the vade to make a hole.
• Deep fry these in hot oil on medium flame until they are golden and crisp.
• Take them out and serve with the green chutney.

Sugar is added to the chutney mixture to subdue the pungent flavour of the ingredients. Make sure to keep the Uddina Vada batter firm by not adding any water to it. Uddina Vade is very close to the vadas of Dahi vada with few more ingredients and a firmer body.