Ulli Vada | Onion Vada
Ulli Vada is crispy, crunchy onion fritters that are popular in Kerala as a street food snack. Ulli Vadas can be accompanied by tomato ketchup, coconut or green chutney, or mint chutney. The scent of fried onion with fresh masala is enticing, and it’s a perfect accompaniment to your evening coffee or tea.
Ulli Vada (kerala Style) | Onion Medu Vada
This is a simple recipe that can be made at home with readily available ingredients. These are basically onion pakodas, which are a common street food snack in Kerala.
Ingredients
- 2 Onion thinly sliced
- 2 green chillies If you want less spicy remove the seeds from the green chilies before adding it.
- 1 piece ginger optional
- 2 sprig curry leaves chopped
- salt as required
- ¼ teaspoon red chilli powder
- ½ cup besan gram flour
- 1 pinch asafoetida hing
- 4 tablespoons all purpose flour
- oil for deep frying
Instructions
- 3 medium onions, peeled, rinsed, and thinly sliced. You need about 1 1/2 cups of thinly sliced onions.
- Add chopped green chilies, ginger, curry leaves, salt. Mix all together very well and then cover and keep it aside for 15 minutes. By this time, the onions will have released their juices and the vada mixture will be soft.
- After 15-20 minutes of resting, add the remaining ingredients, 1/2 cup besan flour, 4 tbsp all-purpose flour, 1/4 tsp chili powder, a pinch of asafoetida (hing). Mix all together very well. No water is needed.
- Heat oil in a pan for deep frying Ulli vada. Once the oil is hot, reduce the heat to medium and drop spoonfuls of batter into the hot oil. When one side is light golden then turn over and fry the other side. Flip vadas as needed while frying. Fry the vadas until they are crisp and golden on both sides.
- Remove the Ulli vada with a slotted spoon once they are crisp and golden.
- To absorb excess oil, place the fried onion vada on kitchen paper towels.
- Fry the remaining batches of ulli vada in the same manner.
- Serve hot ulli vada with any chutney of your choosing.
Notes
If you like more crispier onion vada you can add 2 tbsp rice flour.