Air Fryer Medu Vada Bites | Urad Dal Vada | Healthy Indian Snack recipe for Kids
These air fried Medu vada bites eliminate all the difficulty and unhealthy part of the traditional deep fried Medu vada or garelu which is the most famous South Indian break fast dish. This is one of the most healthy snack or break fast dish for anyone, with it's high protein content and vitamin B, especially for kids with it's cute little nugget/cookie shape.
Ingredients
- 2 cups Skinned Whole Urad Dal skin less black gram or black lentils
- 1 tablespoon rice flour
- Salt to taste
- Oil to brush or oil spray
Optional Seasonings ( Choose to add none, some or all of these )
- 1 to 1.5 tsp cumin seeds
- ⅓ cup finely chopped onions
- ½ to ¾ tsp coarsely crushed pepper or whole pepper corns
- 2 to 3 green chillies chopped finely
- 1 sprig curry leaves chopped
- 2 to 3 tablespoons chopped cilantro
Instructions
Medu Vada batter Preparation
- Wash Whole skinned urad dal ( black gram/black lentil ) for 2 to 3 times until water runs clear and soak for at least 5 to 6 hours . If you are in a time crunch you can soak for 3 to 4 hours but the texture won't be the same.
- Now discard the water and grind the soaked dal into a smooth thick fluffy batter with salt adding very little cold water. You can use wet grinder or any blender you have, to make the batter but make sure you use very little water while grinding it. Sprinkle little by little ( teaspoon at a time ) as required while grinding. If you are not using wet grinder, it is better to grind in small batches as it is easy that way to make a smooth batter.
- Once the batter is ready, take it into a bowl, add rice flour, mix well and then start beating the batter with your clean hand in circular motion to incorporate air into the batter. Do this for around 3 to 4 mins until the batter becomes light and fluffy.
- To test if the batter is ready, drop a small ball of batter into a glass of water, If it floats on the water without sinking down, then your batter is ready.
- If you prefer, add any of the optional seasonings to the batter and mix.
Cooking Medu Vada in Air fryer
- Pre heat the air fryer for 3 mins. If your air fryer comes with any removable slotted drip tray, then remove it to cook directly on the flat non stick cooking surface on the bottom.
- Brush little oil all over the bottom of the basket.
- Now take a tablespoon size spoon and drop the batter in small rounds in the basket leaving space between each round. I can cook 9 vadas at a time in my 6 qt Gourmia air fryer.
- Spray oil on all the vada bites and set air fryer to cook at 370 degrees Fahrenheit for 12 mins. If you don't have an oil spray can, then just drop few drops of oil on each vada bite with a brush or spoon.
- At 7 min mark, open the air fryer basket, brush little oil on the all the vada bites and flip them.
- You Medu vada bites will be ready to eat at around 12 to 13 mins. Enjoy them with coconut chutney or sambar. My kids like to eat them with sambar or ketchup.
Notes
- You can make these Medu vada bites in any air fryer which has a flat non stick surface with removable drip trays or crisper trays.
- It is important to add salt while grinding as the batter might become slightly runny if you add salt later.
- Use cold water while making the batter to make sure the blender is not getting too hot. If the blender gets too hot, it might give a bitter taste to the batter. Batter should be thick not runny at all. If it gets little runny add little more rice flour ( not more than 1.5 tablespoons per cup of dal ) to adjust the consistency.
- If you used Wet grinder for grinding batter and immediately make vadas after grinding, then you can skip the step of beating the batter.
- Add optional seasonings only before cooking.