Aloo bonda recipe or potato bonda is a popular South Indian snack and a street food. Aloo translates to potato and bonda to a ball shaped fritter. So aloo bonda literally translates to bondas that are stuffed with potatoes. These are a South Indian version of the popular Maharashtrian snack Batata vada.
Aloo bonda are served in almost all tiffin centers and restaurants in Karnataka for the evening Tea time snack. These originated in the Udupi hotels and eventually became one of the most common on all restaurant menus since they are loved by many.
Goli baje, Vegetable bonda, Crispy mysore bonda , Andhra punugulu and egg bonda are similar other bonda recipes on the blog.
To make aloo bonda, first boiled potatoes are seasoned and spiced. Then dipped in gram flour batter and deep fried to golden. These are very good to make on weekends or during festivals or when you have guests home.
Usually aloo bonda is made simple just with aloo and onions, but some restaurants also make with capsicum and peas.
These are served with coconut chutney, tomato chutney or with masala tea.
Aloo bonda recipe
Aloo bonda
Ingredients (1 cup = 240ml )
Ingredients for potato stuffing in aloo bonda
- 1 ¼ cup potatoes or aloo (cubed) – 3 medium sized
- 1 small onion (chopped or thinly sliced)
- 1 ½ tbsps Oil
- 1/8 tsp turmeric or haldi
- 1 sprig curry leaves chopped
- ¼ tsp mustard seeds
- ¼ tsp jeera or cumin
- 1 tsp urad dal (skinned black lentils)
- ½ tsp ginger grated
- Salt to taste
- 2 green chilies (slit or chopped)
- ¼ tsp coriander powder
- 2 pinches saunf or sompu or fennel seeds crushed (optional)
- ¼ tsp garam masala (optional)
- Salt to taste
- lemon juice optional
- 2 tbsp coriander leaves optional
Outer covering for aloo bonda
- ½ cup besan or chickpea flour (1 tbsp more if needed)
- 2 to 3 tbsp rice flour (1 tbsp more if needed)
- water as needed
- Salt to taste
- 2 pinches chili powder for color (optional)
- 1 pinch turmeric for color
- Oil for deep frying
How to make the recipe
Preparation for aloo bonda recipe
- Steam or boil potatoes without making them mushy. You can boil in a pot or cooker.
- Pour oil to a hot pan. Add dal, mustard and cumin. Fry until the dal turns golden.
- Saute ginger just for 30 secs.
- Next add onions,salt, curry leaves and green chilies. Fry them.
- When the onions turn golden, add the turmeric, garam masala, coriander powder and saunf.
- Add potatoes and mash them a bit without making them mushy.
- Mix well. Sprinkle lemon juice and coriander leaves.
- Cool this and make 6 to 8 balls.
making bonda batter
- Add besan, rice flour, salt, chili powder and turmeric to a large mixing bowl.
- Pour enough water little by little and mix it well to make a batter that is neither too thin or nor too thick. The batter must be moderately thick and smooth.
- Beat the batter well.
How to make aloo bonda
- Heat oil in a deep fry pan or kadai.
- When the oil is hot enough, do the heat test by dropping a drop of batter. It must raise in the oil slowly and should not sink or turn brown quickly.
- With the help of a tbsp dip each ball in the batter, swipe off the excess and drop in the hot oil.
- Each batch you can fry about 3 to 4 balls depending on the size of your pan and oil used.
- After a minute begin to stir and fry until golden.
- Repeat making all until all the balls are done.
- Drain the golden fried aloo bonda on to a kitchen tissue.
- Serve aloo bonda hot or warm with chai or chutney.
NUTRITION (estimation only)
If you are a beginner or new to Indian cooking, I highly suggest you to check the supporting step by step photos for best results. Step by step photos with description available below after the recipe card.
How to make aloo bonda recipe
1. Boil or steam potatoes till just done. Do not cook them until soggy.
2. Add oil to a hot pan and add mustard, cumin and urad dal. Saute until the dal turns lightly golden.
3. Add hing and ginger. Stir it.
4. Add onions, curry leaves and green chilies. Sprinkle salt.
5. Fry until the onions turn golden. Add coriander powder, turmeric, saunf powder and garam masala (optional).
6. Add potatoes.
7. Mash them and add lemon juice.
8. Saute until everything is just well combined. Add coriander leaves if you have. Taste the mixture and make sure there is enough salt in it.
9. Cool the mixture and divide to 6 to 7 balls. You can even make 8 if you want smaller ones.
10. Begin to heat up oil in a kadai. Add besan, rice flour, chili powder, turmeric and salt to a bowl.
11. Add enough water and make a thick batter. I used about half cup and 1 tbsp.
12. Make a thick and smooth batter. If the batter is runny then you may add more flours and mix. Taste this as well. It has to be slightly salty.
13. When the oil turns hot, do the heat test to check if the oil is hot enough by dropping a tiny amount of batter in the oil. Firstly, the batter must raise slowly and should not sink. When it is ready drop each ball in this batter.
14. Coat it well with the batter.
15. Drop in the hot oil. Stir gently after a minute and fry until golden.
16. Drain on to a kitchen tissue.
Serve aloo bonda hot or warm with chutney or masala chai.
Bil says
I had everything but the besan and saunf. I used 1/3 cup white wheat flour and 1/3 cup rice flour for the coating. It seemed to work just fine. I added green onion and peas to the potato mixture before adding it to the pan. Very, very tasty, especially with a coconut chutney or a tomato/onion chutney. The completed potato mixture would make a perfect samosa filling.
YUM! Thanks for providing the recipe and instructions. This is a keeper.
swasthi says
Hi Bil,
You are welcome. Glad you liked it! Yes the filling is similar to the samosa filling. But different spices are used there.You can take a look at this link for samosa recipe. Thank you!
radhika says
thanks for the ‘receipe. I tried out the same but the final texture was not there though the taste was good. some places the aloo didn’t coat to the batter it separated wen it was dipped in oil. where could be the mistake
swasthi says
Hi Radhika,
You are welcome.
1. Balls separated in batter – It’s just a binding problem. a)The aloo balls will break to pieces if the mixture is too dry. b) The aloo ball just gets mushy once they are dropped in the batter. This indicates there is too much moisture in the potatoes. Easy way to fix – Problem a) Mash a portion of the mixture very well so that it turns mushy and binds well. Problem b)Add 1 to 2 tbsp powdered poha and set aside.
If the aloo bonda mixture is not right then just don’t proceed further to fry them.
2. The batter did not coat the aloo properly – This happens if the consistency of batter is not right either too thick or too thin. You can check this video of batata vada. I have shown the consistency in the video.
Hope these help.
🙂
Khilna says
Hi Swasthi,
Would you please clarify how much urad dal is used and if it has to be soaked in water overnight? Thanks.
swasthi says
Hi Khilna
You can use 1 tsp urad dal. It is not soaked and is used dry. It will get roasted and turns soft on its own when you put in the moist boiled potatoes.
anitha says
Tried these today. They turned out yum. Thank you so much
swasthi says
Welcome Anitha
Thanks for trying
PT says
i too love aloo bonda very much.. they are very delicious