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Medu vada recipe | Garelu | How to make vada | South Indian vada recipe

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Medu vada recipe. – Garelu, uddina vade, ulundhu vadai are other South Indian names to these round disc shaped fritters. Vada are made of lentils like urad dal or chana dal. These are one of the very popular South Indian food  . Especially these are served for Breakfast or snack in street stalls and tiffin centers.
vada garelu swasthis recipes
The fritters made using urad dal are called medu vada or medhu vadai in Tamil and Garelu in Telugu. They are served with tiffin sambar and fresh coconut chutney. The kind made using chana dal are called as masala vadai or chana dal vada. These are served with just tea or chutney.

Medu vada recipe shared here can be used to make a basic version which are offered to goddess Lakshmi and Durga during festivals like varalakshmi vratam / puja, Gouri puja, Diwali and Durga navratri. These can also be made like hotel style lightly spiced vadai.

The ingredients that go towards making naivedhyam medu vada recipe or garelu are kept simple. At my home these are made without onion, ginger, pepper or green chilies. Each family have their own custom whether to include or not to some of the above mentioned ingredients.

The hotel style medu vada are made using crushed pepper, green chilies, cumin and onions. Even a pinch of baking soda is used to make them very fluffy.

In hotels, to make medu vada the batter is ground in wet grinder. This gives the best fluffy texture from inside and crunchy texture from outside.

The batter for these garelu or medu vada recipe was made in the mixer grinder. It can be made even in the wet grinder. The pain of washing the wet grinder container always stops me from using it. So anytime I use only the mixer-grinder to make my garelu. I use wet grinder only when I make in large quantity. We can make fluffy medu vada even without a wet grinder. Let us see how.

If you intend to try these read all the notes mentioned at the end of this post to get them right.

You can check these Vada recipes on the blog
Batata vada
Masala vada (chana dal vada)
Mixed dal vada
Sabudana vada
Alasanda vada

Medu vada recipe or garelu recipe below

Medu vada recipe | Garelu | How to make vada | South Indian medu vada

Medu vada are very popular in south india, often made as breakfast or snack. These are known as garelu, uddina vada, vadai in other regional languages.

Print
Course Breakfast
Cuisine Andhra, Indian
Keyword easy
Prep Time 4 hours 15 minutes
Cook Time 25 minutes
Total Time 4 hours 40 minutes
Servings 15
Calories 108 kcal
Author Swasthi

Ingredients (240 ml cup used)

  • 1 cup urad dal (or skinned black gram)
  • Salt to taste
  • Water Ice Cold , as required
  • Oil for deep frying

spices (skip if making for naivedyam)

  • ¼ tsp pepper corn (crushed coarsely)
  • 2 to 3 green chilies (chopped)
  • 4 tbsp onions (chopped)

How to make the recipe

Preparation

  1. Wash dal several times and soak in lot of water for at least 4 to 5 hrs.

  2. Drain the water completely and transfer the dal to a mixer grinder jar. If you have a wet grinder, you can use it. 

  3. Sprinkle very little water. Next add salt and start grinding.

  4. Next scrape off the sides and then grind again.

  5. Whenever needed sprinkle only as much as 1 ½ tsps. Ice cold water evenly. 

  6. Again continue to grind to a coarse thick batter. 

  7. Sprinkle water. Grind again till the batter looks fluffy and white.

  8. Transfer this to a bowl. Aerate the batter by beating it with your hand in a clockwise direction for 30 to 60 seconds.

  9. Test the batter if it is aerated well.  Drop a small batter ball in bowl full of water. The ball has to float meaning it is light. This is needed to get fluffy medu vada.

  10. If the batter doesn't float well, means either the batter is runny or is not aerated well. Read the notes below to know what to do with runny batter. 

  11. If the batter is in right consistency still it is not floating well. Then beat the batter once more. 

  12. Add crushed pepper, green chilies and onions. Mix everything well.

How to make medu vada

  1. Heat oil in a deep heavy bottom kadai or pan till hot enough. 

  2. Drop a small amount of batter to check if the oil is hot. The batter raises if the oil is hot enough.

  3. Dip your fingers in water or oil, we need moist fingers. 

  4. Take small portions of batter.  Shape to a ball, slightly flatten with thumb. 

  5. Dip the thumb in water, make a whole in the center. 

  6. Drop in the hot oil by gently shaking off the fingers.
  7. Or place the ball on a greased sheet. Flatten it slightly and make a whole in the centre.
  8. When the oil becomes hot, put on the flame to medium. 

  9. Moisten your fingers again. Lift the corner part of the sheet and transfer the vada on to your fingers. Then drop it just by shaking your fingers.

  10. Fry medu vada till they turn golden on both sides.

  11. Make them and fry them in batches till you use up all the batter. In between every batch, wait till the oil heats up, if not hot.

  12. Serve medu vada with chutney or sambar.

Recipe Notes

Do not let the mixer-grinder or the batter to heat up otherwise medu vada can become hard. Sometimes they may even tastebitter.

If the batter becomes slightly runny, you can mix 1 to 2 tbsps. Of rice flour (at room temperature).Then beat it well to get aerated.

Other alternates are to use powdered poha or attukulu. Poha works great.

If the batter turns to be runny, I suggest you to make make punugulu

If you are a beginner make the medu vada on a plastic sheet and then transfer to the hot oil.

Adding salt later to the batter can thin it down, so make sure you add while grinding.

Use only very little ice cold water to grind the batter. Using not more than 1 1/2 tsp. at one time, which literally means you have to sprinkle the water evenly

Reasons for hard vadas : Not soaking dal for at least 4 hours. Not grinding the batter well. Did not use enough water while grinding or did not aerate the batter well

Medu Vada remains uncooked or over browned: Adding vadas to extremely hot smoky oil will not cook them well from inside. So put on the flame to medium when it is smoky hot.

If your vadas turn out hard even after you follow all these tips, it means dal is very old stock. Yes vadas made from old stock dals dont turn out good. Old stocks look very pale yellow in color.

Nutrition Facts
Medu vada recipe | Garelu | How to make vada | South Indian medu vada
Amount Per Serving
Calories 108 Calories from Fat 63
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 7g 11%
Potassium 5mg 0%
Total Carbohydrates 7g 2%
Dietary Fiber 2g 8%
Protein 3g 6%
Vitamin C 1%
Calcium 0.9%
Iron 5.6%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

medu vada recipe

How to make medu vada recipe or garelu

1. Wash and soak dal for at least 4 to 5 hrs. Soaking them for at least 4 hours make the batter fluffy and increases the volume. But if you run short of time, you can soak for 2 hours and make.

2. Grind the dal with salt and very little ice cold water that has to be sprinkled to start off. As and when needed sprinkle evenly about only 1 ½ tsp. water each time. Whether you make in the wet grinder or mixer, the process is same.

blending dal in blender to make medu vada recipe
3. Scrape off the sides and grind again. The batter will be coarse but must be thick. Sprinkle water.

addition of water

4. Grind till the batter looks fluffy and white, like you see in the picture.

fluffy ground batter to make vada

5. Transfer the batter to a bowl, beat the batter in clock wise direction for 30 seconds.  This makes the batter more fluffy and aerated. This is very important. You can skip this step if making the batter in wet grinder. You can also add a pinch of baking soda, crushed pepper, green chilies and chopped onions if you want like the ones made in hotels. Since I made these for the puja, I did not add any.

aerate batter by beating to make medu vada recipe
6. Take a small bowl filled with water. Take little batter and form a ball, drop it in the water. If aerated well, the batter floats well. Repeat beating if the batter doesn’t float well. The batter will not float even if the consistency is very thin. Read the notes what to do if the batter becomes runny/thin.

garelu batter floating
7. Heat oil in a deep pan till hot enough. Dip your fingers in water (water should not be dripping from your fingers) Take small portions of this batter. Make a ball then slightly flatten with your thumb.  Next dip your thumb in water, make a whole in the centre.  Face your palm towards the oil, drop in the hot oil by shaking your fingers gently. Take care. Change in the color is due to the lighting.
shaping vada or garelu on a sheet
or place the ball on a greased sheet. Flatten it slightly and make a whole in the centre. Once the oil is hot enough, reduce the flame to medium. Dip your fingers in water. Lift the corner part of the sheet and transfer the medu vada on to your fingers. Drop these just by shaking your fingers.
deep fry minapa garelu
8. Fry on a medium flame till they turn golden. Drain them on a kitchen tissue. Make batches and finish frying till all the batter is used up.
golden fried garelu
Cool garelu completely and Offer them to the Goddess.
Serve medu vada with coconut chutney.
andhra minapa garelu recipe

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Comments

  3. Thanks much for the recipe. It’s first time I made vada and it came out very soft and tasty. Special thanks for the details of how to check the consistency in water and why to add only very little water. These details helped me to make excellent vada the very first time.
    Only problem I faced is to get the shape – with proper hole in the middle. Only few came out in good shape and others were all in various shapes which has no names :-). I guess it will take some practice to get right shapes.
    But thanks much for tasty, fluffy vada recipe.

    Reply

    • Welcome Reshmi
      Yes the shape comes out good only by practice and that too if made regularly atleast once a week. Thanks for the comment. Glad to know the recipe was useful

      Reply

  5. Hi… My son likes vada but the ones I made were hard. Can I get hotel like vadas without using baking soda? I heard that baking soda is not good for health.

    Reply

    • Hi sunitha
      Did you try my recipe? We don’t need to use soda at all. The trick lies only in grinding the dal well and then beating the batter well to aerate it. They will come very fluffy if the batter is right.

      Reply

  8. Hi.. i tried them once and they were a disaster. . Will follow your method.. i hope it works.. 🙂
    Also grinding a small batch will be difficult (which is what i did last time ) in the jar as the grinding isn’t uniform.
    How do i store the left over batter?

    Reply

    • Hi Nivedita
      Yes do try. It depends on the mixer and dal, I even grind with just half a cup of dal. It works well in my mixer.
      I never store the batter as it absorbs lot of oil. I have seen many ppl store this for about 4 days in a steel container.

      Reply

  10. Hi…
    I made this today for sankranthi…
    Very tasty.. my husband loved it…
    Thanks to u…
    taste was good but I didn’t get the perfect shape…
    I am gonna try ur palak pulao recipe…

    Reply

    • Welcome Siri
      Glad to know you made them. Yes for the shape, need some practice. Batter gets streched and spoils the shape while dropping. Greasing fingers well helps to a large extent.

      Reply

  11. i really love this site. all the recipes are posted here with so much care and sympathy. i like to cook new dishes and i always take help of this site. 100 of thanks to u.

    Reply

  14. It was so helpful and it was very tasty all the recepies. …. It is very useful to one who don’t no to cook by seeing ur step by step photo s we can cook easily ….

    Reply

  15. Unbelievably detailed explanation which is so important. To get the texturr right. You are amazing…thank you so much!

    Reply

  16. Great recipes ..tried your medu vada and chicken chilly…it was better than any restaurant. ..my whole family enjoyed it.

    Reply

    • Hello Dr. Malvika
      So glad to know you all liked vada and chilli chicken. Thank you
      Have a wonderful week ahead!

      Reply

  22. Hai I have been trying to make round vadas or garelu since 1 year but I could not how can I get perfect round shaped garelu

    Reply

    • Hi Mehera,
      1. Make the vadas just before you fry, make only 2 at a time and fry. Leaving them on the sheet for quite sometime spreads the batter, so cannot get good shape.
      2. If the batter is thin, we don’t get a good shape. while we try to drop them in the oil, they mess up. If the batter consistency is correct, you can get them in good shape.
      3. moisten your fingers well before you drop them in the oil.
      4. you will get a good shape by practice.
      hope this helps.
      🙂

      Reply

      • Thanks Swasthi ji ! Love the way you explain. Your small tips really helps us. Itz so simple and easy to make. Today i made Beautiful vadas (well shaped) for our guest. Itz only & only because of your perfect suggestion.

        Reply