Veg bonda recipe – Karnataka style mix vegetable bonda. These are a common snack served in Darshini, Sagar and MTR chain of restaurants or tiffin centers. These bonda have a unique flavor and taste that is different from the Aloo bonda or potato bonda or the Batata vada. They are served with different chutneys.
This veg bonda recipe is very simple almost similar to the way we make aloo bonda or batata vada but with different stuffing. The unique aroma in the mix vegetable stuffing comes from the caramelized onions and saunf powder i.e sompu or dodda sompu as we call in kannada.
Many versions of veg bonda can be found in several places which are not unique tasting and would just taste bland without much flavors.
You can find notes at the end of the post.
For more bonda recipes, you may like to check
Mysore bonda
Egg bonda
Punugulu
Preparation for vegetable bonda recipe
1. We need boiled vegetables in this recipe. You can boil or steam them in whatever way you are comfortable. I prefer to steam them over a pot or cooker. I steam potatoes until half done, then add the carrots and peas.
2. Heat a pan with oil. Add mustard, cumin and urad dal. When the dals turn golden, saute ginger just for a minute.
3. Add sliced onions, curry leaves and green chilies. We also love cashews in these veg bonda, so added about 5 to 6 chopped.
4. Saute until the onions turn lightly golden, caramelizing them would lend a very good taste and aroma. Add saunf powder, coriander powder, garam masala, salt and turmeric. Take care not to add too much of spice powders, they are used just to give a hint of spices. Saute for a minute.
5. Add the steamed veggies and mash them. You can also mash them first and then add.
6. Saute for 2 to 3 minutes. Add coriander leaves.
7. Add lemon juice and stir well. Cool it.
8. Divide the mixture to 7 to 8 equal sized portions and roll to balls.
How to make vegetable bonda recipe
9. Begin to heat up the oil in a kadai. To a mixing bowl, add besan, rice flour, turmeric,salt and very little red chili powder for color. Do not use too much chilli powder, it is just 2 pinches which give them a golden color.
10. Add water.
11. Mix very well. The batter must be thick. If your batter becomes thin, then you can also add more besan and rice flour in the same proportions.
12. Check if the oil is hot enough by dropping a small portion of batter. The batter must raise up slowly and not sink or rise up quickly. If it sinks it means the oil isn’t hot enough. If the oil is very hot the batter comes up immediately and gets brown quickly. In this case cool down a bit.
13. Dip the vegetable ball in the batter.
14. Roll the ball gently in batter and lift it with a table spoon or fingers. If you are a first timer, then a spoon is safer.
15. Drop it in the hot oil. In each batch I fried about 4, this depends on the size of your kadai and oil used.
16. Fry them on a medium heat. Do not disturb them as soon as you drop them in oil. After 1 minute gently begin to stir often and fry until golden..
17. Drain them over a kitchen tissue.
Serve veg bonda warm with any chutney or masala chai.
Tips to make perfect round shaped veg bonda
1. The consistency of the batter is very important. If the batter turns thin, then the bonda batter will stick up to the bottom of the kadai and distort the shape of the bonda.
2. The oil has to be enough hot to cook the batter in the shape of the ball. If the ball is dropped when the oil is at low temperature than needed, then the bonda will not hold round shape.
3. Avoid disturbing the bondas for a minute when you drop them in the hot oil.
4. Making perfect shaped bondas comes out of practice, one may not get good round shaped ones for the first few attempts.
Related Recipes
Veg bonda recipe
Veg bonda recipe | How to make vegetable bonda recipe | Mix veg bonda
For best results follow the step-by-step photos above the recipe card
Ingredients (US cup = 240ml )
For the stuffing
- ¾ cup potato / aloo cubed
- ½ cup carrots cubed
- ½ cup green peas
- cashews Few, (optional)
- 1 tbsp oil
- ¼ tsp mustard
- ¼ tsp cumin
- ¾ tsp urad dal
- 1 Pinch hing
- ¼ tsp ginger grated
- 1 onion medium , sliced thinly
- 1 to 2 green chilies chopped or slit
- Salt as needed
- 1/8 tsp turmeric / haldi
- ¼ tsp saunf powder / fennel seeds powder (or crushed finely)
- ¼ tsp coriander powder
- 2 pinches garam masala (use a mild one)
- coriander leaves Few
- Lemon juice optional
For the covering
- ½ cup besan heaped
- 3 tbsps rice flour
- 1 pinch turmeric
- 1 pinch red chili powder
- Salt as needed
- 0.5 cup water (little more if needed)
Instructions
Preparation
- Steam or boil veggies as desired. They must be just cooked without getting mushy.
- Heat a pan with oil and saute mustard, cumin and dal.
- When the dal turns golded, saute ginger and then add onions, chilies, cashews and curry leaves.
- Saute until the onions turn golde, add all the spice powders along with salt. Stir and fry for a minute.
- Add all the veggies and mash them lightly. Saute for 2 mins. Add coriander leaves and lemon juice. Mix and switch off.
- Cool this completely and make 7 to 8 balls. Set these aside.
Making veg bonda batter
- Mix together flours, salt, chilii powder, turmeric along with water to make a thick batter.
- Heat oil in a kadai for frying. Check whether the oil is hot enough by dropping a small amount of the batter in oil. The batter must rise slowly and not quickly. If you see the batter sinks, wait for a while and repeat the test. If the batter rises quickly and then turns brown quickly it means the oil is very hot. Allow to cool down a bit.
Making mix vegetable bonda
- Dip each ball in the batter and coat it well. lift it using a table spoon, swipe off the excess batter and drop in the hot oil. Wait for a minute and stir consistently until they are fried to golden.
- You make fry 3 to 4 balls in each batch, make sure there is enough space in the kadai to fry them well.
- When golden drain veg bonda on a kitchen tissue. Serve mix veg bonda hot or warm with chutney or tea.
Alternative quantities provided in the recipe card are for 1x only, original recipe.
For best results follow my detailed step-by-step photo instructions and tips above the recipe card.
NUTRITION INFO (estimation only)
© Swasthi’s Recipes
How to get puffy spongy bondas?! Little bit of eno salt would do?!
Also, is that Le Creuset that you’re using to fry? Is it okay to use it for deep frying?
You can check this mysore bonda for spongy bondas. Yes it depends on where the cookware is made. Mine can be used
Instead of besan, chana dal soak chesi aa batter use cheyocha swasthi gaaru ? Is it works ? I felt the besan flour available here different n unable to mix batter lump free also dats y asking
Hi Lakshmi
I tried it for making plain bonda a few years ago as I was trying to reduce the consumption of store bought flours. They come out soft so you have to add more rice flour. May be soaking both rice and chana dal works out. Yes the flavor of the store bought flour is different from the milled one. Not so aromatic. You can try soaking them in small quantity.
Great presentation. The step by step pictures made the process very clear
Thank you
Its very useful and awesome recipes
Awesome recipe’s
Thanks savitha
Yummy….
It’s too tempting swathi.
Thanks Shashi