Kola urundai recipes are very famous in Chettinad region in Tamil Nadu. It can be either vegetarian or non-vegetarian and has got many variations. My grandma makes different varieties and every saturday we get to taste one such deep fried snack, as all saturdays are vegetarian days at home. The recipe is very simple and you can make ahead and deep fry when needed. You may choose veggies like carrot, beetroot, cabbage or mixed… this time our guest is carrot and she gets deep fried into tiny cute balls ready to be served as snack or as a side dish for any south Indian meal. A great way to include veggies in your kids diet, be creative use different veggies and surprise them! It is also a wonderful vegetarian appetizer item for guest entertaining.
| Ingredients | |
|---|---|
| 2 medium sized | Carrot ( about 1 cup grated, tightly packed) |
| 3/4 cup | Split roasted gram / Pottukadalai / Dalia |
| 1 medium | Onion (finely chopped) or (1/2 cup chopped) |
| 1 | Green chili (finely chopped) |
| 1 Teaspoon | Ginger (crushed) |
| 4 cloves | Garlic (crushed) |
| 10 leaves | Curry leaves (finely chopped) |
| 1 Tablespoon | Coriander leaves (finely chopped) |
| 3 pinch | Turmeric powder |
| ½ Teaspoon | Red chili powder |
| 3 Teaspoon | Oil (for sauteing) |
| 1 cup | Oil (for deep frying) |
| 1 Teaspoon | Rava (optional) or poppy seeds |
| 3/4 Teaspoon | Salt |
- To start with coarsely ground the split roasted gram and keep aside. Wash, peel and grate the carrot and keep them aside too.
- Heat oil in a pan, saute the chopped onions, green chilies, ginger and garlic until slightly brown. Add grated carrot along with turmeric, red chili powder and salt.
- Stirring frequently, cook the mixture for about 5 minutes or until all the moisture evaporates. Switch off and let this mixture cool completely. (Make sure it cool, or else when you mix the pottukadalai flour it will become very sticky)
- Now coarsely powder split roasted gram dal (pottukadalai / dalia / roasted gram flour / pottukadalai maavu) and keep aside.
- Add in chopped coriander and curry leaves to the mixture and slowly add the powered gram flour little at a time.
- Add until the dough becomes little firm and just to bind the carrot mixture. Keep some extra flour to adjust in the end if becomes too wet.
- Mix thoroughly and shape them into small balls by loosely binding together.
- Heat oil in a kadai and deep fry until they turn golden brown on all sides.
- Serve hot as an appetizer or as a side for any rice item. Stick in a tooth pick and serve as a party appetizer!
Notes
- Makes about 12 – 15 golf ball size carrot urundais.
- Do not add any water. If the mixture is too wet, it might break apart while frying , so adjust with little flour and then deep fry. Sample it with a small portion and then proceed.
- While shaping, do not press hard to make balls, gently bind them together.
- Just before deep frying, coat with little rava or poppy seeds to make it extra crispy. This is optional.
- You may also shape them into vadai by just flattening the balls.
- Keep some extra pottukadalai maavu to adjust in case if the dough becomes too wet.
9 Comments
I m also going to post a carrot recipe today ?Urundai sema irukku.. enaku konjam anupunga
Oh, these snacks look sooo yummy and doesn’t give a hint that it is made of carrots! Great recipe
[…] 3. Carrot Urundai […]
saran
still u can make it healthier by making the balls flat and frying it hot tava with little oil… its called carrot vadai.. u can use cabbage also..
Hi Mam,
Yea that was cutlet, thats why asked for help 🙂 I will give a try.
But Iam afraid abt time – I dint study anything for last few days – only worked on project. I forced myself to try this carrot urundai as we didnt eat properly for sometime – cafeteria closes at 9pm. We always forget it when we start working seriously & starved ….Thats why I didnt bother abt time & made it.
Btw, I dont know whether you will believe it Mullai – We all were quite busy with car jack design. We were only sleeping an hour or two for last 10 days. But I checked spiceonline when having tea in the morning. Got a comment from my best friend tat I am mad when she got to know that Iam browsing our site. Iam your youngest reader I suppose. I always feel like I am with family when I check spiceonline – Sharing our recipes and stuff, Some giving replies for others doubts before your reply. Its like a family site. How can I miss it. I feel family warmth. Thanks to u mam..And Special thanks to Myths for a good start on forum. That led to get useful things like Dinning Etiduette..
Cheers
Manoo
P.S:Passed up one project yesterday & again got one tat day itself. It wont stop me visiting our family site But
.
Hi Mullai,
I tried it & it really turned out well.
Thank you I have added some pepper and extra chilli. I was so eager to try so I didnt get time to ask you whether to use roasted rava or normal one for coating; thereby I used breadgrams – it turned out well as shown in the pic. But coating was quite difficult as it didnt stick well. finally this egg loving gal made it like cutlets dipped in egg before coating hmmm..
I would like to make it without dipping those balls in egg. so how to coat it well to get more crispy balls.. As a big headed I tried to make it with beetroot. hehe SEMA FLOP…..moisture didnt evaporate at all so finally i had to make beetroot curry…Got ppl to eat watever we cook as we all seek for homemade stuff (bored to eat cafeteria food). So somehow my curry finished.
Cheers Manoo
P.S:-Moms can make their kids eat vegetables. I hate vegetables but started to eat when I tried our mam's wonderful recipes.
Manoo,
Great….hmmmm..I think you made carrot cutlets. This is totally a different dish, use of rava (regular un-roasted) is optional, never go for breadcrumbs… bcos u need something like a glue to make them stick to. Maida mixed with little water makes a good glue to make breadcrumbs stick, but again that's not required for this recipe.
1. you should ground the pottukadalai little coarsely to make it crispy. 2. shape them gently; meant loosely packing them together, needs to be a soft ball; thick hard ones will turn very rubbery. 3. deep fry them on low medium flame.
You can also do the same thing with beetroot, well…….. for this you need to fry the veggie for a long time to get off the water content. No need to regret about flops, everyone including me learn by trial and error. Moreover you will end up learning new things, the innovative way. Thanks again for being such a great admirer of my website.
Hi mullai…nice n different recipe…but i have a doubt…do u mean to say we can either use pottukadalai or channa dal ,is it?pls clarify.Thanx
Hi Sekar,
I meant Roasted chana dal which is also known as Pottukadalai / Roasted chickepeas (split) / Dalia.