Instead of the traditional Urad dal vada recipe | Minapa garelu | medu vada | ulundhu vadai let us try a healthier low oil version.
Why bake vadas?
- To reduce oil intake – Absolutely, yeah!! Traditional vadas are a heck of a vegan/vegetarian protein source, if not for the fact that they are oil magnets
- Great snack option for kids without sweating over hot oil
- If we are going to eat sambar vada, rasam vada or thair (curd) vada, in which the fried crispiness is no longer necessary and is in fact soaked in liquid, why add additional calories?
- Personally, I get headaches if I eat oil-dripping vadas. Baked version, free from that headache :)!!
Fluffy, yummy baked Vadas or Garelus (Savory Indian donuts)
How NOT to do it:
This is a post months in the making. My original thought was to just stick the batter in the oven and see what happens. This was one of my first attempts to bake vada
Hard vadas – Sad Trombone (wah, wah, waaahhhh)
Initially, my family was not very thrilled at my persistence in this matter. I don’t blame them…The first versions were really sad.
My family – “You can do it, Swetha!! while reaching out for the fried vadas. Hmpphh…
So, how did I get from these (above) to the yummy “Give me more” baked version (below)?
My family – Yum!! Gimme more!!
The right way to do it
Let us look at some rules to get baked vada right.
#1 – Whip your batter thoroughly
One advice I got from a vada expert was to get a wet grinder. Well, you see, while I am a kitchen appliance junkie, I really have no counter space to get a wet grinder. Besides, I had my superman blender – my Vitamix. Why would I want anything else?
Batter made in a blender
So, then I checked out a bunch more recipes and understood the reasoning behind fluffy vadas with wet grinder. It is not just the grinding motion, it is also the constant whipping of air into the vadas.
The batter should go from being a dense batter to a light, airy one.
That leads me to the first rule in making baked vadas – Whip your batter very well. I used a stand mixer to whip air into the vadas.
Floats = Good, Sinks = bad
Most of you are probably familiar with the traditional test for good vada batter. If not, no big deal – it is a simple test to check if your batter is well-aerated. Drop a spoon of batter in a cup of water. If it floats, yay!! carry on with the recipe. If it sinks, the batter is too dense and you want to whip it more.
#2 – You want to bake your vada at high temperature, but not too too high
I started my experiments with the standard 350F. That temperature is BAD for a crispy baked vada. By the time, the heat reaches the inside of the vada, it stays too long in the oven and the vada starts getting hard.
But, if you crank it up to 500F, then the vadas will cook in the inside, but the heat on the outside is relentless and starts getting dry and chewy. It is better than 350, but not the best option.
Oven Temperature – 450F
450F was the sweet spot for me. At 450F, the vadas cooked all the way inside. But the outside remained crispy.
Cross section of the vada
Oven to oven temperatures vary, but I would recommend you start your vadas at 450F and then go higher or lower on the next batch based on the feedback.
#3 – Give it the full 14-15 minutes to rise and bake
Don’t be tempted to peek. The vadas need about 15 minutes to get cooked all the way to the inside. Opening the oven before will create fluctuations in temperature and you have to cook longer, and that will give you dry vadas.
At this point, the underside of the vada is nice and brown, but the top is not.
How do we solve this issue? For that my dear friends, we use the broiler.
#4 – Use the broiler to get the nice browning on the top of the vadas
When frying the vada in oil, heat attacks it from all sides and you get the nice, brown crispiness all around. Baking does not have that advantage. Why can’t I flip it, you wonder?
See – Even if you try to flip it and push it in, the risen vada does not sit flush inside the cavity
Since the bottom side does not sit flush with the surface of the pan, there is no way to get uniform browning using the pan.
At this point, the vada is almost cooked. It just needs the browning on the top to give it the authentic vada feel. Brush the top with oil.
Brush the tops of vada with oil, set the oven to Broil mode and pop the vadas back in.
Pop it under the broiler for a minute. Now they are golden brown all over…
Vadas after coming out of broiler
#5 – Best made in a donut pan (Sorry!!)
I hate making you go out and buy something specifically for this recipe, but I love my donut pan that I got on sale. This gives the perfect vada shape and the distribution of heat as well. It also gives the batter some kind of wall support to climb on to.
You could also use the donut holes pan if you have one. The time needed for baking will vary with each style. (See minor time differences listed for the 2 styles I used in the Recipe section).
Vada made in a donut holes pan
But, if you are like, “I am so not buying something based on a blog post by a random lady,” trust me, I can understand that. You can experiment with a pan you already have, but unfortunately, I cannot predict the outcome. I have been satisfied with the donut and donut holes pan.
P.S. – Donut pan and mini-donut pan are different. If you use a mini-donut pan, the timing will vary, because it takes a lot less batter.
Recipe
Healthy, baked Vadas (Garelu) made without frying
- 1 cup Urad Dal (soaked in water overnight)
- 1-2 Green Chilli deseeded and cut (I used Jalapenos)
- Salt (to taste)
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Soak Urad dal for 2 hours or more. Once they finish soaking, drain the water out. Add urad dal to high speed blender. Add green chili pieces. Add fresh water just enough to get the batter thoroughly grind into a smooth batter.
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Transfer the batter to a Stand Mixer, add salt and let it whip for 2-3 minutes (Use hand-held appliance or a whisk with your hand alternatively).
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Pre-set oven to 450F (230C). Apply oil on the surface of the donut holes pan. Add batter to the pan. Place pan in the oven for 15 minutes.
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Remove pan from oven and brush oil to top of vadas. Set oven to broil mode. Place pan under broiler for 1 minute. Take pan out and let it cool for a few minutes before eating.
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If you are using the donut holes pan, bake time is 14 minutes and broil time is between 1-2 minutes depending on the oven.
Make sure you set one oven rack close to broiler before getting started. Otherwise, the high heat will make it very challenging to pull out and rearrange trays right after baking.
Now that you have made your vada, have them hot. My favorite side dish is to dip it into Sambar..
Dip in Sambar
and munch, munch, munch!!…
Chomp, chomp, chomp…
Conclusion
My youngest is a huge vada lover. When she was 4 years old, one time she literally ate 7-8 vadas, no kidding!! She skips meals to satisfy her vada craving. But inevitably, she ends up with stomach pain or throat pain after all this indulgence.
With baked vadas, for the first time, I am able to give her her favorite food without worrying about next-day repercussions. I hope you try this recipe, be it for health reasons or just out of curiosity. Please post your feedback down below in the comments. I always love to hear from my readers. Have a great day!!
Looking for other non-fried ideas: Try this Baked Gulab Jamun recipe!! Or how about this Oil free Nei Appam….
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I am glad to have found your site. I like healthy cooking as well and this baking / no frying idea opened up lot more dishes for me which I never attempted due to the frying factor. Thanks again and keep up the great work!
Thank you Shilpa!! Lovely to hear that!!
I tried this in the air fryer. It was fantastic. Thanks for the recipe
Thank you Vani. I’m very happy to hear that!!
Thank you for this recipe – I am planning to try this out for my health-food obsessed father-in-law. Can you let me know the tweaks needed to try this in the air fryer please?
Hi Anandam, I have not an used air fryer yet, so unfortunately I am unable to offer you any tips. I suppose you could whip the batter and give it a try.
I would love to hear your thoughts on how it turned out. The oven method browns it well and ends with tasty vadas. I hope the air fryer yields the same too.
Have you tried with moong dal?
Urad dal has a viscous, almost egg-like quality which makes it trap air in the batter when whipping. I have not yet tried a moong dal vada, the technique for baking which may be different. I will add it to my list of topics. Thanks!!
Omg! Where were you all this time. I’m going to try all your oil free recipes. Thank you for putting in all the efforts to make my life easier!😍😄
Hi Sathvee, I am right here waiting for the Google and SEO gods to smile on me!! 🙂 I’m very glad to hear you are finding it useful.
Google just pointed me to your blog and i am so.glad i did. So many amazing rips and loved your style . Had no clue that the batter consistency should be that of needing to float. I probably would have reached that expertise i think when i would have had grandkids lol. I shall be coming to your page more often:)
Thank you for your lovely comments, Tripti!! So sweet of you!!
I use electric mini donut maker for my Vadas. Works perfectly!
That’s a good idea!!
This came out excellently. I tried two ways – used the muffin pan, may need to broil only 1 min though. I also tried with the mini donut maker – done at 7 min, but the color was not deep. Need to see if an extra minute or two helps.
That’s great Kishore!! Thank you for posting your feedback.
I tried out vadas before reading this blog and ended up just like your first times😂😂.
Cookies! And not vadas😂
Glad to read your blog, but my microwave doesn’t have broiler mode, is there something else you could suggest?
Haha…We all have our vada cookie moments!!
Regarding your question, you need a dry heat environment for this vada. It could be a toaster oven or air fryer or some kind of tandoor oven concept. I have even seen pressure baking equipment recently that uses an attachment to get hot air from Instant Pot style pressure cookers. Those are the ideas I can think of….Hope that helps.
OMG … You are God. Thank you very much for this recipe.
Hahaha… 🙂
Does this yield 6 or 12 vadas using the pans you have linked ?
Honestly, I don’t remember…Sorry!! But, I am going to make the air fried version of this recipe again. I will report the measurements back in a few days.
Ok, I made the recipe again – so I can tell with confidence, you can make about 10 vadas with 1 cup of Urad dal. Hope this helps!!
Hello, I tried this recipe exactly as you wrote it except I doubled it, and they turned out great! I got 9 large vadas out of 2x the recipe. Also, I used a food processor to blend and whip the dals and it worked well. Thank you for the clear instructions. I look forward to trying your other recipes.
Happy to hear that…Thanks Molly!!
I made these vada’s following your recipe and they’re outstanding (I don’t do fried foods)… I tried them baked one other time before finding your recipe and they were very dense. I used the vitamix to make the dough. This time following your recipe I whipped the dough with a mixer before putting it in the donut pans and baking and what a difference! I can’t wait to make these again… Thanks so much for the wonderful recipe!