Crispy delicious homemade Ulundu Bonda – Mysore Bonda recipe with step by step pictures. A perfect evening tea/coffee time snack, Ulundu Bonda is served with coconut chutney.

As part of the Vijayadasami lunch, I made Ulundu Bonda along with Paal Kesari. Deep-frying was never a part of the plan and I had chose to make a simple sweet. But on the day of festival, as I started the prep work for cooking, I craved for Urad Dal Bonda – this is not same as Urad Dal Vada or Vadai. Quickly, I soaked some urad dal and in few hours, made these delicious little snacks.

Mysore Bonda

Bonda is a deep-fried snack made with Urad Dal (known as Ulundu in Tamil). Although the ingredients are very similar to Vadai, Bonda is round in shape without the hole in the middle. As the main ingredient is Urad Dal/Ulundu, this Bonda is called Ulundu Bonda. But the same recipe in Karnataka is called as Mysore Bonda. It is served with coconut chutney alongside a cup of hot filter coffee.

Tips to make perfect Ulundu Bonda

Comparatively, making this bonda is very simple. I am someone who hates deep frying but in spite of it, I enjoyed making this recipe only because of how easy it is.

Using good quality urad dal yields fluffy batter and there is no other way around it. I recommend using whole urad dal than the split urad dal.
Soak the urad dal for no more than 2 hours. Longer the soaking time, urad dal looses its elasticity and lesser the soaking time, batter will not be fluffy.
I make the bonda/vadai batter in blender/mixer-grinder as the quantity is never enough for wet grinder. If proper precautions are not taken, the batter can warm up and in turn result in hard bondas.
Always use cold water to grind the batter. Start with no water at all and grind the batter in small pulses. Add 1 tablespoon of water at a time and at the max, we need not more than 3 tbsp. At the end of it, the batter should be fluffy & smooth.
When the batter is fluffy, it should float when a drop of batter is dropped into a bowl of water. This is the test to check if your vadai/bonda turns out light & airy.
Don’t add salt to the batter until ready to fry the bonda. Salt results in making the batter watery, so add it as the last time.
I always add fillers to my urad dal batter – black peppercorns, chopped curry leaves, coriander leaves, green chillies and onions (in this recipe I used chopped coconut instead of onions). Not only do these ingredients add a lot of flavor, they also help in forming tiny air gaps in the rolled ball of batter – this prevents the bonda from bursting in hot oil. Same applies to vadai too.
Wet your hands before rolling the bondas, helps in getting good shape while handling sticky urad dal batter.
If the batter becomes watery for whatever reason, add some rice flour – this tightens the batter and also results in crispy bonda.
Always fry the bonda on medium flame until it gets to a golden brown to cook it all the way through.

Serving Suggestions

Traditionally, Ulundu Bonda is best served hot with a cup of coconut chutney. It is served as a evening time snack, so a hot cup of tea/filter coffee goes really well with it. Although mysore bonda is crispy right out of the oil, it stays crisp for about 30 minutes (based on my experience) and once it comes to room temperature, it is soft. You can make it into Thayir Bonda similar to Thayir Vadai 🙂

Check out other tea-time snacks and evening snack recipes -

How to make Ulundu Bonda | Mysore Bonda

Soak ½ cup whole urad dal in enough water for 2 hours.

Drain the water and add only the soaked urad dal to the blender.

Grind in small intervals/pulses until it is coarsely ground. Add about 1.5 tablespoon of cold water.

Grind again in small intervals, the batter looks ground but it will not be very smooth. Add 1.5 tablespoon of water again and grind the batter again in small intervals.

The batter should look fluffy and increase in volume. If the batter feels warm, leave it for 5-10 mins and grind again. You can also use ice cold water.

When a drop of batter is dropped into a bowl of water, it should float instead of sinking.

Remove the batter onto a mixing bowl. Add ¼ cup Finely Chopped Fresh Coconut, 1 teaspoon Black Peppercorns, 1-2 Green Chillies Finely Chopped, 1 tablespoon Finely Chopped Curry Leaves & 2 tablespoon Finely Chopped Coriander Leaves.

Meanwhile heat oil for deep frying on medium flame. Mix the batter well. When it is time to fry, add salt as needed along with ¼ teaspoon Asafoetida and 1 tablespoon Rice Flour.

To mix the batter properly and to incorporate air into the batter, scrap it from the edges and fluff it up at the center as shown below. Repeat this many times until the batter feels light.

When the oil is hot enough, wet your palm with water and roll a small ball of batter.

Gently drop the ball/bonda into hot oil. Repeat this with 2-3 bondas per the size of your fry pan. Don’t overcrowd the pan.

In a minute, gently turn around the bondas and continue cooking them on medium flame.

When the bondas turn golden brown all around, remove them from oil and strain on a kitchen tissue. Repeat this with rest of the batter.

Serve hot immediately with coconut chutney alongside filter coffee.

Recipe Notes

Instead of fresh chopped coconut, you can also add finely chopped onions.
Roll the bondas depending on the size preference. Mine were medium sized but restaurants usually serve large sized bondas.