Urad Dal Kachori

Urad dal Kachori is a delicious savory fried snack and popular street food from North India. It has a crispy outer covering made with whole wheat flour and a flavorful crunchy and spicy stuffing made from split skinned black gram (urad dal). This urad dal kachori is vegan and onion-garlic free. It can be served as a tea time snack with green chutney or Dates and Tamarind Chutney. In the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, these kachoris are paired with some vegetable stir fry or gravy and served as a meal.

What is kachori?

Kachori, a deep-fried savory snack is a North Indian delicacy. It is popular street food from the Indian states of Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. Kachoris are usually made with refined flour or maida and are stuffed with various types of savory fillings like moong dal or urad dal, matar or the green peas, pyaz (onion) etc.  Kachoris are deep-fried until they become flaky and crispy. They are usually served as a tea time snack with chutneys. In Uttar Pradesh, they are served as a meal with some vegetable stir-fry or gravy dish. In Mathura, Kachoris are served with aloo sabzi.

I have had one of the best onion Kachoris in Jaipur and that taste still lingers in my mouth. The kachoris there were big in size and had a good shelf life of 2-3 days at room temperature. We even bought a box full back home from our trip. The kachoris made from refined flour are more flaky and crunchy as compared to the ones made with whole wheat flour. Kachoris can be baked too. Next time i would like trying the baked version.

Recipe Source:
One of my neighbor and a dear friend, Reema Asthana is from Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. I have followed her recipe to make this urad dal kachori. What i loved about this kachori is that it is healthy and guilt-free. I know a deep-fried food cannot be healthy but still, homemade food made fresh from whole wheat flour is healthier compared to the maida kachori we get from market.

What can be served with Urad Dal kachori?

As i said earlier, these kachoris can be had as a tea time snack with masala chai or served with green chutney or any dip of your choice. My family totally relished these kachoris and my little one insisted that i make them often. They had it in the evening with their favorite Khatti Meethi Khajur Imli Ki chutney. Reema di and i had it for our lunch with tamatar aloo subzi.

What Goes into this Urad Dal Kachori? 

As the name suggests, these kachoris are made from urad dal ( split and skinned black gram) stuffing. No fancy ingredient is required. Soaked and ground urad dal is roasted with flavorful spices like asafoetida, fennel seeds, garam masala, etc to make the crunchy spicy stuffing of the kachori. The outer covering is made using whole wheat flour. You may use maida and whole wheat flour in a 1:1 ratio as well. The kachoris are deep-fried in oil on a low to medium flame until they become crispy and golden brown in color.

CrunchyMunchyDal @FoodieMondayBlogHop

It's Monday again and we bloggers at our gourmet Facebook group, FoodieMondayBlogHop are celebrating our 223rd week with an interesting theme, Crunchy Munchy Dal. Aruna, who blogs at vasusvegkitchen was the hostess for this week and she suggested this theme.  She wanted us to cook any sweet or savory snack using lentils. This delicious urad dal kachori is my humble contribution towards the theme. Meanwhile, do check out Aruna's blog for some authentic South Indian recipes and many other interesting dishes.

                                                    

Preparation Time: 20 minutes (does not include the time for soaking the Dal)

Cooking Time: 40 minutes

Serves 8-10

Ingredients for the outer covering of Kachori:

• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 2 tablespoon oil
• 1/4 teaspoon carom seeds
• Salt to taste

Ingredients for stuffing the Kachori :

• 1/2 cup split and skinned black gram (dhuli urad dal)
• 1/2 inch ginger
• 2 green chilies
• 2 tablespoon fennel seeds
• 1 teaspoon red chili powder
• 1/2 teaspoon garam masala
• 1/4 teaspoon cumin seeds
• Pinch of Asafoetida
• 2 tablespoon oil
• Small bunch of fresh coriander leaves
• Salt to taste

Other Ingredients:

• Oil for deep frying

To serve:

• Masala Chai
• Coriander Chutney / Hari Chutney
• Dates and tamarind chutney / Khajur Imli Ki chutney
• Tamatar Aloo ki Subzi

Method:

1. Rinse the urad dal well and soak it in enough water overnight or at least for 4-5 hours.

2. Take whole wheat flour in a mixing bowl. Add carom seeds, oil, and salt to it. Mix well and knead the flour to a semi-soft dough. Keep the dough covered until our stuffing gets ready.

3. After the soaking time, drain the dal and transfer it without any water to a grinder jar. Add 1/2 inch ginger piece, salt and chopped chilies to it. Pulse and grind the dal coarsely. You may add a few drops of water if required while grinding the dal.

4. Now, heat 2 tablespoon oil in a pan. Add cumin seeds to it followed by asafoetida. To this add the coarsely ground dal and stir fry. The dal mix is sticky and will tend to stick to the pan. Have patience and keep stirring the dal until it becomes dry. Add red chilly powder and garam masala to it. Mix well.

5. Next, crush the fennel seeds in a mortar and pestle and add it to the dal. Roast the dal on low to medium flame until it dries up and no more sticky. You can do a taste test at this stage. We have added salt while grinding the dal. Check and add more salt or chili powder if required. You may add a little amchur powder also to the stuffing if you wish. I have not added it.

6. Lastly, add the finely chopped fresh coriander leaves and put off the flame. Allow the dal mix to cool down. You may prepare this dal stuffing a few hours ahead of making the kachoris.

7. When ready to make the kachoris, knead the flour again and divide it into gooseberry size balls. Roll each ball into a poori size disc. Add around 2 teaspoons of stuffing to it and gather the sides and seal it in the center.

8. Now again slightly roll this stuffed dough ball to small poori size disc.

9. Heat enough oil for deep frying in a wok. When the oil is hot slide the rolled kachori into it. Let it puff then flip it and reduce the flame. Allow the kachoris to fry until they turn crisp and golden brown from both sides.

10. Remove the kachori with a slotted spoon and allow to drain on an absorbent paper. Fry all the kachoris similarly.

11. Serve the kachoris plain at tea time with masala chai or as a snack with Coriander Chutney and Dates and tamarind Chutney. These kachoris are served with aloo tamatar ki subzi or khatte meethe kaddu in Uttar Pradesh.

                         

Recipe Notes:

• Do not add more water while grinding the urad dal as it will take more time to cook the dal and make a dry stuffing with it. Also, make sure you do not make a fine paste from the dal. Keep it coarse.
• Do not skip the addition of fennel seeds as it adds a lovely flavor and is a quintessential part of these kachoris.
• Use a heavy-based wok, preferably a non-stick one to roast the dal as the dal mix is sticky.
• You can make the stuffing ahead of time.
• Do not fry the kachoris on high heat. Doing so they will brown faster. The key to getting crispy kachoris is to fry them on low to medium flame for a longer time.
• To make the aloo tamatar ki subzi, pulse 2 tomatoes with 2 green chilies and ginger pieces.Heat oil in a pan. Add cumin seeds, asafoetida to it followed by the tomato paste. Cook the paste well. Now add red chili powder, cumin-coriander powder and crushed boiled potatoes (about 3 in number). Saute well for a minute. Next, add hot water and salt to taste and cook the curry for 4-5 minutes. Lastly, add fresh coriander and serve. 

I hope some of you would love to try out this recipe. If you do so, feel free to share your feedback with us in the form of likes and comments in the comment section below this post. All your suggestions are also more than welcome. If you like my work and feel it is worth following, do hit the follow button at the top right corner of this blog. Your appreciation means a lot to me. For more recipes and new updates follow us on social media.

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For more snacks with lentils check out the following posts from this blog

• Vegetarian Shammi Kebab

                     

• Steamed Dahi Bhalla

                    

• Chakli

                    

• Shana Jhiej / Bengal Gram Fritters

                    

• Gujarati Handvo

                    

• Bhakarwadi