Welcome back to Cooking Carnival, Cooking with Protein Rich Ingredients. After a break on Sunday, I am back with a new sub theme for this week. This week I shall be posting recipes with moong / mung dal ~ green gram.
In India, ⅓rd of the population is pure vegetarian which doesn’t consume even eggs. The main source of protein for this population is lentils and legumes. The most common lentils or dal are toor dal and moong dal.
Depending on the region, other dals such as chana dal, masoor dal, urad dal are also quite common. This week, whole moong or moong dal is the featured lentil and protein rich ingredient on this space.
The first recipe in this series is Ram Ladoo. This is a street food from Delhi and the first time I learnt about it is when Sapana posted the recipe back in March. This has been on my list ever since. Head over to her blog to read more about this street food and her childhood memories associated with it.
In fact, I chose moong dal as one of the ingredients as I wanted to post this and tomorrow's recipes. When I picked this ingredient, the plan was to do it in the first week where I would have to post only 3 recipes. Later, when I decided to do ½ veg and ½ non-veg recipes, I moved it to the middle of week. The second and fourth week are vegetarian weeks and the rest are non-veg weeks for this month.
Coming to Ram Ladoo, since it is a ladoo, do not expect a sweet ladoo. This is a savory ladoo that is served with sweet and spicy sauces, and grated radish. Ladoo is prepared by deep frying moong dal batter. In fact, these ladoo are similar to moong dal vada/garelu but are shaped into round balls. Even the spices used for the ladoo batter is similar to that of vada, plus or minus a few ingredients. Since I like, moong dal vada, I knew I would like this as well. I ate all these ladoo by myself for a late evening snack and dinner.
Yields: 14-16 ladoo
Ingredients:
Ingredients for Ladoo
- ½ cup moong dal
- 2 tablespoon Chana dal
- ¾ tsp. Ginger chopped
- 1 small Green Chili
- ¼ tsp. Cumin
- ½ tsp. Chili Powder
- ⅛ tsp. Pepper Powder
- ½ tsp. Salt
- 2-3 tbsp. Cilantro chopped
- Oil for deep frying
Ingredients for Assembling
- 2-4 tbsp. Mint Chutney (store bought)
- 2-4 tbsp. Tamarind Chutney (store bought)
- 3-4 small Radish, peeled and grated
- ⅛ tsp. Chaat Masala or to taste
- Chili Powder and Salt for garnish
Preparation:
- Ladoo Preparation - Wash and soak dals for at least 3-4 hours.
- Wash the dals again and put in a strainer or colander to drain excess water.
- Peel and chop ginger, chop cilantro and green chili.
- Peel and grate radish. I used small, pink radish. Sprinkle few drops of lime /lemon juice, mix and keep the radish aside until ready to use.
- In a food processor, take ginger, green chilies and dals. Process the dal to a smooth paste by adding very little to no water. The paste should be smooth and not very stiff. A very stiff batter could lead to hard ladoo.
- Transfer to a bowl, add cumin seeds, salt, chili powder, pepper powder, chopped cilantro and mix well.
- Taste the batter and adjust the seasoning. Mind you, these ladoo are served with green/mint chutney. Do not add too much chili powder or spice to the batter.
- Heat oil for deep frying.
- Just before frying, add ¼ teaspoon baking soda and mix well until it is blended into the batter.
- With a spoon or hand, drop about 1 ½ - 2 teaspoon of batter into oil. I used my hand. It was easy to make round balls with hand.
- Fry the ladoo on medium high flame until the ladoo is light brown and cooked inside.
- Remove from oil and drain on paper towels.
- Fry rest of the ladoo. I had to fry in two batches.
- Assemble - Take 5-7 ladoo in a bowl, top it with grated radish, mint chutney, tamarind chutney. Sprinkle some chaat masala, cilantro and maybe a pinch of chili powder and serve.
Note:
- Be generous with radish. I grated only two radish as I was not sure how the radish would taste with this ladoo. To my surprise, was great and in fact, it tasted good with radish. Grated radish softened the ladoo a bit. Above pictures were taken before I tasted the ladoo. As you can see in the pictures, I used radish sparingly. More radish, better the taste.
Sowmya:) says
This Vada ladoo looks beautiful....I want to munch on them right away!
Pavani says
Such a yummy yummy looking snack Usha. I love dal based dishes and this sounds absolutely delicious.
Vaishali Sabnani says
These ram ladoos are also called gulgule in Delhi..the best ones are available in Lajpat nagar..but well who can beat these..they are making me drool..beautifully presented.
Smruti | Herbivore Cucina says
Wow that is a lovely recipe Usha. And of course, great clicks too!
Priya Srinivasan says
Wow usha, tempting yaar!! Wish I could grab that bowl from the picture!
Ritu Tangri says
I want to grab this bowl of ram ladoo just now, its so tempting
Kalyani MomChef says
have this on my radar too ! I love Moong dal amongst all dals ! these ladoos look sinful 🙂 and pics are so fresh !
PRADNYA says
i think i saw this recipe on vaishali's blog but not sure whether it was called the same. the idea of using radish struck me back then and again now....loved the recipe and presentation
cookingwithsapana says
Oh my so tempting and lipsmacking looking bowl of Ram Ladoos. Love the white on white concept in the pictures .ThanKs for the mention dear.Your post is tempting me to make them again.
Harini-Jaya R says
Sinful at best, Usha. The pictures take it to a whole new level!!
srividhya says
Amazing pics. Love these savory ladoos.. Adding grated radish is very interesting.
Srivalli says
I love your pictures Usha..it makes me want to grab that bowl right now...All of us enjoyed these Ram laddos when I had made, infact the radish was the kick I guess..such a sinful chat!
Suma Gandlur says
I definitely was looking forward to a sweet dish though the savory version isounds even better. 🙂 The whole assembled dish looks inviting.
Gayathri Kumar says
I heard about these when I started blogging but I still haven't posted it on my blog. Yours have turned out perfect. Love to take a few off the screen..
Priya Suresh says
Give me that bowl Usha, this ram laddoo is torturing me, my mouth is watering here.
Sandhya Ramakrishnan says
What a tempting bowl that is Usha! The pictures look amazing and it is making it even more tempting.
Nalini says
Such a tempting and protein packed snack,looks colorful.Clicks are gorgeous as always..
Suja Ram says
Even I thought it's a sweet Ladoo..But this is one exotic Snack for sure. Stunning pics too.