How to make beetroot kola urundai in air fryer

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Beetroot kola urundai in air fryer is a very quick and simple way to make this crunchy snack at home with zero oil. I guess the zero oil makes a lot of difference to many of us.

Beetroot kola urundai

They say that the kola urundai has its origin somewhere in Tanjavur. When we say kola urundai it mostly means minced meat. Tanjavur is famous for the mutton kola urundai. But vegetarians had a way to make most of the dishes the vegetarian way. Thus came into the picture the kola urundai’s with different vegetables in it.

Here the urundai or the ball is first prepared with the vegetable/meat and the lentil. Traditionally Bengal gram dal and sometimes too dal is soaked and ground and then mixed with the vegetable or meat.  But in this beetroot kola urundai in air fryer recipe, I have used the fried gram. The lentil is added as the binding agent for the dish. Since the urundai is traditionally deep fried, the binder was necessary.

Further the flavour of the dish is enhanced with the spices that are used and are finally fried. Here I have used beetroot as the main vegetable and fried gram as the lentil. The flours are from garlic, ginger, aniseed, curry leaves and coriander. Though the preparation looks lengthy, it is very easy and quick to assemble.

Kola urundai in air fryer:

Kola urundai are typically deep-fried. I have a deep-fried version of the lovely pink snack here as beetroot kola urundai. If you want the regular deep-fried version then please do follow that recipe. However, some of us have the restriction of using a limited quantity of oil. If you are a weight watcher or have a restriction to have deep-fried food, then this is the best way to enjoy this lovely snack. I say this is meant for weight watchers since it uses zero oil. In the recipe, I have used 10 cashews which can again be avoided as the calories from cashews are quite high.

What are the other vegetables that can be used in this snack?

Beetroot is not the only vegetable that can be used in preparing the kola urundai. We can use yam. This yam kola urundai are very crunchy and delicious. The others kola urundai’s with vegetable which can be prepared are carrot kola urundai, vazhakkai kola urundai which is prepared with raw bands. We can also make vazhaipoo kola urundai which is prepared with banana blossom. This is a very flavourful snack. Finally, we can make mixed vegetable kola urundai. If you want to increase the protein content of the kola urundai then we can make the soya kola urundai too.

Preparation of beetroot kola urundai in air fryer:

Now let us see the simple step by step preparation of beetroot kola urundai.

1. Powder the fried gram into powder and keep aside.

2. Grate the beetroot finely.

3. Grind the coconut, cashew, ginger, garlic, fennel seeds, curry leaves and chillies coarsely without adding any water. Transfer it to a bowl

4. Squeeze the water out of the grated beetroot and add it to the coconut mixture and mix well

5. Now add the necessary salt and the powdered fried gram and mix well into a smooth dough.

6. Preheat the air fryer to 200C

7. Meanwhile, make small even sized balls out of this. The balls should neither be too small or too big. Just the kofta size.

8. Once the air fryer is preheated, arrange these beetroot balls in the basket of the air fryer and bake for 8 minutes.

9. Give a shake to the basket so that the balls are rearranged and further bake for another 5 minutes to get the perfectly crunchy kola urundai on the outside while you a soft interior.

10. Serve warm.