Nuchinunde | Steamed Lentil Balls | Karnataka Special
Nuchinunde is a Karnataka breakfast of steamed lentil balls made with toor dal and chana dal. A wholesome, no rice, protein rich dish.
nuchina unde | steamed lentil balls | Karnataka breakfast recipe | protein rich vegetarian breakfast | no rice breakfast | dal based breakfast | undehuli | gluten-free | Vegan breakfast | Vegan protein breakfast
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What is Nuchina Unde?
Nuchina Unde (also called Nuchinunde) is a traditional breakfast from Karnataka. In Kannada Nuchina (Nucchu) means broken or coarsely crushed, Unde means ball.
Instead of grinding the lentils into a smooth batter, they're coarsely crushed with spices, shaped into dumplings and steamed.
The coarse texture is what gives these dumplings their unique bite and rustic flavour. They are traditionally served with Majjige Huli, coconut chutney or simply a spoonful of ghee.
I like serving these warm with neer majjige on the side. There is something about biting into a lentil ball and following it with a sip of spiced buttermilk that just works. Even my fussy elder one, who inspects every new dish before deciding whether it is worth eating, approved of this one without much fuss.
Ingredients
- Main Ingredients : Toor dal and chana dal forms the base of the recipe. Adds texture and gives the dumplings a pleasant bite.
- Spices : Dry red chillies , ginger, turmeric and hing. Adds heat, freshness and helps digestion.
- Add-ons : Onion and carrots, A colourful addition that also sneaks in vegetables. Curry leaves, coriander Leaves, or dill leaves can also be added for freshness to every bite.
Tips for Perfect Nuchina Unde
- Drain the soaked lentils thoroughly before grinding.
- Never add water while grinding.
- Keep the mixture coarse, not smooth.
- Avoid over-processing the dal.
- Wet your palms before shaping.
- Steam immediately after shaping.
- Don't overcrowd the steamer.
Variations
- Add Dill Leaves, traditional Karnataka versions often include fresh dill leaves, which add wonderful aroma and flavour.
- Make it Without Onion, Skip onions for festival cooking.
- Add Coconut, Fresh grated coconut gives richer flavour.
- Extra Vegetables, Try adding finely chopped cabbage or grated bottle gourd.
How to Make Nuchinunde
- Soak the tuvar dal and chana dal together for a couple of hours, then drain well.
- Pulse the soaked dal with red chilies and ginger in a mixer, without adding water, just until it turns into a coarse mix.
- Tip this into a bowl and mix in chopped onion, coriander leaves, curry leaves, shredded carrot, hing, turmeric, and salt. I omit the onion these days as we don't use onion and garlic in cooking now.
- Shape the mixture into small balls, about the size of a ping pong ball, and arrange them on a steamer plate.
- Steam for about ten minutes, then serve warm.
Nuchinunde | Steamed Lentil Balls | Karnataka Special
Equipment
- Steamer or pressure cooker
Ingredients
- ¾ cup Tuvar dal/Split Pigeon Peas/Thuvaram Paruppu
- ¾ cup Chana dal/gram dal/Kadalai paruppu
- 5-6 red chilies round variety
- 1 inch piece of ginger
- ¼ cup of shredded carrots optional
- handful of coriander leaves
- 2 strands of curry leaves
- 1 large onion chopped fine
- ½ teaspoon of hing
- ¼ teaspoon haldi
- ¾ teaspoon salt or to taste
Instructions
- Wash and soak both the dals together for 2-3 hours.
- Drain well, add chilies and ginger to this and pulse it to make a coarse paste in a mixer, without adding any water.
- The dal mixture has to be coarsely ground, not to a fine paste. Fine paste will alter the taste and texture of this dish and make it dense.
- If the dals are soaked well, you wont be needing any water at all. Just take care not to run the mixie continuously, just pulse.
- Remove the coarsely ground dal to a wide bowl, add chopped onion, chopped coriander leaves, shredded carrots, hing, haldi and salt. Mix well.
- Make ping-ping sized balls of the mixture and steam cook it for 10 minutes.
- Once done, remove it from the steamer and serve warm with majjige huli/more kuzhambu or Neer majjige.
Nutrition
Disclaimer
I m not a Doctor or a Nutritionist The Nutrition information provided above comes from the plugin and is only an estimate.
Sounds very interesting Priya..never tried something like this..surely worth experiencing it I guess...
With all the goodness of dhals, this is one guilt free snack to enjoy!!
Guilt free and nutritious meal option.
new recipe for me...and u always open doors to such...
Very nutritious and delicious dish. Looks great.
Lentil steamed unde looks healthy and delicious. I like the setup for the ingredient shot.
Such a healthy and filling unde,sounds new to me..
Reminds of doodhi muthiyas.. great option to try it with lentils. love it.
Healthy nuchinunde, such a guilt free snacks to munch definitely.
Steams lentil balls looks tasty and of course healthy too.
Absolutely guilt free snack!
as they would say in kannada " Thumbaa Chennagidhe" (its v v nice)... Can i mention that ur pics are looking alive this BM, resembling Sangeetha Khanna's pics :-)))
I make this but without onions. carrots is a healthy addition...LOVE this with Mor kozhambu
Such a healthy and yummy dish you got there. Loved the way you made them in an idli stand!!
Very yummy recipe here with all the dals!
sounds like an awesome combo