Pesara Punugulu | Moong Dal Fritters

Spicy, delicious & crispy Andhra Special Pesara Punugulu recipe with detailed step by step pictures. Pesara Punugulu Video Recipe, learn how to make Andhra special Moong Dal Fritters video recipe! Best tea-time snack served with roasted peanut chutney.

Pesara Punugulu is Andhra special snack recipe made with whole green moong dal. It is a popular street food recipe, available all through the evening into the night in small food joints across Andhra. It is served hot in a small vistaraku/dried sal leaves used as serving plates straight off the stove, with a runny peanut coconut chutney. At times, pesara punugulu are also topped off with finely chopped onions & green chillies. It is one of the most budget-friendly snack that is lipsmacking & delicious.

Jump to:

• Key Ingredients
• Top Tips
• Substitutions & Variations
• Storing & Serving Suggestions
• Pesara Punugulu Video Recipe
• Pesara Punugulu Recipe Step by Step Pictures
• Recipe Notes
• More Snack Recipes
• 📖 Recipe
• 💬 Comments

Pesara pappu refers to the husked yellow moong dal and typically it is used for making the fritters by the street vendors. But at our home, we use pacha pesalu or whole green moong dal for making punugulu. And better yet, with sprouted moong the fritters turn out brilliant and are considerably healthy too. As pesara punugulu are tiny and bite-sized, they are quite addictive and are best as once-in-a-while indulgence.

Key Ingredients

Whole Green Moong Dal, soaked overnight or Moong Sprouts is the main ingredient of this punugulu recipe. For a brighter and lighter color, you can choose to use husked yellow moong dal too.

Fresh Ginger and Green Chillies are used to spice up the moong dal batter and no other spice powders are used in this recipe.

Fresh Coriander Leaves or Cilantro is used to flavor the punugulu batter. It makes it quite refreshing and flavorful, not to be skipped.

Finely Chopped Onions are added into the batter, to make the punugulu delicious but also add a lot of texture.

For full list of ingredients and exact measurements, check the recipe below.

Top Tips

Making pesara punugulu at home is simple and easy, with a little practice. With just a few ingredients, this recipe yields the most addictive tea-time snack! Do check out the tips and notes below.

When you are grinding the batter for punugulu, soaked green moong dal or sprouts should be completely devoid of any water. This will help make a thick batter.

Do not make the batter for punugulu ahead of time, it should be made when you are ready to fry the snacks. Resting the batter makes it leave extra water, turning the batter runny.

If by any chance, the batter is runny or moist making it difficult to shape into balls, you can fix it by adding up to 1 tablespoon of rice flour. Adding any more will cause the punugulu to be hard and not melt-in-mouth.

Oil for deep-frying punugulu should be hot and the flame should be on low-medium. Fry the punugulu patiently until they are evenly fried, turning crispy and golden brown. If the oil temperature is too hot, they will quickly change the exterior color without getting cooked inside.

Add only as many punugulu as the oil holds, without overcrowding it too much to fry punugulu evenly.

Substitutions & Variations

Sprouted Moong Dal adds to the texture and taste of the punugulu, but you can also use simply soaked green moong dal.

For a brighter and light colored version, you can use husked split moong dal and follow the same recipe.

The punugulu are made small-sized balls traditionally and if preferred, the same batter can be made into vada shape too.

Storing & Serving Suggestions

Pesara Punugulu is best served hot with roasted peanut chutney or coconut chutney made slightly runny than usual. They stay crisp and crunchy when hot, turning soggy and soft on cooling down. The batter and the preparation should be done only when you are ready to serve the snacks, to be able to serve it crisp. Any leftover batter can be stored in fridge, but cannot be used to make punugulu. It can be used for making pesarattu, another delicious moong-based recipe.

Pesara Punugulu Video Recipe

Pesara Punugulu Recipe Step by Step Pictures

In a blender add 1.5 cup whole moong sprouts followed by 2 inch fresh ginger piece and 1-2 green chillies.

Add ⅓ cup fresh coriander leaves/cilantro and salt as needed.

Grind into a coarse batter without adding any water at all.

Remove the prepared batter into a mixing bowl. It should be thick.

Next add 1 cup finely chopped onions.

Mix the batter well and if it is not thick enough, add upto 1 tablespoon rice flour (not any more, else the punugulu turn out hard)

Heat oil for deep frying. Once hot, set the flame on low-medium. Make small sized balls out of the batter, rolling them between the fingers to shape up.

Gently drop into hot oil without overcrowding the oil.

Fry on low-medium flame, turning them occasionally to cook them evenly.

Continue to fry until they are crisp and golden. Remove onto a kitchen tissue. Repeat this with rest of the batter.

Serve hot immediately with roasted peanut chutney or coconut chutney.

Recipe Notes

• Do not add any water while preparing the batter as the salt and finely chopped onions leave enough water to hold the batter together.
• Maintain right temperature of the oil while frying the punugulu, fry on low-medium flame to cook the punugulu evenly.

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