Bonda

History

A recipe for bonda (as parika) is mentioned in Manasollasa, a 12th-century Sanskrit encyclopedia compiled by Someshvara III, who ruled from present-day Karnataka.

Preparation

The process of making a spicy bonda involves potato filling dipped in gram flour batter.

Bonda has a sweet and a spicy variant. Keralites prefer the sweet one called Sugiyan, while the savoury version is common in the rest of India.

Some regional variants in Kerala replace the potato with tapioca (Tapioca Bonda) or sweet potato and some onion, hard boiled egg (Mutta Bonda), masala, minced meat and other ingredients.

Vegetable Bonda is a dish of Udupi cuisine, where fresh green peas and other finely chopped vegetables like French beans, carrot and coriander leaves are used as filling. Goli Baje or Mangalore bonda or Mangalore Bajji is another delicacy from Karnataka. This bonda, however, is made from maida (refined flour).