| Gulha | |
| Country: | Maldives |
| Region: | South Asia |
| Type: | Snack food |
| Served: | Preferably freshly-prepared along with hot tea[1] |
| Main Ingredient: | Flour, tuna and grated coconut |
| Variations: | Made with wheat flour or with rice flour dough |
Gulha (Dhivehi: ގުޅަ IAST: guḷa IPA: pronounced as //guɭa//) is a typical and popular Maldivian short eat.
Gulha are small ball-shaped dumplings that are stuffed with a mixture of tuna, finely chopped onion, grated coconut, and chili.[2] Depending on the cook, turmeric, lime juice ginger and chopped curry leaves are added to the mixture. Once ready, the gulha are deep-fried.[3]
Gulha can be made with wheat flour or rice flour dough. The rice-flour gulha are usually smaller, harder and more crunchy. The size of gulha may vary from the large ones that are slightly larger than the size of a ping-pong ball to the smallest which are about the size of marbles.This snack was traditionally eaten with sweetened hot tea and sometimes also together with other short eats.[1]
The fish used traditionally for stuffing gulha was commonly Valhoamas smoked tuna but nowadays many Maldivians use canned tuna.[1] Alternatively, gulha may be oven-baked instead of deep-fried.