Green Peas Parathas – Whole Wheat Flatbread with a savoury green pea stuffing

Ooh I have a good one to share with you today. A while ago I was browsing the web for some cooking inspiration and I came across the recipe for green peas parathas. What are they? Basically, stuffed Indian flatbread, the stuffing is a mildly spiced green peas mix. This way you get some veggie while you’re enjoying your rotis. The recipe for the stuffing is so simple and quick to put together. I am very happy to add another paratha to my repertoire. We usually make parathas for breakfast, but they are great to have with lunch or dinner, or as a slightly robust snack. I love my parathas and am always on the lookout for newer variations. So for I’ve made Aloo Parathas, Methi Parathas and Gobhi Parathas. Do you know or have you tried a yummy paratha recipe that is your absolute favourite? I’d love to hear about it. Leave me a comment and let me know.

So back to this paratha. This paratha is easier to make than the Gobhi Paratha, because of the filling. This filling has lesser moisture and so is so much easier to roll. I was happy with that. I love the little green peeking through the paratha with the finished product. Try it out and see what you think of it.

Green Peas Parathas
Yields approx. 9-10

For the dough – 
2 cups wholewheat flour
1/2 tsp. salt
Water
1 tbsp olive oil / ghee

Mix the flour and the salt well.

Drizzle the olive oil and mix through.

Bind with a little water at a time to form a soft pliable dough. The dough should not be sticky.

If you find the dough sticky, add some more whole wheat flour. If the dough is too dry and difficult to knead, add a little water.

Knead well, roll into a ball, cover with a damp cloth and keep aside while you make the filling.

For the filling – 1 1/2 cup frozen green peas (you could use fresh too), rinsed, thawed and thoroughly drained

2 birdseye chillies, or to taste

1 tbsp garlic minced

1/4 cup fresh coriander leaves and stalks, chopped

Salt, to taste

1 tbsp ghee (clarified butter) (alternatively you could use olive oil)

1/2 tsp cumin seeds

Into the bowl of a food processor, place the green peas, chillies, garlic, coriander and salt.

Pulse a couple of times. You want a coarse blend and NOT a paste or puree. You want some larger pieces and some smaller bits, much like what you see in the pan in the next picture.

Heat a pan over medium heat and add 1 tbsp ghee.

Add the cumin seeds and let them sputter, being careful to not burn them.

Add the green peas mix.

Stir around and let it cook out for about 2 minutes.

Remove from the pan and let it cool completely.

**Additionally you will need some dry whole wheat flour for dusting your work surface and some ghee to brush over the parathas.

To make the parathas – 

Place a thick bottomed pan / tawa on a medium flame and let it heat up.

In the meanwhile, divide the dough and the pea mix into portions.

1) and 2)  Dust your work surface with some flour. Roll a ball of dough between your palms to form a smooth ball. Flatten and using a rolling pin roll out to a disc about 6 inches in diameter. While rolling you need to make sure it doesn’t stick to the work surface. Don’t flip the dough over while rolling. (Note that these measures are approx. just to give you an idea of the sizes).

3) Place the disc in the palm of your hand. I am right handed, so I place the little disc on my left palm.

4) Spread a few drops of ghee on it.

5) Place a spoonful on the filling mix in the centre. You don’t want to overfill the parathas or rolling can get messy.

6) Pick up opposite sides of the disc and press together to seal.

7) Gather in the rest of the edges. Press the edges against each other (like a little dumpling) to seal. Then flatten it gently and press the edges down. Here you are trying to roll it into a little ball carefully without smashing it.

8)Dust a little more flour on your work surface, if needed. Place the seam side down and gently start rolling the little ball out.

9) Roll out to about 8 inches wide. Again, you need to make sure it doesn’t stick to the work surface. You can dust with more dry flour if needed. You also don’t want to roll it too thin because the filling will just ooze out.

Place this on a well heated tawa / griddle and roast for a while moving it around till light brown spots appear on one side. Turn over and cook on the other side till light brown spots appear on the other side as well.

To finish off, spoon a few drops of clarified butter on the paratha and spread. Flip over and repeat this on  the other side letting it roast for a few seconds after you add the clarified butter to the side.

Serve hot with butter and a mug of hot coffee for a yummy Indian breakfast or brunch option.

This time around, I served this up for dinner with some mildly flavoured yogurt (plain raita) and some sweet mango pickle. (The pickle is called Chunda / Chundo and you should be able to find it in any Indian store.)

These parathas go very well with any Indian style veggies too.

**Notes – 
You can leave out the clarified butter if you want an even healthier version, but it does wonders for the taste.

If you have any dough or filling left over, simply refrigerate and use the next day.

You can also make a plain paratha by simply rolling out the dough, spread the ghee, wrap and re-roll and roast it without the filling. This can be served with your favorite jam or cheese or scrambled eggs or an omelette or anything else you’d fancy.

You could serve this up with plain yogurt too.

For the plain raita – 



Good quality, unflavoured yogurt
Salt, to taste
Sugar, to taste (I use about 1 tbsp to 1 1/2 cups of yogurt, approx)(This will also depend on how tart the yogurt is. I sometimes use lesser than that)
Cumin powder
Red chilli powder

Mix the yogurt, salt and sugar and still thoroughly to incorporate the salt and sugar and beat till you are left with a smooth yogurt.

Place in the serving bowl and lightly spinkle some cumin powder and red chilly powder over.

Enjoy.

Spiced Butternut Pumpkin Soup

You’re probably wondering why I’m posting a soup recipe in the middle of summer. Well, it’s like this – we’ve had about two and a half days of rains now. So everything around is grey, wet and bleak. Don’t get me wrong. I love this kind of weather. All you have to do is snuggle up with a nice hot cuppa and a good read or watch the rain – perfect. Also, it means we get to have soup. I love soup but have not made it from scratch often enough. All I can say is, I am done with the instant and frozen, store-bought varieties. I have had very good results the couple of times I’ve made soup from scratch and come this winter, I hope to make plenty more.

So back to the butternut pumpkin. This is the second time I’m making a butternut pumpkin soup. The last time it turned out really bland and I wasn’t overly impressed, which is why it hasn’t made an appearance on the blog. This time around, I decided I wanted some bold, punchy flavours so I looked around and took a few ideas from around the web. It turned out this recipe was easy, simple to make and has big, bold flavours. I remember thinking the last time, that a little ginger would make this soup so much better and I was right. This soup just warms the cockles of your heart.

I took the idea of topping it up with blue cheese from a recipe I found online. Please do yourself a favour and add the blue cheese. The blue cheese elevates this soup from being a nice soup to being a fantastic one.

Spiced Butternut Pumpkin Soup


700g butternut pumpkin, peeled and chopped
1 onion, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
1 stick celery, chopped
2 large cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1/2 tsp grated ginger
Salt, to taste
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1/2 – 1 tsp red chilly flakes, or to taste (optional)
1/2 tsp chives
2 tbsp olive oil
1 litre boiling water
1/3 cup cream cheese
1/4 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
Blue cheese, to crumble over

In a large pot, over medium heat, pour the olive oil.

Add the garlic and when it is fragrant, add the onion and and saute over medium heat, till softened and translucent. Add the ginger and continue sauteing.

Once the ginger has released its aromas, add the celery, carrot and pumpkin.

Sprinkle the salt, pepper and red chilly flakes and stir well.

Let the veggies, saute for about five minutes, stirring to make sure it doesn’t burn.

Add one litre of recently boiled water. (You could add cold water too, but that will increase cooking time. Using hot water results in the soup simmering almost immediately.)

Cover and simmer till the veggies are cooked and tender.

When the vegetables are fork tender, take off the heat.

Using an immersion blender, blitz till you are left with a smooth puree. Add the cream cheese and blitz again.

Add the parmesan cheese and chives and stir through.

Serve hot with a little blue cheese crumbled over.

Enjoy!

Chana Dal with Spinach

This post comes with a little bit of a back story. One, that made me very sceptical about trying it out. Back in the day when we stayed over at my in-laws place for a short while, a chana dal with spinach would ever so often appear in the dinner rotation. I usually am very tolerant with food and will eat anything gratefully. So, I somehow ate what was essentially a bland mash of spinach and chana dal. Not one of my favorite food memories. Turns out this dish used to be made very well by my late mother in law, but the gang hasn’t been able to replicate or even come close to the dish she used to prepare. My husband often asked my to try it out. Between you and me, I was not very eager, after tasting the infamous mush.

Eventually I gave in to his requests and decided to try something different, something that essential had chana dal and spinach but was nothing like the original version. The resulting chana dal with spinach is really good. It packs a good amount of flavour and textures and has worked its way into my heart and my dinner rotation.

It is a simple dish and you can choose to serve it with some rotis / chapatis or as a side to your favourite meat dish.

Chana Dal with Spinach

125g Chana dal
1 tsp freshly grated ginger
2 green chillies, finely chopped (You can use just one if you’d like)
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1 tomato, chopped
1 tbsp ghee (clarified butter)
1 tsp cumin seeds
6 fresh curry leaves
3 garlic cloves, finely sliced
2 cups spinach leaves, roughly chopped (You can also use baby spinach)
Salt, to taste

Wash the chana dal a couple of times in water and drain.

Soak the chana dal for about an hour. Drain the water.

Boil the chana dal in some fresh water (about 3 cups) and a tsp of salt. After it comes to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer for about 30 minutes. Cook the dal till it has softened but still has some bite to it. You DO NOT want a mush.

Drain and reserve some of the liquids.

Heat the ghee in a large pan over medium high heat.

Add the curry leaves, garlic and cumin.

Once the cumin sputters, add the ginger, chilli and turmeric and stir to mix well.

Once the spices have turned fragrant and have mixed well (should take about a minute or so).

Add the chopped tomato and stir. Cook for a couple of minutes, till the tomato softens and breaks down a little.

Add the chopped spinach / baby spinach and stir it into the spices till it has just wilted.

Add the drained chana dal and stir through. You can add a tablespoon or 2 of the reserved liquid, if you think it is too dry.

You want the liquid to all mostly dry up. Add it one tbsp at a time. You just want enough liquid to help warm the dal through without burning. You may not need any of the liquid at all.

Check the seasoning and add more salt if needed.

Serve hot.

Bombay Street Food Special #9 – Deep-fried Lentil Fritters

After what seems like forever, I’m back in the blogosphere. And I just have to share this little treat with you. It is a South-Indian delight. We’ve been missing the readily available street food in Mumbai an awful lot lately, so I’ve decided that instead of whining about it, I was just going to have to put my big girl pants on and learn how to make it myself.

So off I went, to scour the internet for recipes easy enough for a beginner in South Indian food to get right. You might wonder what I’m on about. You see I love South Indian treats, but a lot of them call for the perfect ratio of ingredients, overnight fermentation and consistency of the batter, to name a few pressure points you might come across in a recipe. I wanted something that wouldn’t take as long. After a little looking, I found a recipe for Deep-fried lentil fritters. It requires a little planning in advance, since the lentils have to soak for a while (you could make the Chutney and the prep the other ingredients in the meanwhile), but other than that its fairly simple to prepare. The fritters turned out fantastic. Crunchy on the outside, fluffy on the inside and they packed some lovely flavor. I should tell you at this point, that the first time I made these fritters, the batter was a little thinner than it should have been. The resulting fritters were tasty but absorbed a little oil while they were being fried. I knew at once that I needed to make some changes. When I made these a second time and watched the water content closely. The batter was a lot thicker than the previous time.
And since then I’ve made these a couple of times and they hit the spot every single time. So until I learn to make a few more Indian street food delights, I will make these bite sized treats everytime the we’re hit with the craving for some South Indian food.
I’ve used a bit of chillies with the seeds since we like our food with a little bite. But you can either cut down on the chillies or leave them out completely. Serve this hot with some Coconut Chutney on a wet / cold day or any other day really coupled with a piping hot cuppa tea and you’re in for a real treat.

Come back tomorrow and I’ll show you how to use these fritters to make another yummy snack.

Deep-fried Lentil Fritters
1 cup Urad Dal, black lentils (skinned and split)
1/4 onion, finely chopped
2 green chillies, finely chopped
1/4 tsp. freshly crushed black pepper
1 sprig curry leaves, roughly torn or chopped
A little grated ginger (optional)
2 tbsp rice flour
Salt, to taste
Oil, for deep frying
Wash the dal a couple of times in water and drain.
Soak the dal in water for 20 minutes.
Drain the water. Rinse the dal through with fresh water again and drain.
Grind the dal with a tiny bit of water to a smooth paste. Remember, to not add too much water. You don’t want a thin runny batter.
In a bowl, mix the paste, salt and rice flour. Add the onions, chillies, pepper, ginger and curry leaves and stir through, to mix the ingredients evenly.
Heat the oil in a wok to deep fry.
When the oil is hot, ladle the batter carefully into the oil one tablespoonful at a time and keep the oil on a medium heat. Fry the fritters till golden brown.
Drain the fritters onto some kitchen paper to absorb any excess oil.
Enjoy hot with some Coconut Chutney and a hot cuppa tea.

Baked (Garlic Herb) Potato Wedges

It is so good to have access to an oven again. After a trying 6-7 months without one, the last few have been bliss. My last post talks about how to make a basic chicken roast in the oven. Every roast, chicken or otherwise, needs to be accompanied by a few yummy sides too. I only recently realized that I haven’t posted too many such sides on my blog. Now that was just not done. I had to rectify that. So I’m going to start with these really delicious baked potato wedges. These baked potato wedges are a step up from the humble roasted potatoes. The garlic herb seasoning makes these irresistible.

Most of you know my deep rooted love for the humble potato in every form. This recipe here, is another good one. Its healthier than the regular french fries, but don’t let that fool you. I know these wedges will make more than a few appearances on my dinner table.

Baked Garlic Herb Potato Wedges

2 potatoes, washed thoroughly, skins left on
Salt, to taste
1-2 tbsp. Olive oil
1/2 tsp garlic powder (I used garlic salt and adjusted the salt levels accordingly)
Black peppercorns, crushed, to taste
1 tsp dried Italian herb mix
A little dried parsley (or finely chopped fresh parsley), to garnish

Preheat oven to 210°C.

Cut the potatoes in half, lengthwise and each half into 4-5 wedges, equal in size.

Toss the wedges with the rest of the ingredients in a bowl and make sure all the wedges are coated evenly. You can adjust the quantities of the seasoning to your taste. The quantities mentioned above work well as a guide.

Line a baking sheet with foil. Place the wedges skin side down. Space them evenly so that they cook uniformly.

Bake for about 30-35 minutes or until browned to your liking, crusty on the ends and tender inside.

Serve immediately. Add more salt if needed while they are still hot from the oven.

Sprinkle a little parsley over the potatoes and serve hot.

Sit back and enjoy!

C is for Chickpeas – Hummus

I have a soft spot for dips – I don’t know if I like them all (I’ve tried a few that weren’t my cup of tea – but I think its just because of how it was made and if it were made well, I’d probably have liked them too), but there are a few that I really, really like. This hummus is one such dip. I don’t know what it is about dips, but I love having something to dip breadsticks, crackers, chips, vegetable sticks etc. in. This month I chose to do a post on Hummus – a chickpea dip, since we’re at the C & D stage of the Eating The Alphabet series, hosted by Brenda of Meal Planning Magic. Chickpeas have a host of health benefits. They are high in fibre, help regulating blood fat and lowering blood sugar levels. You can read more about the health benefits of these little gems here, here and here.

I’d usually serve this hummus with pita bread, but the day I made the hummus, it completely slipped my mind to pick some up. I did the next best thing and made do with what was available in my kitchen, sliced bread which was lightly toasted and cut up. And it tasted great. I spiked the hummus a little by garnishing it with some red chilly powder, but if you don’t care for spicy food, you can simply leave it off. The recipe mentioned below is more of a guide than a recipe, I would suggest that you keep tasting as you go along and adjust the seasoning as required. Also, I hear that Tahini is an essential ingredient for a good hummus dip, I didn’t have any so I simply added some sesame seeds to the mix before blending. In the event I try using Tahini, I will update this post with my observations.
Hummus

1 cup chickpeas, boiled and drained (You can use the canned variety if you’d like. You can find the method to boil your own chickpeas here. If you are boiling it yourself, reserve some of the liquid.)
1- 1 1/2 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp sesame seeds
1-2 tbsp olive oil
1-2 cloves garlic, minced finely
1/4 tsp cumin powder
Red chilly powder, to garnish
A spring of fresh coriander, to garnish
Salt, to taste
In a blender, blitz the chickpeas, sesame seeds, garlic, and cumin powder using a little of the reserved liquid to aid the process. Don’t use too much as you don’t want it too runny.
Add the lemon juice and blitz again, scrapping down the sides of the bowl as needed. With the blender running, gradually add in the olive oil and blend till everything is smooth and creamy. 
Taste the dip and adjust the seasoning as required. At this stage, if you need to add salt, please do so.
Transfer to a serving bowl and garnish to your liking. 
If you’d like to join in on the fun, just comment and let me know and I’ll get back to you with the details.

Curried Red Kidney Beans – Rajma Masala

A couple of days ago, I found a little treasure. Atleast to me it feels like one. I’ve always loved collecting recipe books or recipes from all over the place in the hope of trying them out someday. About 5-6 years ago, before I’d ever even thought about blogging, I’d printed out a bunch of recipes and filed them, and with time, the file kept growing, but I never really got around to trying too many of the recipes. (The only downside to it was I never really thought about documenting the source of these recipes, so unfortunately can’t credit the source. I will try to hunt them down but haven’t had much luck yet.) Then with the many tasks that occupied my day, not to mention an extremely stressful job, taking care of my home, moving from one house to another, and so on, this precious file of mine somehow fell off my radar and ended up in the deep dark recesses of my book shelf. This my friends, is what I found the other day. I was quite excited and quickly perused through it looking for vegetarian options and to my delight, I found quite a few.

The first one that I tried was the Rajma Masala or Kidney Beans Curry. I’ve tried a couple of recipes for curried Kidney Beans in the past, but this one is my husbands favorite and considering the fact that he doesn’t like kidney beans, that says a lot. I loved the simplicity of the recipe. This one is a keeper.
Rajma Masala 

1 cups red kidney beans
2-3 onions, roughly chopped
3/4″ ginger
3-4 cloves of garlic
1 tsp garam masala powder
1 tsp cumin seeds
2 tomatoes, finely chopped
Salt, to taste
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
2 tsp coriander powder
1 tsp red chilly powder
2 green chillies, slit
2 tbsp oil
1 1/2 tbsp fresh coriander leaves, chopped
Soak the rajma in water overnight or alteast for 4-6 hours.
Drain, rinse and cook the rajma in fresh water till it is tender. I pressure cook it for 10-12 minutes on slow fire after the first whistle. Drain the beans and reserve the liquid.
Grind the onions, ginger, garlic and garam masala powder to a paste.
Heat the oil in a pan and add the cumin seeds and let them sputter without burning them. Add the onion paste. Saute it till the paste has cooked off and the oil separates. 
Add the chopped tomatoes and continue to saute till the tomatoes are soft and have incorporated with the onion paste and the oil starts to separate.
Add the turmeric powder, chilly powder, coriander powder and stir well till mixed. 
Add the green chillies and the beans and stir gently to avoid mashing the beans, making sure the spices coat it well.
Let it cook on high heat for a couple of minutes.
Add the reserved liquid that the beans were boiled in till you have reached the consistency you like. You may not need to use all the liquid or if your reserved liquid is not sufficient, you can add water.
Bring to a boil and simmer for about 10-15 minutes.
Lastly take it off the heat and add the chopped coriander leaves. 
Serve hot.
Note: Sometimes this is served with a dollop of butter on top.


This recipe is linked to –
Full Plate Thursday

                                        

Peas Pulao … yes please!

I love peas pulao! There, I said it. This mildly flavored rice dish adorned with little green peas is something that I can eat by itself with a fresh garden salad on the side. Having said that, this rice is usually whipped up in Catholic homes all over Mumbai and Goa for a special meal, be it a festive occasion or a birthday or any other gathering. It pairs amazingly well with a variety of meat curries, like pork sorpotel, chicken cafreal and many, many more, and I can tell you it is a real treat. I look forward to sharing my family recipes for these meat curries with you soon.
 
For now, we’ll get back to the peas pulao. The preparation is really simple and the few spices used add a fragrant warmth to the rice rather than a spicy heat. Don’t let the simplicity of this dish undermine its flavors. Try it out and see for yourself.
 
A lot of folks seem to have trouble with the rice ending up very soft and mushy. This happens for a number of reasons like wrong amount of cooking water, too much stirring while the rice is cooking etc. I’ve made this rice hundreds of  times and have never encountered such a problem. So I think if you stick to the measures, you should be good to go.

 



Peas Pulao


2 bay leaves
1-2″ cinnamon sticks
2 pods green cardamom
4-5 cloves
6 black peppercorns
1/2 large or 1 small onion, chopped
1 tbsp oil
1 cup long grained rice
2 cups water
1/4- 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
A handful of green peas
Salt, to taste

If you’re using frozen peas, keep them out to thaw for a while.

Wash the rice and leave it to soak in some water for about 15-20 minutes while you prep the rest of the ingredients.

Heat the oil mildly in a vessel and add the bay leaves, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves and peppercorns and let them warm up and infuse the oil with their aromas and flavors, taking care not to burn the spices.

Add the chopped onion and saute till the onions and soft and translucent and start taking on a little colour.

Add the turmeric powder and stir well.

Drain the water that the rice was soaking in and tip the rice into the vessel.

Stir gently making sure you don’t break the grains down while stirring.

Once the rice is well coated with the spices in the pan, add the water, salt to taste and the green peas.

Cover and let it cook on a low flame, till all the water has been absorbed.

Fluff up the rice using a fork and not a spoon so that you don’t mash the grains.

Serve hot with your favourite curry.

Please remember that if you’d like to change the quantity of rice used, the rice to water ratio should always be 1:2. That is 1 measure of rice to 2 measures of water to cook it in.

This recipe is linked with –
My Meatless Mondays
Mouthwatering Mondays
Mangia Mondays
A Little Birdie Told Me

Pooris – Deep Fried Whole Wheat Flatbread

You’ve probably heard me mention the “poori” (pronounced poo-ree) in a couple of posts before, like here and here. Both these posts give you ideas of stir fries and curries that you can serve with pooris. They are fairly simple to make. I love these little fellows so much, that I can eat them plain, without anything else to go with it. I don’t make them too often ‘coz they’re deep fried and trust me when I say you may not be able to stop at just a couple. They taste incredible when they are hot. If there are any leftovers, I refrigerate them and the next day I simply warm them on a griddle and they are good to go.

Learn how to make the Puris here –

Pooris


2 cups whole wheat flour
1 tsp Salt, or to taste
Water (approx 1 cup)
Oil, for deep frying

Mix the flour and salt in a large mixing bowl.

Make a well in the centre and adding water a little at a time, knead to form a nice pliable dough. If you need to use more than a cup of water, please do so.

Heat the oil for deep frying over medium heat. To test the oil, drop a tiny pea sized ball of the dough carefully into the oil. It should sizzle and rise to the top fairly quickly. If this happens, your oil is at the right temperature. If it browns straightaway, your oil is too hot. Take it off the heat for a while and then start frying. If it just sinks to the bottom without any sizzle, your oil is not hot enough.

Make small walnut size portions and roll to form a disc. Do not roll out too thin. (According to my mum, they need to be a little on the thicker side to puff up. I simply follow that and get brilliant results each time.)

Deep fry as you’re rolling them out. Don’t stack the raw discs before frying.

When golden brown, drain on absorbent paper.

Serve hot!

This recipe is linked to –
Let’s Do Brunch
Full Plate Thursday
It’s A Keeper Thursday

Corn Flakes Chivda – Savory Corn Flakes Snack Mix

Update: Here’s a slightly better picture of the same recipe 🙂




For those of you who’ve never heard of this, you must be thinking I’ve lost it. Most of us associate corn flakes with a morning breakfast cereal thats a little on the sweeter side. Today, I’m going to introduce you to a snack mix made of corn flakes, which is savory, crunchy, healthy and really tasty. As a matter of fact this is my husband’s  favorite munchy. I’m convinced that given the chance he’ll snack on this every day. I enjoy this from time to time, but in the past the thought of making this myself has always been intimidating. After a fair amount of online research, I decided to try it out. I saw a few recipes that had elements I liked as well as stuff I really didn’t care for. What I’m listing below is a combination of a few, mostly inspired by a store-bought variety that I quite like. This is so easy, I think it take about 15 minutes to make and you can store it in an air-tight container and nibble on it over the next few days, if it doesn’t get wolfed down sooner.

Corn Flakes Chivda


2 cups cornflakes
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tsp mustard seeds
1-2 green chillies, slit (optional)
6-8 curry leaves
20 raisins
20 cashewnuts
1/4 cup peanuts
1/4 cup roasted chana dal (dalia)
2 tbsp unsweetened coconut chips (optional)
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1/2 – 1 tsp red chilly powder
Salt, to taste
2 tbsp superfine sugar (You can also use granulated sugar, powdered)

Heat the oil in a large pan.

Add the mustard seeds and let it sputter.

Add the green chillies and curry leaves and let them fry off till they are nice and crisp. Be careful not to burn them.

Then add the peanuts. If you’re using raw peanuts, let them fry off on a medium flame till they are lightly browned and cooked. If you’re using roasted peanuts, this won’t take as long.

Add the roasted chana dal and cashew seeds and saute for a minute or so.

Next, add the raisins and let them fry for about half a minute.

Add the salt, turmeric powder, red chilly powder and stir well.

Add the corn flakes and toss well making sure that the corn flakes are well coated with the spice mix.

Take it off the fire.

When it has cooled a little but is still warm, sprinkle the sugar over it and toss gently but thoroughly.

Let it cool completely and store in an air tight container.

Please note – Snacks like this should be tweaked to your liking. Feel free to play around with the dry fruits and nuts added as well as the spice, sugar and salt levels. After you make this once, you’ll have a better idea of what you’d like to do the next time.

Have fun with this recipe.

This recipe is linked to –
What’s On The Menu Wednesday
What’s Cooking Thurdays
Real Food Wednesday

Diwali Delicacies @ Spicy Treats and Priya’s Versatile Recipes