Bhel Puri Recipe, How to Make Bhel Poori Step by Step

Bhel puri (or bhel poori, bhelpuri) is no doubt the most common chaat on the streets of Mumbai alongside the popular pav bhaji. In fact, I first had my taste of Bhel Puri in Chennai Marina Beach where a vendor mixed it up and put them in newspaper cones for curious 8-year-old me. While it was probably not as authentic as the Bhel Puri you find in Mumbai, I was hooked! How can a simple fistful of ingredients and sauces create something so delicious, I wondered. Well, I guess I now know that there's nothing very simple about the flavours incorporated into the chaat chutneys and the quick mix of ingredients that make up this delicious snack - Bhel Poori.

For the longest time, I have been wanting to make my own papdi to make papdi chaat at home (my favourite). It just never happened so one day I picked up a packet of papdi from the Indian store in Singapore. It tasted very average and even a bit stale. Duly distressed, I decided to use them up in bhel poori instead, choosing to use less papads and more sev (which were delicious, in spite of being store-bought) and lots of crunchy onions and such. The idea worked! This bhel poori not only masked the average quality of the papad, but was also wolfed down in no time

On another note, making chaat at home is really not necessary (in my opinion) if you get good chaat where you live. Singapore is a bit tricky that way. I keep getting referred to Kailash Parbat for chaat in Singapore but my experience there has been above average at best. I get a good chaat fix during my whirlwind work trips to Mumbai and Delhi and that makes it harder to settle on average chaat in Singapore.

Also, I always make pav bhaji at home and rarely order it outside anymore. I even took a stab at how to make pav at home but have since only made it once or so. It's way quicker to buy it outside and focus on making delicious bhaji at home. You may also want to try these ragda patties and Mumbai vada pav recipes.

Before you start assembling bhel puri, you need to have the following ingredients cooked and ready:
boiled potatoes
green chutney for chaat
date tamarind sweet chutney

BHEL PURI RECIPE

Preparation time: 15 minutes
Serves 4-6

INGREDIENTS:
1 cup of puffed rice
1/4 cup of finely chopped, deseeded ripe tomatos
1/2 cup of finely chopped onions
1/4 cup of boiled, roughly mashed potatoes
1 tsp of grated ginger
1 cup of crushed chaat papdi (papad)
1.5 cups of nylon sev
3-4 tbsp of green chutney
2-3 tbsp of red chutney
1/2 tsp of black salt (or to taste)
1/2 tsp of garam masala or chaat masala
1/4 cup of roasted peanuts (salted or unsalted)
1/4 cup of chopped coriander leaves
1 tbsp of lemon juice (more or less to taste)

INSTRUCTIONS:

Prepare the chutneys first. You can do this a few days before and store them in the refrigerator too.

For green chutney, grind together mint leaves, coriander leaves, cumin seeds, chaat masala, lemon juice, and rest of ingredients to a smooth paste with water. You can find detailed recipe for green chutney here.

Here are the detailed instructions for sweet date tamarind chutney.

Once you have the chutneys ready and have boiled the potatoes, putting together the bhel puri is a breeze.

To assemble the bhel puri:

Reserve half a cup of sev and add all other ingredients to a wide bowl.

Give it a good mix and taste test to see if the sour vs sweet vs spicy is good and suits your taste. Adjust the ingredients (add more sweet chutney, salt, etc) to make it perfect.

You can serve in paper cones or simple bowls with generous amounts of sev and coriander leaves for garnish.

Step by Step Pictures to Make Bhel Poori at Home:

1. Set aside 1/2 cup sev and add all other ingredients to a wide bowl.

2. Using a wide spoon or spatula, mix thoroughly until all ingredients are combined fully. The most important step is right after this - taste testing! Adjust ingredients according to how spicy, sour, sweet you want your bhel puri to be.

3. Finally, add the reserved sev and garnish with chopped coriander leaves. I love sev so I use a generous hand when garnishing my bhel puri.

Serve immediately, otherwise the bhel puri will get soggy. If making for a large group, mix the ingredients in batches to ensure freshness and crispness of the sev and puffed rice.

Note: you can also use crushed golgappa (puri used for pani poori) instead of papad for a slightly different texture in your bhel puri.

For Bhel Puri recipe in Hindi, Marathi, Urdu, Tamil, Telugu, etc, please use the Google translate button in the sidebar.

Vada Pav Recipe - How to Make Mumbai Vada Pav (Batata Pav)

Vada Pav is often likened to an Indian-style burger. While a vada pav does resemble a burger in the way it's assembled, a well-made vada pav couldn't be more different in taste to a burger. Even when you make vada pav at home with burger buns like I did because you don't live in a country where pav is available in a nearby store and of course, making pav at home is not always an option, is it?

{For vada pav recipe in Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati, Urdu, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, etc, please use the Google Translate button in the sidebar}.

It's time for a confession now. Although I am as Indian as they come, I hadn't eaten my first vada pav until I had moved to Singapore. There's a restaurant called Makan Mumbai that sells a mean vada pav and we'd get them to cater Diwali parties at work where vada pav would be the centre-table snack along with a large thermos of masala chai.

One of the striking things and my favourite part of a vada pav is the spicy dry garlic chutney it comes with. It's a necessary accompaniment so sprinkle a generous amount while you assemble your vada pav. You also need some green chaat chutney so get started on that too. Both of these can be made ahead if you are cooking for a larger group.

While vada pav is popular as a roadside snack, we had ours for lunch one Saturday. A good generous portion with large batata vadas (potato vada), soft buns, green chutney, and of course the red garlic chutney. What a treat!

Also check out how to make pav at home, recipe for pav bhaji, and some spicy tawa pulao if you are in the mood for some Mumabi-style street food.

MUMBAI VADA PAV RECIPE

Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 45 minutes
Makes 6 vada pav

To make the batata vada or potato vada:

1. Boil or steam 2 potatoes until tender. A fork inserted should go in easily.

2. Set aside to cool and then mash without any big lumps.

3. Grind together - 2 green chillies, 2 cloves of garlic, and a small piece of ginger to a coarse paste.

4. Heat 2 tsp oil and add 1/2 tsp black mustard seeds and a few curry leaves. When the mustard seeds splutter, add the chilli-garlic-ginger paste and fry for 30 seconds until fragrant.

5. Then, add the mashed potatoes, 1/4 tsp turmeric powder, a pinch of hing or asafoetida, and salt to taste.

6. Turn off flame and mix well until the mixture is well combined. Don't add any water, the batata vada mixture should be thick.

7. Now we make the outer coating for the batata vada. Place 1 cup besan (gram flour), 1/4 tsp turmeric powder, 1/4 tsp red chilli powder, a pinch of baking soda, and some salt in a bowl. Mix well to combine.

8. Add enough water to make a thick paste as seen below.

9. Divide the cooled potato mixture into 6 equal balls and coat in the prepared batter.

10. Heat enough oil in a kadai or wok to deep fry the vada. When the oil reaches smoking point, gently drop the batata vada into it. Some besan coating will go astray and that's ok, because I say so.

Once the vada is golden brown, drain and set aside on kitchen napkins.

You can also fry some green chillies to serve alongside, in true Mumbai vada pav fashion. Take care though, fresh chilies tend to burst in hot oil.

To assemble the vada pav:

Place a generous amount of green chutney on one side of the pav or burger bun. Place a batata vada over it and top off with a generous sprinkle of garlic chutney.

Serve with fried green chillies for those who want an extra spice kick. Some ketchup would go well with vada pav too.

Note: I have tried to write this recipe in a different style by not adding a list of ingredients in the beginning but rather, mentioning the ingredients and quantities with the instructions. I feel this is useful for me personally as I follow a recipe as I cook and I have heard this feedback from some of you too. Let me know if you miss the ingredients list though!

Ragda Patties Recipe - How to Make Ragda Pattice, A Popular Indian Chaat Recipe

Ragda Patties - probably one of those chaat recipes that would be number 7 on my list of chaat dishes I crave. Papdi chaat with lots of sev is my favourite, I like my crunch in chaat, thank you very much! However, this post is about Ragda Patties, often spelled mysteriously as Ragda Pattice, something that I tried for the time in Kailash Parbat Singapore and kinda sorta fell in love with. I say kinda sorta because all the other chaat we ordered there was a disaster except for maybe pani puri which was passable. So yeah, the ragda patties really stood out since they were quite good. If I can't get my hand on a good vada pav or even some mushroom tikkis, then I turn to these delicious golden brown fried patties.

In my honest opinion, making chaat at home is a bit laborious especially if you set out to make everything from scratch. I love homemade green chutney for chaat but the sweet chutney I'll definitely be buying from the next time onwards. It took a while to make and yielded way too little chutney (yes, I am still not over ranting about that!). So yeah, making chaat at home is great and healthy and hygienic but plan ahead and don't kill yourself over it. I very strategically made ragda patties for lunch on Saturday and made curd rice as a way to finish the meal. Yes, it's unorthodox but I was able to put all my energy and focus into making the ragda, the tikkis and the sweet chutney and the dish came out very nice in the end, so except for the perplexed look on TH's face for the first 10 mins when he saw what's for lunch, everything was smooth sailing.

I obviously referred a bunch of websites and cookbooks for the recipe of ragda patties but ended up making it the way I felt comfortable. The aloo tikkis are largely adapted from Dassana's Veg Recipes of India but I used rice flour instead of cornflour. I am not sure if that's against the fundamental principle of aloo tikki rules or anything but I did it anyway. The tikkis looked perfectly happy and were crispy when hot.

You have to prepare ahead a little bit and have the following things ready for making the final dish. I make the ragda the previous day, the green chutney a couple of days before, and the sweet chutney on the day. If you have everything handy, then it's very easy to put together Ragda Patties for your family or even guests.
- Ragda
- Green chutney
- Sweet chutney

So let's go make us some Ragda Pattice, shall we?

RAGDA PATTIES RECIPE

Preparation time: 3 hours
Cooking time: 30 minutes
Serves 4

INGREDIENTS:

For the aloo tikkis:

• 1-2 potatoes, boiled until soft (about 2 cups mashed potatoes)
• 2 green chillies, minced
• 3-4 tbsp of rice flour
• To taste: salt
• 2-3 tsp of oil

For assembling:

• 1/2 cup of minced onions
• 1/2 cup of finely chopped tomatoes
• 1/4 cup of chopped coriander leaves (cilantro)
• 3/4 cup of sev or boondi

INSTRUCTIONS:

To make the tikkis:

1. Peel and mash the boiled potatoes making sure there are no lumps.

2. Add the green chillies, rice flour, and salt to this and mix well. You can also add some jeera powder to this if you'd like some extra flavour.

If the mixture is too moist, add more rice flour. If it's too dry, knead a bit longer and you should be ok.

3. Heat a tawa or non stick pan and add a few drops of oil to it. Make small patties with the potato mixture and place gently on the hot pan.

4. Cook until both sides are golden brown, adding more drops of oil if needed.

5. Transfer to a serving dish.

To Assemble the Ragda Patties:

Add the preferred amount of ragda over the patties.

Top off with some green chutney and sweet chutney. The green chutney pretty much decides the spice level in your ragda patties so use your judgement. I like chaat well-balanced so I add equal amounts of both chutneys.

Then add a little minced onions, tomatoes, coriander, and lots of sev or boondi.

Give everything a gentle a toss with your spoon and eat hot!

NOTES:

1. Keep the ragda, chutneys, chopped vegetables and sev all ready before you start making the aloo tikki. This way you can serve the dish hot, and it tastes best that way.
2. You can shallow fry the tikkis in more oil but personally I prefer the charred version of the tikkis in this dish
3. All ingredients should be added or avoided per your preference
4. For the tikkis, you can use corn flour instead of rice flour and red chilli powder instead of green chillies
5. Sev or boondi gives a nice crunch to the ragda patties so try not to avoid that
6. The order in which I've assembled the ragda patties makes for a pretty looking dish. Do it the way you want to serve it. In most chaat stalls, they pour the ragda into a bowl and then add the other items, finally topping off with the aloo tikkis

Ragda Recipe - How to Make Ragda for Ragda Patties

I made Ragda Patties (or is it Ragda Pattice?)! Ok, however it's called, this is one of those chaat recipes that I had been postponing making for-eve-r! Finally, FINALLY, it happened. Ragda is incredibly easy to make and is the base for Ragda Patties, a delightful Indian chaat or street food. While you can probably make this with white channa, I used to use the dried white peas or vatana to make it the right way.

The soaking time for white peas is what always gets me on a weekend, I just keep forgetting to do it! So one Saturday I set aside everything else I had to do and just make Ragda. We had it with rotis and it was delicious. Next day, there was Ragda Patties in the house and everyone (erm.. TH and I) was happy. The only other chaat or street food I've made at home so far is Pav Bhaji so this was a welcome change.

The ragda tends to get dry very quickly as you cook it and I had to re-heat it by adding more water to make it looser. Apart from that, this is a no-hassle, simple recipe anyone can use.

RAGDA FOR RAGDA PATTIES (OR ROTIS)

Preparation time: 8 hours
Cooking time: 30 minutes
Makes 2.5 cups of ragda

INGREDIENTS:

• 1.5 cups of dried white peas or vatana
• 1/2 tsp of turmeric powder
• 1/2 tsp of red chilli powder
• 1-2 green chillies
• A small piece of ginger
• 1/2 tsp of cumin or jeera powder
• 1/4 tsp of hing or asafoetida
• 1 tsp of oil or ghee

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Soak the white peas overnight in water.

2. Drain and add enough fresh water to cover it completely by 1/2 an inch. Add turmeric powder and chilli powder to this. Mix well.

3. Pressure cook for 15 mins or 4-5 whistles until the peas is cooked nice and mushy. Squish it further with the back of a spoon and set aside.

4. Grind the green chillies and ginger to a coarse paste (or you can just mince the two very fine). Heat oil in a pan and add the cumin powder, hing, and green chilli ginger paste. Saute until fragrant.

5. Add the cooked peas and salt. Mix well adding enough water to make the right consistency. Bring to boil and remove from fire.

Serve with pooris or rotis or, the best way, with Aloo Tikkis as Ragda Patties.