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Recipe: A No-Guilt Street Snack – Sweet Potato Chaat

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I have mentioned before that I go through phases when I binge on particular dishes, and right now, I can’t get enough of sweet potato chaat. Chaats are a category of Indian street food, and while it may be true that authentic street food is only found at roadside stalls, I love the healthier versions I make at home just as much. This one is especially so because it replaces the standard puri (a kind of crispy, round cracker) that is the base of many chaats with cubes of sweet potato. Sometimes I even pile on some extra roasted vegetables and this really boosts the nutrition quotient of this fun snack.

My version is made so that it is essentially the equivalent of an Indian salad, and I have a full plate’s serving of it. When I have it around 6.30pm, it is so filling that it can become my dinner.  It’s a no-guilt chaat, and is pretty good for you, not just good to eat. The sweet potatoes are boiled then roasted with very little oil, made as crispy as possible. These are layered with mung beans, vegetables, dry masalas and the delicious chutneys that I always have around the house. Date and tamarind and green chutneys are kitchen staples in my home and lift up the flavour of any Indian dish. I use just a little of the date and tamarind chutney – the date contains jaggery and sugar, and the tamarind has a particular tang – but the green chutney is more neutral and works with a wider range of ingredients, so I use a higher quantity of it.

I’m always looking for innovative ways to play with the chaat category, and the idea of using sweet potato in lieu of puri came about one day just because I had excess sweet potato on hand. It was in season, and the thought occurred to me that regular boiled potatoes are often used in chaats, so why not sweet potatoes? That’s when I came up with the idea of using this ingredient as a puri substitute, not just a potato substitute.

When we were kids, I would often have my friends over for chaat at home as my mom was famous for them. Since I grew up right here in Chennai, I am still connected to many of my childhood friends who are also born-and-bred natives who remained. So whenever they come over for a meal today, there is always some chaat served, as a reminiscence from days long ago. It’s a given, and pretty much expected when they dine at mine. I either prepare the chaat as a main course, or else I serve a variety as a starter. This sukha bhel and this green moong bhel may be on the menu too.

This sweet potato chaat has become a favourite in my social group because it hits all the right spots: nourishing, full of vegetable goodness, not unhealthy, and still scrumptious. It’s like the memory of our childhood chaat has been adapted for our adult palates and dietary needs, and the result is a fabulous mix of nostalgia and taste!

Sweet Potato Chaat

(Yield: Serves 2)

 

1 cup sweet potato (boiled)

½ cup finely chopped onions

¼ cup finely chopped coriander leaves

1 cup boiled mung beans

1 teaspoon oil

Salt to taste

½ teaspoon chaat masala

½ teaspoon roasted cumin powder

2 teaspoons lemon juice

1 tablespoon green chutney

1 tablespoon date and tamarind chutneys

2 tablespoons sev or any crispy topping

 

Chop the boiled sweet potato into cubes.

In a pan, add the oil and sauté the sweet potato cubes until they are crispy and golden on all sides.

Take two serving plates. Divide the sweet potato into both. Sprinkle the mung beans over the sweet potatoes. Sprinkle the onions. Next, add the two chutneys. Then, sprinkle the coriander leaves, followed by the spices. Finally, add the crispy topping. You can use sev, which is standard in many Indian chaats, or substitute it for something else that adds texture.

Your sweet potato chaat is now ready. As always, you can adjust any of the ingredients to your liking. Don’t forget that a big heaping of vegetables will also work well, and you may want to try some foreign vegetables so that it becomes a kind of fusion dish.

If you’re a big sweet potato fan like I am, sweet potato tikki and sweet potato and mango salad may also interest you. Enjoy!

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Recipe: Take Some More – Sweet Potato Tikki

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India has a wide variety of snacks that you could call tikkis, kebabs, tikkas and by other names. They are made with different key ingredients, and may be fried, grilled, skewered or served intact. All kinds are delicious, and usually quite filling too. I enjoy a range of vegetable-based tikkis and make them with sweet potatoes, regular potatoes, paneer, kidney beans, green peas and so on. The spices as well as the binding agent remain consistent, while the core vegetable can change. I also occasionally use a mix of vegetables. Among these many options, sweet potato tikkis have been a favourite at snack time in my house of late, so I thought that I’d share the recipe with you.

Do remember that you can use this recipe as a base, as mentioned, for other tikkis as well. While breadcrumbs work well, I have personally gone for either tapioca flour or oat flour as a binding agent when I make these. They are healthier options and taste very good too.

Sweet potato itself is of course the healthier version of the regular potato, though arguably just as delicious. Sweet potato is extremely nutritious, and is rich in antioxidants, beta-carotenes, fibre and vitamins. Did you know that just one sweet potato can boost your system with between 400% and 800% of your recommended daily intake of Vitamin A? True to its name, this is also a delicious vegetable with a hint of sweetness, and one that works in versatile ways. Just talking about it jogs my inspiration, and I think I’ll be using it as the star of some recipes I’ll share in the near future too.

Coming back to today’s recipe, the sweet potato tikki, I would like to add here that the dish itself is quite versatile. It is a healthy choice when you need a fast but satisfying snack, and is great as finger food to serve to guests. How you serve it can also be in a number of ways. You can make it in a chaat or street food-style, serving it plain with a nice dip or sauce. You can make it as part of a meal, accompanied by a salad. You can make it in a longish roll shape, which you then roll within a chapati or roti and tuck away in your tiffin box for a spill-free lunch at the office. One of my favourite methods is to make it as a patty, thus letting you turn a tikki into a vegetable burger. I learned this method while studying Macrobiotics, when a kidney bean patty that I found very similar to our Indian tikkis and kebabs was often used in burgers. In terms of the actual preparation itself, you may choose to deep fry the tikki. I have pan-fried it, to keep it healthier. I have not yet experimented with air-frying, but perhaps you could try that and let me know?

Sweet Potato Tikki

(Yield: Approximately 8 pieces)

 

2 cups sweet potato (mashed)

2 tablespoons finely chopped coriander leaves

1 heaped teaspoon garam masala

1 heaped teaspoon aamchur powder (or: a dash of lemon juice)

Salt to taste

¼ teaspoon black salt

2 tablespoons finely chopped onion

1 teaspoon ginger/green chili paste

3 tablespoons oats flour (or: tapioca flour)

¼ cup oil

Mash the sweet potato well. Add the coriander leaves and onion. Next, add all the spices and mix well with your fingers until they all come together.

Make small discs with the palm of your hand. Keep the tikkis in the fridge for at least half an hour.

Once they have cooled, heat a pan. Add oil, then place the tikkis on a medium flame. Watch that they don’t singe at the bottom. Lower the flame if necessary. Flip the tikkis gently and allow them to turn golden on both sides.

Your tikkis are now ready. Serve with green chutney or ketchup if they’re going to be a snack, or with a salad for a hearty meal. In fact, that reminds me of another way to kick up the sweet potato quotient in your diet, with this sweet potato and mango salad, especially with the fruit soon to be in season!

If you enjoy this recipe, you may also be a fan of the harra barra kebab, which uses green peas. That one lends itself especially well to being used as a burger patty. As always, I’d love to know what you think after you try these recipes out. Do leave a comment and let me know!

 

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Recipe: The Best Bhel Outside Of Bombay – Sukha Bhel

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Bhel is a popular Indian savoury snack, from the chaat or street food category, that is served dressed up in a number of ways. Sukha bhel, or dry bhel, is a simple way to have it. With a puffed rice base and some flavourings, it makes for a filling dish between meals. Many who enjoy this snack will have their own versions. So this is a sukha bhel, Nandi style. Lately, we have been having it at home with tea daily, so of course I wanted to share the same with you!

My husband has a habit of getting into one dish and becoming obsessed with it for about a year or so, during which he needs to eat it every single day (and then, eventually tiring of it, having had his fill and then some!). His current penchant is for this sukha bhel, and since it’s now a regular at our table, I try to make it as healthy as possible. You can take the nutritious route even with items that are conventionally regarded as unhealthy, such as most street foods. In fact, I have shared a green moong bhel in the past that was even healthier than this one, and I hope you’ll try that out too.

So if by chance you land up at my home between 5pm and 6pm on any given day, you’ll be served a nice helping of this sukha bhel. There will invariably be a tea cake from the re:store kitchen to accompany it, and maybe even the crispy butter cookies you read about last weekend. Of course, this special masala chai will waft its lovely aromas over the table too. Tempting, no? The best part is, whether you can drop by or not, you can prepare the entire tea time feast from scratch yourself. Every recipe I’ve mentioned is right here on this blog, for your own enjoyment.

There have been times when I watched what I eat like a hawk and felt guilty about every little thing that went into my mouth. Slowly, I recognised how unhealthy this habit was, and how it negated the supposed healthiness of trying to stick to any particular diet. So now and then, I say, “To hell with it!” and have a slice of cake with my bhel too. I know it won’t do me any harm, especially if I make adjustments at dinner time with portions and dish choices. Do you do anything similar, to ensure that you don’t miss out on the good stuff but also don’t compromise on sensible dietary choices?

Now, even though my husband craves this sukha bhel daily, I must admit that it is only in the second-best standing for him. The very best is the street-side bhel you find in Bombay, and I will concede that it tops mine. It’s my own favourite too. When I visit the city and am on my way to my sister’s home from the airport, I always stop and pick up an order along the way, and will have finished eating it before I’ve even arrived at her door! Simply wrapped in a piece of newspaper, with a puri in place of a spoon to scoop up the bhel, it really is unbeatable. I relish the very last bite, when I get to eat the “spoon” as well. That’s the best part, and this tantalizing mix of flavours is how every trip to Bombay begins for me.

Since this is a homemade sukha bhel, I load it up with vegetables. I also make a drier version than what you get outside, although the chutneys that give it its deliciousness are still key elements. A sweet chutney, a spicy one and a dash of lemon bring together all the ingredients that are detailed in the recipe below. The chutneys are staples in my refrigerator, and I’ve shared the recipes for both in prior posts as well, as you can see in the links below.

Sukha Bhel

(Serves 2-3)

 

½ cup chopped cucumber

½ cup chopped boiled potatoes

¼ cup finely chopped onions

¼ cup chopped mango

A squeeze of lemon

1½ cups bhel mix or roasted puffed rice

Black salt to taste

½ teaspoon roasted cumin powder

1 tablespoon tamarind/date chutney

½ teaspoon garlic chutney (optional)

Pomegranate arils for garnishing

Coriander leaves for garnishing

Small crispy puris

 

In a bowl, add all the cut vegetables. To this, add cumin powder, black salt, the chutneys and the lemon juice. Mix well.

Finally, add the bhel or puffed rice. Mix again. Garnish and serve immediately, else the bhel will get soggy.

I love to use finely cut raw mango in this sukha bhel for a tang, and this is an ingredient that we get pretty much all year round. I also use boiled potatoes, and decorate the dish with pomegranate arils for a hint of sweetness. Use the same if you wish to, or substitute as preferred. Similarly for the use of onions if you prefer. In lieu of regular salt, I use either black or pink salt, which gives the dish a distinct flavour. Add more bhel or puris for more of a crunch, if you like that. The fun in the preparation is really all about increasing or decreasing quantities, or adding or removing ingredients, based on your personal taste. The bhel and the chutneys are the base – the rest is up to you.

As for my personal taste, as well as my husband’s, this particular recipe is the one that hits the spot. The second-best sukha bhel – and the best outside of Bombay! I hope you’ll find it just as satisfying, and that it will be your own favourite after the Bombay chaatwallas’ too!

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Recipe: Let’s Chaat – Green Moong Bhel

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When it comes to Indian street food, the first and last word is always “chaat”. Yes, the vendors of sundal and cotton candy on my beloved Marina Beach will put up a fight, but when it comes to tastes savoured throughout India, chaat wins hands down. Chaat is a catch-all term, and extends from fried breads like pav bhajji to pastries called puris, filled with everything from potato to spiced water. Among the popular ones is bhel, also known as bhel puri.

Bhel is usually made with puffed rice as the main ingredient. As I’m always trying to make all the food we enjoy healthier, without compromising on taste, I substituted the puffed rice for the humble and very nutritious mung bean, also known as green gram or moong.

 

 

Moong is a versatile legume, used extensively in Asian cuisines. It can be eaten sweetened as a filling in pastries like mooncakes, stir-fried with vegetables, soaked and softened into a dal, ground into paste for crepes like dosa, and even made into noodles once starched. Moong beans are high in protein, low in carbs as compared to other legumes and pulses, and rich in antioxidants, phytonutrients and fibre. Unlike various other kinds of beans, they are also easy to digest, meaning you won’t feel bloated after eating them.

This Green Moong Bhel brings the tanginess of authentic streetside chaat, thanks to a blend of two chutneys, to the wholesomeness of mung beans. Like all chaat, it’s an anytime dish – and like all chaat, once you’ve enjoyed it, you’ll always have a craving for it.

 

Green Moong Bhel

Ingredients
Bhel (Yield – 4-5 small cups)

½ cup moong beans
½ cup finely cut cucumber
¼ cup finely cut onions
¼ cup cut tomatoes
¼ cup cut raw mango
¼ cup finely chopped coriander leaves
¼ teaspoon roasted cumin powder
3 cups water
Salt to taste

Date Chutney (Yield: 3 Cups)

1 cup jaggery
1 cup chopped dates
1 cup tamarind
¼ cup sugar
1½ + 1 + 1 cups water
2 teaspoons roasted cumin powder
1 teaspoon black salt
¼ teaspoon chilli powder
Salt to taste

Soak the moong beans overnight, or for 6-8 hours. They will triple in size when they have been well-soaked.

On a medium flame, add 3 cups of water, ¼ teaspoon of salt and a pinch of turmeric to the beans and allow to cook. This will take 15-20 minutes. The beans should be soft to the bite.

 

Strain the beans and allow them to cool.

 

 

In the meantime, put all the cut vegetables and the raw mango into a bowl. You can add any vegetables of your choice, whatever you find handily available, and increase or decrease the quantities to your preference. My selection here is a very typically “chaat” selection of fresh, affordable local produce. Keep aside some coriander for garnishing.

 

To this bowl of vegetables and fruit, add two chutneys. You can find the green coriander chutney recipe here (if you’re on a health kick, try not to get distracted by the banana-methi fritters recipe!). It’s an extraordinary simple just-blend-it-chutney, and you can use it in versatile ways.

The date chutney requires just a few more steps. Soak the jaggery, chopped dates, tamarind and sugar in 1½ cups of water for at least half an hour. Then blend this very well with 1 cup of warm water. Sieve the mixture to remove any sediments. Now, add the roasted cumin powder, black salt, chili powder and salt, as well as an additional cup of water, and boil for approximately 15 minutes. You will notice the mixture thickening, and you can adjust this to the consistency you desire by adding more water. This recipe yields a generous three cups of date chutney. Use only as much as you need for the green moong bhel dish, then save the rest in the fridge.

Blend 2 teaspoons each of the two chutneys into the bowl of cut vegetables and raw mango. Then add all the spices as well as the cooled moong beans to the bowl. Mix all the ingredients together nicely, making sure the chutneys coat them well.

Now, serve the green moong bhel in smaller bowls, garnishing with the coriander leaves. I often like to add a bit of crunch on top too, such as crushed peanuts, pomegranate, fried crisps or the puffed rice that is reminiscent of traditional chaat.

You can put this healthy snack on the list along with sundal, pea-pomegranate kachoris, sweet ghugras and, of course, banana-methi fritters and enjoy it with some piping hot chai or coffee. Or have it as an alternative to salad or quinoa, and enjoy a big bowl as a full breakfast or a light lunch. As simple as the dish looks, it’s absolutely loaded with flavours. Healthy can taste so good, sometimes!

 

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