Sukha Bhel/Diet bhel

A quick bowl-full of snack when I return back from work! Lots of veggies with have negative calories and puffed rice with very little calories serves as a good diet bhel. :)

Chop onions, cucumbers and tomatoes and transfer them in a bowl.

Add spicy BHEL CHUTNEY (Mumbai style bhelwalas usually have this one)

Add salt and lemon juice and mix it well.

Add a cup of roasted puffed rice and freshly chopped cilantro.

Mix well. Garnish with cilantro and serve immediately!

I call it diet bhel because it does not contain anything fried like sev or puri. But, has load of veggies and puffed rice that are low in calories :)
Add some sprouts or nuts to make it rich in proteins!

Enjoy crunchy, spicy Mumbai style sukha bhel :)

Mumbai Style Bhel Chutney

If you have ever traveled by Mumbai local trains, you will know what I am talking of. When I was in Mumbai, traveling from Andheri to VT station, a crisp sukha bhel was my everyday snack. A vendor with a big basket containing puffed rice, crisp sev, onions, tomatoes, green chillies, lemon and dry sukhi chutney would walk around from one compartment to another, customizing and making fresh bhel for travelers. It would cost just Rs. 5 WOW!

Now, when I am back from work and my workout, evening snack of a big bowl of sukha bhel is must. Lots of veggies, and puffed rice, that's my type of delicious diet bhel. I prepare my mummy's special spicy dry chutney, and store in the refrigerator. It lasts for 15 days and making bhel becomes quick and easy.

This spicy chutney is a specialty of Mumbai bhelwalas. This chutney can be made in advance and stores in the freezer. It can be used as it is for sukha (dry) bhel or liquified by adding water. This is an ultimate chutney which makes your homemade bhel an authentic street food style.

Now I know why my mom's bhel is so popular!! :)

Roast 1 cup of chickpea flour/besan/gram flour well in a pan on low heat till it looses it's raw flavor. Allow it to cool.

Grind 7-8 green chillies and 2 inch ginger with salt and lemon juice (do not add water)

Mix roasted gram flour and ginger and chilly paste well using a spatula till all the the lumps and granules and broken.

Wash your hands thoroughly if you used your fingers to mix the green chilly paste.

Add salt and lemon juice to mix and form a soft ball.

Sprinkle some salt and lemon juice and preserve it in the refrigerator or freezer.

Use little at a time :)

I use this chutney with my DIET BHEL! yum yum!

I call it diet bhel because it does not contain anything fried like sev or puri. But has load of veggies and puffed rice that are low in calories :)
Add some sprouts or nuts to make it rich in proteins!

Enjoy!

Appe with Green Chutney Dip

Appe/અપ્પે are pan-fried rice and lentil dumplings. This is a typical south Indian dish called appam. they could be sweet or savory with veggies and onions in it. My family prefers the savory ones with no veggies and we serve these with green chutney dip. 

I use homemade dosa/idli batter to make these little finger food.

Idli, Dosa Batter.

Pour around 1/2 tbsp. of batter in each mold or appam pan. Appam pan is available at an Indian store or at a cookware store as Danish pan. Danish Pan

Add a drop or two of oil on each appes. Cover and cook. using a spoon, flip the appes so that they brown on both sides.

Serve with Green Chutney Dip or Coconut Chutney! 

 

Green Chutney Dip

Try making them into electric mold or mini donut maker. I do not have one but will be trying out on a mini donut maker soon. :)

Electric Mini Home Donut Maker

Prick with some fun fruit picks and serve for Cocktail party or Poker party. It is a great finger food and can be made before your party begins :)

Easy Idli and Dosa batter

Idlis and Dosas are our all time favorite and my family can have them as breakfast, lunch, dinner, snack....basically anytime of the day :) These are popular South Indian dishes made with rice and lentils ground and fermented. 


While we (Shu and I) were in Utah, Idli and Dosa batter was not available and for almost 2 years we had the frozen idlis and dosas. We would either microwave or steam them again. But, that was not fun :( We tried preparing the batter at home scratch by soaking par boiled rice and urad dal (lentil).  Grinding urad dal in my food processor was a easy task. But, grinding rice to form a smooth paste was almost impossible!

One day, on a Sunday morning, Shu woke up determined to make this batter at home. We quickly ran and got some rice flour to try with!
We soaked urad dal in water overnight and instead of using rice we used store bought rice flour (just plain rice flour)  So with 1 cup of urad dal we soaked 3 cups of rice flour in separate bowls. Soaking urad dal is easy. But how do you soak a flour? :) We added enough water into rice flour and whisked it well till we got a paste like  consistency. We let both, ural dal and rice flour soak overnight.


Next day, we ground urad dal in a food processor (it works in a blender too). We mixed ground urad dal with soaked rice flour. Mixing is very important here. (Use your palm or a whisk to mix two pastes together.) We covered the bowl and let it ferment for 10-12 hours.

Eureka! We found an easy way to make homemade batter. We use the same one for idli and dosas.
Also idli batter does not even require soda bi carb or Eno to rise.

This batter can be used for preparing Idlis, Dosas,(add a little water for dosa batter)  Uttapam, Appe/Appam.

Idli Recipe with Pictures

Dosa Recipe with Pictures

Appe!

Masala Mini idlis!

Dosa batter and Dosa prepared by Shu while I was gone to India!

My sister and me at a typical Dosa stall in Mumbai!

With my Bhabhi and Nephew at a Dosa stall in Mumbai! Ragu Dosa :)

Shu and I at Murrugan idli place in Chennai.

Green Chutney Dip

Green chutney dip is very easy and it makes the simple green cilantro chutney a special and delicious dip.

To make green cilantro chutney:
Cilantro 1 bunch
green chillies
ginger
cumin seeds
peanut or roasted gram/દાડિયા ડાળ
salt
lemon juice

Blend all the ingredients in a blender to form a smooth chutney or dipping sauce.

 Transfer the chutney to a serving bowl.

Mix 3 tablespoons of plain yogurt/ curd/dahi/દહીં  to the chutney.

For the tempering:

In a tempering bowl or small kadai heat 1 tsp. oil. Add 1 tsp. urad dal, 1 tsp. mustard seeds. When they start crackling add 3-4 curry leaves. Fry for 10 seconds. Add this tempering into the chutney and mix well.

 The yogurt make the chutney tasting mild. Add more green chillies to the chutney if you like it to be spicy.

Serve with dhokla, samosa, or chips too.

I normally serve this with Appe. Pan fried rice and lentil dumplings. This is one of our family favorite.  

Hope you enjoy it too!!