Bhel puri

Built one ingredient at a time, with no dahi anywhere in it.

Vegan.

Ingredients

• 120 g puffed rice
• 60 g sev
• 20 papri, or 20 broken deflated puris
• 200 g potatoes, boiled and diced small
• 1 onion, chopped fine
• 2 tomatoes, chopped and drained
• 4 tablespoons tamarind chutney
• 4 tablespoons green coriander chutney
• 40 g roasted peanuts
• 2 teaspoons chaat masala
• 1 lime
• a handful of coriander leaves

Method

1. IT IS BUILT ONE INGREDIENT AT A TIME, AND IT USES NO DAHI. Both of those come straight from its article and both are unusual. On the first: THE DISH IS PREPARED BY ADDING ONE INGREDIENT AT A TIME TO PRESERVE EACH TEXTURE, and its vendors MIX INGREDIENTS ONE AT A TIME. On the second: LIKE OTHER CHAATS, IT USES DEEP FRIED INGREDIENTS; HOWEVER, IT DOES NOT USE DAHI. That is what separates it from dahi puri and dahi vada, which are otherwise built from the same cupboard.
2. AND IT HAS FAR MORE PARTS THAN A CHAAT USUALLY DOES. The article counts them: IT MAY HAVE AS MANY AS FIFTEEN BASIC COMPONENTS, UNLIKE TYPICAL CHAATS WITH ONLY TWO OR THREE. Twelve are below. It also quotes the food writer Vir Sanghvi saying THE TEXTURE RELIES ON PRECISE TIMING AND PROPORTION, and that this complexity IS NOT TYPICAL OF INDIAN CUISINE.
3. SO MAKE IT AT THE LAST POSSIBLE MOMENT AND IN THE RIGHT ORDER. Everything prepared and in separate bowls first. Assembled and eaten within a minute; left to stand five, it is a bowl of wet cereal. This is the only recipe here where the sequence is the whole instruction.
4. DRY THINGS FIRST: PUFFED RICE, PEANUTS, PAPRI BROKEN IN YOUR HAND. If the puffed rice is at all soft, warm it in a dry pan for two minutes and let it cool. Damp puffed rice cannot be rescued by anything that comes later.
5. THEN THE FIRM WET THINGS: POTATO, ONION. Drain the tomato in a sieve for ten minutes before it goes anywhere near the bowl.
6. THEN THE CHUTNEYS, TOSSED IN FAST. Tamarind and coriander chutneys together give the sweet, tart and spicy balance its article describes. Four tablespoons of each is enough to coat and not enough to soak.
7. THEN THE SEV, AND IT IS SCATTERED ON TOP, NOT STIRRED IN. Sev stirred through goes limp in seconds. On top it stays crisp as far as the table.
8. LIME, CHAAT MASALA, CORIANDER, AND EAT IT WITH THE PAPRI. Its article notes it is eaten BY HAND, USING THE PAPRI TO HOLD THE FOOD, served on leaf plates or newsprint, and that some people classify it as a salad.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under India · All recipes