BHEL PURI

Bhel puri is a lip-smacking anytime snack. I am giving you a healthy, home-made version of bhel puri – easy-to-make if you have the main ingredients at home. The main ingredients are puffed rice (murmura) and sev (omappodi) with a sprinkle of other items (always available at home) to make it spicy and tangy. Yummilicious …..

More than a decade ago, our sons took us on a 10 day road trip on the west coast of the US. They were still in School (that’s what they call ‘University’ in the US!) and so we had to economize as much as we could. Also they enjoyed snacks and fast food. So I had taken huge packets of murmura and home-made ‘sev’ and ketchup bottles. A cutting board, a good knife, a large vessel. And ahem … washed onions and tomatoes and a box full of cleaned and chopped coriander leaves! (Since the car was air-conditioned, these survived the day. At night they’d snooze in the fridge in the motel we’d check in). And disposable bowls, spoons and napkins. We economized on our time too – as we were driving, I’d chop onions and tomatoes and mix up the ingredients to make bhel puri for each of us. We would enjoy the large bowls of bhel puri as our lunch while driving. Wasn’t that cool?

Here’s the quick recipe for that –

 

       

For each bowlful of bhel puri -

Ingredients 

Murmura – ½ bowl

Sev – ¼ bowl

Tomato ketchup – 1 ½ -2 tbsp

Finely chopped onions – 1 tbsp

Finely chopped tomatoes – 1 tbsp

Finely chopped coriander leaves – ¾ tbsp

Method

Mix all the above ingredients and serve immediately.

Tips

1. If your guests are all there, you can mix 3 bowls of murmura with 1 ½ bowls of sev and add 3-4 tbsps each of chopped onions, tomatoes and coriander leaves and 9-11 tbsps of tomato ketchup and mix well. Serve your guests (5-6) immediately.
2. If you want to make it special, you can add diced boiled potatoes, ‘matri’ pieces, peanuts, and ‘totapuri’ mango pieces (if it is mango season) too.
3. Instead of tomato ketchup, tamarind chutney and spicy green chutney can be added if you want to make authentic bhel puri. Just remember, the tamarind chutney should be thick, not watery as in 'pani puri'.

© Copyright 2011. Brinda Balasubramonian.