Wheat chips

Baked wheat chips is one interesting low calorie spicy snack using leftover chapati. Whole wheat chapathi is a staple food in any Indian / Asian household. Sometimes we may wonder what to do with some left over chapatis. Here is my recipe to turn them into a delicious crispy snack.  I made this whole wheat chips by baking the masala coated chapati bits and we enjoyed it as a healthy snack. I am sure, this recipe is a keeper and I am doing it again and again, and feel incredibly happy for finding out a less-oily spicy snacks for those spice lovers like us:) Here is my innovative recipe for you all!

Baked chapati chips, a healthy snack.

Simple recipe.... anyways it will turn successful!

Masala chapati turned into chips.

Ingredients:
whole wheat chapati - 4
olive oil / any oil - 1 tbsp
salt - to taste
red chilly powder - 1 tsp
turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
garam masala powder - 1/8 tsp
a zip lock cover or wide mixing bowl


Method:
Stack the chapatis. Cut the chapatis into  8 wedges.
Mix everything other than chapati in a zip lock cover or bowl.
add the chapathi bits and mix well.
Coat a baking sheet slightly with oil.
Arrange the masala chips in single layer.
Bake at 350 deg F for 10 minutes (without getting brown), toss using a spoon (no need for single layer now). Bake again for 5 minutes.
Take out, let cool (now the chips will get more stiff in room temperature).
Store in airtight container.
Wheat chips is ready!

Serving suggestions:
Serve as snack with tomato sauce.
Tastes similar to tortilla chips.

Tips:
Likewise I prepared chapati using wheat flour +salt+ cilantro + green chilly slices and baked like the above. Tastes good.
These bits can be fried instead of baking too.

Groundnut chickpea sundal

Chickpea - channa, konda kadalai ; groundnut - peanut, nilakadalai, verkadalai.

Having sundal (salad with lentils) for snack is a great way to stay fit. I always try to keep a batch of sundal in my fridge for that tea time cravings:) Though the easiest way is to buy a canned lentil, I prefer the home cooked ones better. Dried nuts are lesser expensive, healthy and delicious. Pressure cooker makes perfectly cooked chickpeas very easily. We can do stove top cooking too, but it will take nearly 2 hours. Sometimes I cook the chickpeas in a big batch and freeze in small portion / containers, so that I can add some protein in any dish I want.

A healthy snack for tea time.

Ingredients:
dry White or red chick peas - 1 cup (1 coffee mug)
dry groundnut (peanut) - 1/2 cup
coconut oil - 1 tsp
shredded coconut - 2 tbsp
dry red chillies - 3
curry leaf - 2 sprig
mustard seed - 1 tsp
asafoetida (hing) - a pinch
salt - to taste
water (to cook) - to immerse and 1 cup standing over.

 Method: 
Wash the groundnut, chickpeas thoroughly and Soak them for 12 hours or over night. They will double in size after soaking. Fast Soaking can be done in hot water for 5 - 6 hours along with some baking soda (but I won't suggest that). Remove the soaked water which is frothy (must). Wash again and add some more water. They should be totally covered with water and add some water to stand 1 inch above. Pressure cook the peas to one whistle, then reduce the flame and cook in low flame for 15 minutes. Release pressure and take out. Add salt, drain the water. Heat oil in a wok. Splutter the mustard seeds. Reduce flame and add the red chillies, curry leaves, hing and wait till the chillies turn dark red. Add the cooked letils and stir fry till it looses all the water. Check the salt. Add  grated coconut. Switch off immediately.

Serving suggestion:
Serve as snack with tea / coffee.
Sometimes I make some chundal with variety rice like puli saatham, lemon rice or puli kulambu rice as side dish.
Channa is a very healthy protein rich snack with nearly 100 calories per cup after cooking.

Note: 
It would be better to make channa sundal and peanut sundal separately and mix them for the peanut lovers, as some can't take peanuts.
Red channa has more fiber than the white one.
Red chickpeas takes only 6 hours to soak (more the better) and it is easy to sprout too.

Green gram salad / chaat

Here is another spicy snack for all of us who crave for a spicy snack in the evening and still want to reduce a few inches:)

Other names: Green gram salad / pachai payaru sundal / moong chaat.

Ingredients:

dry green gram - 1 cup
oil - 1 tsp
hing - a pinch
curry leaf - few
mustard - 1 tsp
cucumber - 1
onion - 1
carrot - 1
tomato - 1
lemon - 1/8 of a fruit
coconut slices - few
salt - to taste.

To grind:

coconut - 2 tbsp
cumin - 1/2 tsp
green chilly - 3

Method:

Soak the green gram for 5 hours and cook till tender (Add water just to immerse the green gram. Bring 1 whistle in a pressure cooker, reduce flame and cook in low flame for 5 minutes). (or) Sprout the soaked green gram overnight and cook in stove top for 10 minutes, till done.
Drain the water, take out the cooked green gram and add required salt.keep aside.
Grind the items given to a coarse mixture. Mix with the cooked green gram.
Heat oil in a small skillet. Let the mustard crackle, add the curry leaf, asafoetida (hing). Squeeze the lemon and pour the tempering over the green gram. Carefully mix.

Before serving finely chop the onion, cucumber, tomato, grated carrot, coconut and add to the green gram. Top with finely chopped cilantro.

Green gram salad is ready!

Serving suggestion:

Serve as snack.
Makes 6 servings.

Mixed dhal Dhokla

I learned this recipe from my neighbor, shukla Aunty. Mostly she prepares everything from scratch and would be more than happy to share her detailed recipes. I would immediately memorize and write down, while we swap our best dishes on weekends. On the other day she taught me to make dhokla from scratch. As I wanted to try on my own, she suggested using my 6 inch cake pan to steam this dhokla (as I wanted to try it first before buying a proper dhokla maker). Believe me this is a very easy one, just like idly. The dhoklas came out very soft and fluffy, but little bigger than the usual:) we can arrive at the correct thickness if using lesser batter or  a dhokla plate.

Ingredients:

Rice - 3/4 cup
Channa dhal - 1 cup
(Bengal gram)
urad dhal - 1/4 cup
(black gram lentil)
moong dhal - 1/4 cup
(green gram lentil)
salt - to taste
Indian plain yogurt - 1 cup
ginger - 1 inch
green chilly - 2

Garnish:

lemon - 1/2
sugar - 1 tbsp
Sesame oil - 2 tbsp
sesame seed - 1 tbsp
mustard - 1/2 tsp
cilantro (chopped)- 2 tbsp
green chilly - 3
asafoetida - a pinch
ENO fruit salt or baking soda - 1/2 tsp

Method:

Soak the dhals and rice together for 4 hours.
Grind together, add salt and curd / yogurt.
Let it ferment in room temperature for 8 hours or overnight.
Grind ginger + green chilly and mix with batter.
Keep refrigerated till we need.

Steaming the dokhla:

Take out 1 1/2 cups of batter in a separate vessel.
10 minutes before steaming the dokla, add the ENO or baking soda.
(I added ENO's fruit salt. Actually the authentic version won't call for ENO or baking soda. Just the plain fermented batter is enough).
Coat the dokhla pan or a small cake pan with a tsp of oil
Finely chop the chillies and mix few with the batter.
Pour into the pan.
Steam cook for 20 - 30 minutes or till a chop stick comes clean.
(see the photo for steaming technique. we can do it inside pressure cooker without placing the pressure valve also).

Garnish:

Take out the dhokla and place on a serving plate.

In a wok heat oil and let mustard splutter. Then switch off and immediately add sesame seeds,hing (asafoetida), finely chopped cilantro,curry leaf, chillies. Saute for a minute. Mix lemon juice, sugar, salt and add to garnish. Now pour it over the prepared dhokla. Slice and serve.

Alternatively, we can slice the dhokla and add to the fried seasoning.

Serving suggestion:

Serve as snack with tea.
Makes a good breakfast also.
Cilantro chutney is a good side dish.
The next day, I sauteed the left over dhokla like idly uppuma and that too tasted yummy with  a dash of idly podi:)

Note:
 In this recipe instead of the mixed dhals, we can just use channa dhal alone to get the traditional dhokla.
Very good dish for people looking for protein rich , less oily spicy snacks.