Chatpata Makhana

Hello everyone,

Evening snack is often the tricky part for most people whether staying at home or going to office. For those staying at home, they have access to fresh and healthy snacks, which are relatively easy, except for the time crunch, thereby requiring planning and preparation. After fresh fruits, seeds and nuts, our go-to snack option was kara- pori (a combo of puffed rice, roasted chana and peanuts) for a long time which seemed perfect as it was filling and healthy. Only prerequisite was that we had to make it at regular intervals where we spent 15- 20 minutes and it would last us for 3-4 days.



Days and months passed, we wanted to have something unique and wondered what can be had with limited preparation time. One fine evening while scrolling through videos on YouTube, we landed on chatpata makhanas (you can check the original recipe by clicking on the link) and we were instantly sold on this idea of transforming plain and humble makhanas to something extraordinary. Our quest for making it filling and protein- rich lead us to take inspiration from kara pori and add roasted chana and peanuts to makhanas. As we love melon seeds, we chose to include it to the recipe. And BOOM! We came up with our twist on the original recipe and totally loved it. It has become such a lifesaver on days we can spare only ten minutes for snack, so it is devoted to relishing the snack instead of scratching head and getting hangry over lack of healthy snacks.

 


Ingredients:

Nut- seed mix

Plain makhana/ fox nuts- 4 cups

Watermelon seeds- 1/2 cup

Roasted chana (bhuna chana)- 1/2 cup

Raw unsalted peanuts- 1/2 cup

 

Miscellaneous:

Jaggery- 2 tbsp

Ghee- 1 tbsp

 

For spice mix:

Cumin seed powder (jeera)- 1 tsp

Red chilli powder- 1 tsp

Dry mango powder (aamchur)- 1 tsp

Black salt (kala namak)- 1/2 tsp

Chaat masala- 1/2 tsp

Black pepper powder- 1/2 tsp 

 

Method:

  1. Heat a heavy bottom pan, add peanuts and dry roast it until light brown spots appear on the skin. Transfer the peanuts to a plate and let them cool.
  2. Now, add melon seeds and dry roast till it puffs up and you hear a popping sound. Transfer it to a plate.
  3. Similarly, dry roast the fox nuts till golden spots appear. You can check if it is done by tasting one if it is crunchy or take one in hand and crush it, if it crushes easily, then it means it's done. Transfer to a plate.
  4. Now, add ghee and let it melt. Add the spice mix and give it a nice mix. Add the nut- seed mix immediately and mix it well until the spices coat them well.
  5. Now, add the grated jaggery in a sprinkled fashion and mix everything well. Allow it to melt and mix nicely with the spices and nut- seed mixture.
  6. Switch off the stove. Transfer the mix to a plate and let it cool. If the mix clusters, you can separate by hand. 

Store in airtight container. It is ready to munch on ðŸ˜‹


Do give this recipe a try and let us know how it turned out in the comments.


Thanks for stopping by.

Chandhini & Subhashini

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