Bhel puri (or bhel poori, bhelpuri) is no doubt the most common chaat on the streets of Mumbai alongside the popular pav bhaji. In fact, I first had my taste of Bhel Puri in Chennai Marina Beach where a vendor mixed it up and put them in newspaper cones for curious 8-year-old me. While it was probably not as authentic as the Bhel Puri you find in Mumbai, I was hooked!
Ingredients1 cup of puffed rice
1/4 cup of finely chopped, deseeded ripe tomatos
1/2 cup of finely chopped onions
1/4 cup of boiled, roughly mashed potatoes
1 tsp of grated ginger
1 cup of crushed chaat papdi (papad)
1.5 cups of nylon sev
3-4 tbsp of green chutney
2-3 tbsp of red chutney
1/2 tsp of black salt (or to taste)
1/2 tsp of garam masala or chaat masala
1/4 cup of roasted peanuts (salted or unsalted)
1/4 cup of chopped coriander leaves
1 tbsp of lemon juice (more or less to taste)
Method- Prepare the chutneys first. You can do this a few days before and store them in the refrigerator too.
- For green chutney, grind together mint leaves, coriander leaves, cumin seeds, chaat masala, lemon juice, and rest of ingredients to a smooth paste with water.
- Prepare sweet date tamarind chutney.
- Once you have the chutneys ready and have boiled the potatoes, putting together the bhel puri is a breeze.
To assemble the bhel puri:
- Reserve half a cup of sev and add all other ingredients to a wide bowl.
- Give it a good mix and taste test to see if the sour vs sweet vs spicy is good and suits your taste. Adjust the ingredients (add more sweet chutney, salt, etc) to make it perfect.
- You can serve in paper cones or simple bowls with generous amounts of sev and coriander leaves for garnish.