Bringing some more of my Bengali food favourites to you 🙂
Jhal Muri translates to Spicy puffed rice. Delicious spicy puffed rice! This is a street food classic from Bengal and is a lovely snack to munch on at any time of day or night. Believe me!
The street vendors sell these from their carts, where they mix it right in front of you. The speed at which they chop the vegetables, the flair with which they throw in the masalas and then then swirl of lemon juice and mustard oil make for a fun viewing experience too 🙂 Tossed together well, served in a cone made of newspapers. Your jhal muri is ready!
This snack is super easy to make. Literally takes 5 minutes (once you have chopped and prepped everything :)).
The crunchy puffed rice, the sharp onions, the soft but firm potatoes, juicy tomatoes, zesty lemon, fragrant coriander, fresh cucumber, savoury sev and aromatic spices all come together to make this intoxicating dish. You will not realise how much you have eaten. But you will not regret it 🙂
I have grown up eating jhal muri from street vendors and at my grandmom’s house. I had never made it at home, till recently. A friend, G, asked me to cook a bengali meal. While I knew what the main course would be (mutton, duh!), I was trying to think of a light snack to start off the afternoon. I was looking through the kitchen and saw the puffed rice – which I had bought a few weeks ago just to make jhal muri/bhel puri at home. Clearly this was there at the back of my mind and I had just forgotten about it till this meal planning was being done.
Since I had all the stuff at home, I knew this would be easy and would also be a super way to introduce him and the husband to bengali street food. What a success it was! It always gives me such joy to see people trying new food and relishing it, especially when it has so many memories associated with it. It is like sharing a part of my childhood with them 🙂
Try this out and let a little bit of Bengali street food culture enter your homes and hearts 🙂
Jhal Muri
Ingredients
50g puffed rice (muri)
1 large potato – boiled, peeled and diced
1 tomato – diced
1/2 onion – diced
1/4 cup sliced coconut (I am not a fan so I don’t add this)
1 small cucumber – diced
6 tbsp sev
2 tsp lemon juice
2 green chillies – diced
4 tbsp chopped coriander
2 tbsp mustard oil
1/2 tsp cumin (jeera) powder
1/2 tsp black salt
1 tsp chaat masala
1 tsp red chilli powder (can add more if you want it more spicy/jhal)
salt to taste
Directions
- Prep all the ingredients. When cutting the vegetables and cucumber, chop fine so that they mix in well and are easy to eat
- In a bowl, add the spices (except salt) to the muri. Mix well.
- Add the rest of the ingredients (except salt) and toss together.
- Adjust for salt and chilli powder.
- Serve immediately!
love it. its looks so spicy. Btw if you have any time then see my blog.
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