Baked dal kachori chaat is a healthy, crunchy and delicious snack for your family. Traditional kachoris are super delicious, yet dripping with ridiculous amounts of oil. This recipe uses very little oil. By baking the kachoris, you get the same flavor profile, without adding to your waistline.
This is a guest post by *Rashmi Kulkarni*. She is a very good friend of mine and an excellent cook. As you will see, she has made this chaat so kid-friendly and creative by cutting them into beautiful shapes. This chaat is not only a tasty delight, but also a piece of art.
These kachoris are rolled out using rotimatic pizza setting. If you do not have a rotimatic, just knead the dough manually and proceed to bake in the oven as per the recipe.
Baked Kachori Chaat Recipe
Healthy, Crunchy and delicious kachori chaat – a great treat for kids and adults alike
- 1.5 cups Whole Wheat Flour
- 0.5 cup Rice Flour
- 1 tsp Sesame seeds + ajwain seed powder (add to rotimatic flour container)
- Rotimatic Setting: Pizza
- T:R:O – 1:1:2 (see notes)
- 1 cup Yellow Moong Dal
- 1 tsp Garam Masala
- 2 tsp Amchur powder
- 1 tsp Coriander powder
- 1 tsp Fennel Powder
- 1 tsp Chaat Masala
- Salt (to taste)
- 1 tsp Sugar
- 2 tbsp Olive oil
- Fresh yogurt
- Tamarind chutney
- Coriander mint chutney
- Nylon sev
- Onion (finely chopped)
- Tomato (finely chopped)
- Coriander leaves (finely chopped)
- Chaat Masala
- Flavored peanuts
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Dry roast yellow moong dal till reddish and allow it to cool. Grind it to a coarse powder and mix all the spices mentioned (‘filling’ category) above along with 1 tbsp oil.
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Make pizza discs using rotimatic or manually. Place 1 1/2 tsp filling on each disc while the disc is still warm. Bring the edges together and pinch to seal. Flatten the kachoris and roll them slightly with a rolling pin.
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You can make any fancy shapes by cutting the shapes. Place the filling on one disc and close with another. Press sides to firmly close the disks. Coat/spray oil and bake at 220 C/ 425F for 8-10 minutes.
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For assembling the chaat, in a shot glass, layer layer layer… first with flavored peanuts (We used Jabsons BBQ peanuts/dabeli peanuts/hing jeera) followed by onions, tomatoes, yogurt, sprinkle chaat Masala on it. Top it with some green chutney and tamarind chutney, a thick layer of nylon sev and coriander leaves.
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Place the kachori slightly dipped in the chaat. Savour the cross section of the chaat with a spoon along with the crunchy kachori.
T:R:O – refers to the Thickness: Roast level: Oil setting in Rotimatic
Pictures
The moong dal filling:
Rolling out the dough with stuffing inside (regular shape):
Rolling out fancy shape for the kids:
Layering the parts to get the final dish:
Conclusion
You can expand this idea for different kinds of kachori fillings – with spicy potatoes, urad dal etc.
You can use standard chutney recipes from indian website like vegrecipesofindia.com. There is also some chutney ideas from the Healthy Dabeli recipe in this website.
*Time Saving Tip: The author makes chutneys in bulk and freezes them. This makes it easy to assemble chaat in short notice.*
I hope you give this baked kachori chaat recipe a try. A chaat is filled with so many textures and flavors (sweet, creamy, tangy, etc) already, that often you don’t need a fried item to complete the dish. If the flavor profile exists in the baked version, why not have the same fantastic taste with much lower oil consumption? Now that’s a true upgrade!!
Please post your comments and suggestions below. We look forward to them!!
About the author:
Rashmi is a researcher in genetics who loves to create something different. Fed up with constant demands for new dishes, she once asked her two girls whether their kitchen was a restaurant. The answer “yes” from both lead to a wide variety of creations in the kitchen. She now happily believes that “home is the new restaurant” and outings should focus on enriching experiences and not food-centric. She involves her kids in all the healthy cooking.
Post your comments here....I look forward to reading them!!