Vegetable Chop

Winter evening calls for indulging in some deep fried steaming hot snacks with tea or coffee.  Snacks like samosa, pakoda, bhajia are all time favorite. But during this time of the year when winter offers us so many colorful vegetables, a particular street snack that I miss a lot is Vegetable chop.  It’s a popular street snack in Odisha and Bengal and we lovingly call it Veg Chop. It is not commonly seen in Delhi NCR, so I thought why not I should give a try. I thought of trying a new recipe and obviously it means it will be shared with you all. When I took step by step photos of the method and was juggling between camera and cooking, I was not sure of the final result. But both (me and the man in the house) of us were super happy with the look and taste of the veg chop, crunchy & crispy outside and hot & spicy inside.    

Ingredients Required 

1- Cauliflower, Capsicum, French Beans (Finely chopped) -1/2 cup each

2- Carrot, Beet Root (Finely chopped / grated) - 1/2 cup each

3- Coconut  (Finely chopped) - 1/4 cup

4- Peas - 1/2 cup

5- Peanuts - 1/2 cup

6- Coriander Leaves (Finely chopped) -1/4 th cup 

7- Boiled and Smashed Potato-2 medium sized

8- Ginger, Garlic and Onion Paste- 2 tbsp

9- Green Chilies  (Finely chopped) - 1 or 2 (According to Taste)

10- Salt (According to Taste)

11- Turmeric Powder- 1/2 tsp

12- Red Chili Powder (According to Taste)

13- Curry Powder or Coriander and Cumin Powder - 1 tsp

14- Bread Crumbs- 2 cups 

15- All Purpose Flour - 1/2 cup
16- Black cumin seeds (kala jeera)- 1/2 tsp
17- Garam Masala Powder-1/2 tsp

18- Refined Sunflower Oil - For deep frying

Step-1, 2, 3

Heat a pan, add one tsp of oil and first fry the grated beet root, till it is cooked. Take it out. (I prefer frying the beet root separately and adding it at the last. By doing this we can identify the other vegetables, while eating. Or else the beet root color will dominate over all the other vegetables. If you want can cook all the vegetables together.)

In the same pan add around 2 tsp of oil, add chopped green chilies and black cumin seeds. Then add ginger-garlic-onion paste and fry it till oil separates from the masala.  

Step-4, 5, 6

Add turmeric powder, curry powder, salt, chili powder and fry for some time. Add the coconut and peanuts, followed by all the vegetables (cauliflower, beans, capsicum, carrot, peas). Now cover the pan with lid and cook the vegetables on low heat for around 10 minutes. 

Step-7, 8, 9

Once the vegetables are cooked add the smashed potatoes and curry powder. Cook for 2-3 minutes. Add the fried beet root. Then mix in the garam masala powder and chopped coriander leaves. Allow this mixture to come into room temperature, so that we can do the next step.

Step-10, 11, 12

Make small balls of this mixture. I made oval shaped balls, so that I can get the vegetable chop in traditional shape of it. Then make a thick batter using flour and water. There should be no lumps in this batter. 

Step-13, 14, 15

Heat oil in a deep frying pan. Now carefully dip the balls in the batter, roll it in bread crumbs and then fry it in oil till golden brown. 

Once done serve it with your favorite chutney or ketchup. At my place it is loved with fried green chilies, some roundels of onion, a slice of lemon and tomato ketchup.