The word "khana" in Indian Khana Made Easy means food. So come on, let's explore and cook some easy Indian food together including gluten-free and vegan dishes.

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April 30, 2012

Delightful Veggie Pops

This post is dedicated to my grandaunt who loves to feed everyone. Out of all the dishes my aunt makes, my mom's favorite is Sarvapindi (rice and moong dal flatbread). On our last trip to India, my mom and I visited my grandaunt and she made sure we left her home with a belly full of goodies. Along with my mom's favorite, she also made this yummy snack called Guntapongalalu*, which resembled cake pops but tasted like uttapams (Indian pancakes)


We filled up on the the savory bites, while my aunt filled us in on the family updates. We enjoyed ourselves quite a bit and even received some recipes for our blog. Woohoo! 

My aunt made these pops using this Prestige cast iron tray that can be placed right over the stove. Then you simply pour the batter into each of the pop molds, turn the stove on and let them get cooked. With the new airline weight restrictions, there was no way to bring the tray back with us. We almost lost our hope when we got the idea to try this recipe using the Cake Pop Maker. After weeks of searching store catalogs and online browsing, we found one in Target and tested the recipe. And the results were delicious!!

Ingredients:
- 1 cup of Whole Wheat flour
- 1 cup of Rice flour
- ½ cup of Semolina flour (Sooji)
- 1 tbsp Chili powder (or to taste)
- 1 tbsp Ginger Garlic paste
- ½ tsp Cooking soda (ENO Salt)
- 1 large Onion, finely chopped
- 1 can of Tomato paste
- ½ cup of Fresh Coriander (Cilantro), finely chopped

Tools/Appliances: Cake Pop & Donut Hole Maker

Bella Cake Pop & Donut Hole Maker
Procedure:
Sift the first four ingredients into a mixing bowl. Then add the remaining ingredients except the cooking soda and mix well. Add water a little at a time and mix well until it's cake batter consistency. Cover, set aside and allow the batter to soak for 1 to 2 hours. Grease the electric cake pop and donut hole maker with vegetable oil or No-Stick Baking Spray. After it's soaked for the allotted time, add the cooking soda to the batter and mix well. Fill each mold with 2 teaspoons full of batter and bake approximately for 6 to 8 minutes.  (Please Note: On our cake pop maker, we removed the pops once the light turned green.)

Serve hot with coriander/mint chutney or your favorite sauce!
 
*Directly translated, Gunta means hole (like donut holes) and pongalalu means something that rises or puffs up. So puffed up dough balls. Traditionally this snack is made with dosa (rice crepes) dough which is prepared at home or can be purchased at Indian stores. 

***Quick Tips:
 - If cake pop maker is not available, use a mini cupcake baking tray and bake for 10 to 15 minutes in a preheated oven, set at 350°F. Check in-between to make sure they evenly bake.
- Grated carrot, chopped spinach and/or other spices may be added as well.

7 comments:

  1. Jahnavi,
    I make these with dosa batter. I add chopped onions, spinach, coriander leaves, grated carrot to the batter and Sriya loves these. I got a non stick pan from India to make these. Glad to learn that i can use cake pop maker and make them instantly.
    Arpithakka

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yea. It's so easy and you can use different combo of flours to make this snack. Whatever is available in your area. Thanks for the feedback.

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  2. I read this post long back and wanted to try them yesterday.I put basin(sanaga pindi) instead of wheat flour and made sooji also 1 cup by mistake but to my surprise, they came out really very well.Jahnavi, u can also try mine next time and im sure u'll luv it:)thanx for sharing it.

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  3. Hello Jahanvi,
    I was really looking for something like your dish. thanks a lot.
    I tried with Sooji and besan, equal amount, but found 2 problems - first, I felt they were not properly cooked from inside and second they were not yellowish red in colour as yours.
    Please help me.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Akansha, thanks. Glad you liked it. I'm not sure what all you put into the recipe but here's why you might have had prob: one is that besan makes denser dough as compared to wheat flour and the amount of cooking soda might have been less. Feel free to email us all the ingredients you added and we will get back to you.

      Thanks again for checking out our blog.

      Delete
  4. Hi
    Can I use wheat rava instead of sooji?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You can use it as long as it is as fine as sooji. Sooji is also a wheat product.

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