I have spoken about the Bawa love for ‘Ramakras’. The literal translation ofcourse is toys but what we mean by this is the addition of some meat or a fried snack to go with a main meal.
Others may eat salads. We prefer some more protein with our protein, thank you very much.
What prompted this invention is the current low-carb diet I am on (I survived on Keto for a grand total of 5 days before I decided it wasn’t for me). I wanted to take healthy-ish ingredients and turn them into a snack. Ideally, I also wanted to eat something that was seasonal. Harbhara Chana, the fresh green chickpeas that are in season in Mumbai ‘winters’ ticked both these boxes and hence I decided to experiment with them. Normally, I wouldn’t choose to make something vegetarian when experimenting (blame the Parsi genes). However, these chana were left over after my Umbariyu that I made and I was all ‘muttoned-out’.
I paired the chana (chickpeas) with paneer as that is a great source of protein and ergo ticked my protein with protein obsession too. Since, I wanted a different flavour to our regular Parsi kebabs I decided to use the Parsi green chutney that we usually use in Patra ni Machchi. This chutney is super versatile and I could rattle off about ten different things I could do with it, like these Chutney Falafels I made when I didn’t know ANYthing about food photography!
Now, you will tell me how can something that’s deep fried be healthy? The answer to that is that it is healthy-ish and that’s good enough for me. Overall, this is a super simple dish to make which uses just three main ingredients and the Chutney Chana Croquettes look great if you have some guests coming over!
This post is part of my ongoing series on the blog, the A to Z of Parsi Food. In 2019, I am doing this by picking ingredients from the letters A to Z and trying to make unique Parsi tasting dishes with them. For more interesting recipes follow the hashtag #AtoZChallenge mentioned below.
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