Hara Bhara Tikki / Spinach Aloo Cutlet

     

     This Hara Bhara Tikki / Cutlet was so promisingly tasty to look, in Venkatesh Bhat's show, that as I was watching the program, I knew for sure I would make it one day !! It was so delicious that I could not stop myself from eating more than 1 tikki :P ( Yes.. I munched on 4 at a stretch !!! ) In any form, in general I like the flavour of coriander leaves a lot. This tikki offers flavours more than that. A blend of spinach, peas, coriander leaves and spices..

Felt like having this tikki as a side dish for jeera pulav for lunch. As usual, I could n't make jeera pulav, as I had to take rest after trying out this new dish :D

Now, lets go to the recipe...........

Prep Time: 20 mins || Cook Time: 10 mins || Yields: 10 cutlets || Category: Starter/Snack

Ingredients:

1. Spinach - 1 bunch

2. Potato - 1 

3. Green peas - 50 gms (handful) 

4. Sugar - 2 tsp

5. Ginger - small piece

6. Green chilly - 1 small

7. Coriander leaves - as desired

8. Salt - as required

9. Asafoetida - 2 tsp

10. Amchur Powder (Dry Mango powder) - 3 tsp

11. Chat masala - 2 tsp

12. Besan flour (Gram flour) - 2 tbsp

13. Oil - 3 tbsp

Method:

1. Boil potato with a pinch of turmeric powder added in water; peel its skin and keep aside. Boil green peas in water for about 10 mins or until it is cooked (I used frozen green peas). In a pan add 200 ml of water and bring it to boil. To this add sugar and then add the cleaned and washed spinach leaves and give a stir. Blanch the spinach in the boiling water for about 2 mins.

 2. After 2-3 mins, spinach would have become cooked & reduced in volume. Switch off the flame and filter the spinach from water. Run through cold water to reduce the heat & retain its colour. To the blanched spinach, add boiled peas, ginger, coriander leaves, green chilly and grind to a smooth paste without adding water.

 3. To the spinach paste, add well mashed potato, chat masala, hing, amchur powder (for mild tanginess), salt and mix well. Slightly wet the hands and make balls of desired size, flatten them and place them on a tawa/pan drizzled with oil.

 4. Flip and cook both the sides until slightly brown, adding oil as required. Yummy green cutlets are ready !!! 

Suggestions:

• Adding sugar helps to retain the green colour of spinach. Adding sugar is optional.
• After running the spinach through cold water, it is better to squeeze them to get rid of water. Else the the ground paste will tend to be a little watery. ( I forgot to squeeze the water from spinach. So I had to keep the paste in fridge for a while to make it a tighter mass).
• The tikkis can also be deep fried, if you are not much conscious about the calories.
• If you do not have amchur powder, it can be skipped.

Serve hot with tomato ketchup or any tangy chutney.