It’s a well-known fact that midnight hunger pangs lead to the highest calorie additions and send your keto diets and arduous strides made in losing calories through exercise and yoga for a toss. And much as you try to ignore the tummy growling that sets in as soon as the clock hand hits 12 at night, your will power is usually the lowest at this hour.
Well, worry not! All hope is not lost. For the humble murmure chiwda can come to your gallant rescue. It is not only healthy to snack on but absolutely and devouringly yummy as well. It gives a whole new meaning to dieting and, yes, you can gorge on it to your heart’s content while keeping a watch on the calorie counter!
So, that brings us to the next but most obvious question – how to make this quick-fix gastronomical delight that allows you to escape the clutches of other delights that threaten to ruin your exercise regime. This snack ranges from the simple recipe with salt, turmeric and curry leaves to the more complex variety of what I like to call the chaat-type-of-chiwda, which has roasted daal, peanuts, and if you are really in for some work, tomatoes, boiled potatoes and lemon juice!
We seem to be gradually moving away from being a humble and modest chiwda and morphing into the more craving-satisfying murmure chaat. Further, add to this, some saunth (imli) chutney and green chutney and-voila-you have got yourself some murmure bhel.
Can something really as modest as rice puffs claim to be the ultimate snack food that satisfies your midnight hunger pangs without giving you nightmares of burning it out in the gym the next day? Well, here are all three recipes; go on, judge for yourself. Give us a chance to say, we told you so!
Recipes for murmure chiwda, chaat, and bhel
Ingredients for murmure chiwda
Rice puffs
Salt
Turmeric
Curry leaves
Oil for cooking
Chat Masala or red chilli powder
Method for chiwda: Just roast the curry leaves in oil till it starts spluttering, then add salt, turmeric and some red chilly powder if you want a little spicy flavour (I prefer not to use it). Add rice puffs to it, mix well and eat or serve.
Method for chaat: To the above, if you add roasted peanuts and chana daal and some cut tomatoes, boiled potatoes and lemon juice, you would get murmure chaat.
Method for bhel: If you have imli chutney (better known as saunth) and green coriander or pudina chutney, add to the chaat mixture, and mix thoroughly and there you are – your murmure bhel is ready to eat or serve.
Variations: You can add your own little touch to it and make variations of the above by adding coriander and a few spices like jeera masala and chaat masala or, if you prefer as I do, keep it on the bland side. If you want, you can store the first two dry varieties in a container for a longer period, although if you add the chutneys to it, you cannot store it as the rice puffs would go soggy soaked in the chutneys.
