Ragda patties is a very very popular street snack in Mumbai and many other parts of Northern India. Its chunky, spicy, tangy, sweet all at once and in short mouthwateringly irresistible like all other ‘chats’!
It is easy to assume that Street Food = Junk Food = Unhealthy Food.
However when the premise of a street food like Ragda Patties is a balanced meal made of Potatoes (Carbs) and Dried peas (Protein and Fibre) and tomato-onion salad (fibre and vitamins) one can make it even healthier at home !
What makes this unhealthy outside is the deep frying of the patties in god-knows-what oil and the number of times the oil is brought to high temperature to fry different batches in a day or over several days. This procedure of reheating oil several times, produces trans-fats. Eating food containing transfats is one of the biggest cardiac risks.
At home, I prepared these golden patties on a non stick tava with just 2 teaspoons of olive oil, in total (Honest!!) and I added grated tofu to the potato mix to make it richer in protein content. Tofu haters of the world – this one is for you. You wouldn’t even know that there was tofu in it thanks to the fresh flavours of mint, raw mango, ginger, garlic and green chillies that went into it.
This is how a street food with a notorious ‘unhealthy’ tag attached to it can turn extremely healthy and even wear the crown of ‘ health food’.
Here’s the recipe for you. This makes a hearty dinner for two or three.
Recipe: Potato-Tofu Patties with Ragda – Healthy Ragda Patties
Recipe for Ragda Patties made Healthy
Ingredients
For Ragda
- 150 grams peas water roughly dried green or white - soak overnight in plenty of . 3/4 cups
- Salt .
- 1 tbsp Coriander powder .
- 1 tsp amchoor tamarind powder or puree . 1 tsps
For Potato-Tofu Patties.
- 3 potatoes Medium .
- 1/4 cup firm tofu finely grated .
- 1/4 cup breadcrumbs .
- to taste Salt .
- Pinch turmeric powder .
Masala for both Ragda and Patties.
- 3 green chillies .
- 1/2 cup mint leaves washed and picked .
- handful mango raw pieces .
- 1 inch ginger .
- 3 cloves garlic .
Toppings.
- 1 onion large finely chopped .
- 2 tomatoes medium , finely chopped .
- Green chutney .
- Tamarind chutney ( I use Kitchens of India brand).
- coriander . Fresh
- masala . chat
Instructions
- Pressure cook potatoes for 5 minutes. Cool, peel and keep aside.
- Drain the soaked peas. Wash well and pressure cook for 7 minutes with 3 cups of water. The skins will come off during this process and some of the peas may get mushy. Don't worry about this, use the entire lot for the recipe.
- In a large bowl, mash the potatoes along with other 'Patties' ingredients and half the ground masala. If the 'dough' is not firm enough to make patties, then add some more bread crumbs to adjust. Divide into 6-8 balls. Flatten on the palm to make patties of around half inch thickness.
- Heat a non-stick tava (skillet). Brush with olive oil and place all the patties (or in batches if your tava does not accomadate all) On a medium flame, crisp each side for around 5 minutes, till golden brown. Use some oil around the sides to help crisp up.
- For the ragda (gravy), place the pressure cooked peas in a saucepan with the remaining ground masala and coriander powder, amchoor powder, salt. Bring this to a simmer. Check for salt and adjust.
Notes
Hi Nandita, this looks scrumptious, making the patties at home can reduce the calorie intake by a great extent.
I too made cheese + potato ragda pattice last weekend.Your looks yummy and the ragda looks authentic.
Thank you for sharing this piece of Indian food culture. And even more thanks for healthifying street food! The patties look so healthy and delicious, and having the ragda all over it is very interesting and beautiful with its refreshing green red and white colors. I will have to make this sometime this year!
Very very healthy! We do something similar, though don’t add tofu ( which is awesome) We usually do it with choley. Not because we prefer it that way, but because 😛 it serves as next day lunc with roti or chawal!I love the addition of raw mango, something I wish I could get easily in the US 😐
This looks fantastic! Making street food healthy with tofu and frying in olive oil is an additional bonus. Raw mango in the recipe sounds very interesting. Can’t wait to try it out. The picture you took looks so colorful that I can almost eat with my eyes!
Mouthwatering recipe. The pics r so tempting. YUM! YUM!!!!!
Nandita,This was simply sublime, we made 30 patties and polished them off in no time!Was too lazy to get mangoes and hence played with choley & tamarind sauce for teh tangy taste.If I can make this, then any guy can!
Awesome! am going to make this pretty soon. Both my men (husband and son) are foodies and I love to feed them and am on a constant look out for recipes. Thanks again for sharing.
These look delicious!!
yummy!!
I don’t know how this must have tasted, but I know I love the feeling of mixing these ingredients together:) healthy indeed, and looks so good!:)