Crunchy Poha Chivda Without Deep Frying

Easy Poha Chivda Recipe
I’m back with yet another healthy Diwali treat – Roasted, low oil poha chivda – a crunchy, gluten free snack that will nicely balance the sweet taste of all the other Diwali goodies. It’s light and non-oily and will stay crisp for long. And believe me, it’s so tasty, you won’t be able to stop snacking on it. What’s more, you could make it in just around 15 minutes. Let me show you how.
This is a classic Diwali treat, but made without any deep frying. And yet you’ll love the taste. Even of you’ve made poha chivda before, do try my recipe and my way of making the chivda, at least once, so you’ll know the difference.
Some other Diwali recipes you might like ti check out – Healthy, crunchy namak pare, instant chaklis, and pohe chaklis.
Ingredients
250g (4 ½ cups) thin poha
2 tsp dry roasted dhania (coriander) seeds
2 tsp dry roasted jeera (cumin) seeds
1 ½ tbsp granulated sugar
½ tsp black salt
¾ tsp salt (or to taste)
1 tsp chaat masala
1 ½ tsp amchoor powder
½ tsp turmeric powder
½ tsp red chilli powder
¼ tsp hing (asafoetida)
3 tbsp oil
3 tbsp sliced dry coconut (optional)
¾ cup raw peanuts
⅓ cup (5 tbsp) almonds, sliced
⅓ cup (5 tbsp) cashew nut halves
⅓ cup (5 tbsp) roasted chana dal
3 tbsp pumpkin seeds (optional)
¼ cup raisins
30-40 curry leaves
3 green chillies, chopped into ½” pieces
Procedure
- To a grinder jar add the dhania seeds, jeera seeds, granulated sugar, black salt, regular salt, chaat masala, amchur powder, turmeric powder, red chilli powder, and hing. Grind this to a fine powder. This will be the tasty homemade chivda spice mix or masala.
- Sift the thin poha to remove any dirt and fine powder or tiny pieces of the poha.
- Dry roast the poha on medium-low heat for the first 2 minutes and then on low heat for the next 4 to 5 minutes. Use two spoons to toss the poha, because when it starts becoming crisp, it could start crumbling and we don’t want that. As soon as you can crush the poha easily with your fingers, stop roasting it and remove it to a wide plate or parath so it can cool down fast. The poha will become even crisper as it cools.
- In the same wok, heat around 3 tbsp of oil. You might have seen chivda recipes where the different ingredients that go into the chivda are deep fried and that too separately. But to do that you need much more oil to work with. We are not going to deep fry anything. We’ll fry everything one after the other in just this small quantity of oil, which is why the heat will have to be on low to medium-low throughout
- We’ll start by frying the peanuts because, of all the ingredients, these need the most frying time. We’ll fry these until they’re just around 70% done because we’ll be adding in the other ingredients too and continue with the frying, and the peanuts will continue to fry along with the other ingredients. So don’t fry them for more than 2 and a ½ to 3 minutes.
- Once they start crackling and cracking open, immediately add in the cashew nut halves, sliced almonds, and the pumpkin seeds, something that’s optional. I’m adding them because I have them at home. Actually, this is a customizable recipe, and you can add your own preferred mix of nuts.
- The moment the peanuts are partly fried, we have to act fast because we don’t want them to burn. Quickly add in the roasted gram and the raisins. Fry everything for less than a minute.
- Then create some space in the centre and add the curry leaves and chopped green chillies. These will fry in around a minute. When the chillies start changing colour, quickly mix everything and turn off the heat.
- Then add in the spice mix and mix everything well. And then it will be time to add in the roasted poha. Turn on the heat again, and once again setting it to low. roast the chivda for just a couple of minutes and then transfer it to a parath to cool.
- Actually, there’s one more ingredient that you could add – thin slices of dried coconut, something I’m not very fond of, though most people seem to like them in their chivda. If you want to add dried coconut slices, then fry them in the hot oil on low heat right at the beginning before frying the peanuts. Once they change colour and get fried in around a couple of minutes, remove them to an absorbent paper towel, and then move on to the peanuts. Add in the fried coconut slices before adding in the spice mix.
- Once the chivda cools to room temperature, you can store it in an airtight container. When stored well, the chivda will stay crisp for a month or more.
Enjoy!