Ghughni inspired lehsuni cholia an easy & delicious recipe. One that can be eaten on it’s own, with a roti and raita as a meal, with evening cup of chai as snack and well since I am writing this post with a glass of beer as well.
Ghughni inspired lehsuni cholia was born as a result of me standing in front of the gas with a set of ingredients, ready to make lunch with no clue what I am going to do with it. I often have days like this (yes inspite of being anal about having a weekly menu in place). Days when I am either in a very experimentative mode or days when I have no inspiration and I am just getting through putting food on table because it simply has to be done. What, don’t stare at me like that, I do love cooking but that doesn’t mean I am in a mood to cook ALL the time. That I am ready to whip a huge, delicious meal full of delicacies. Trust me there are days when I don’t want to see the kitchen, when the idea of cooking to feed hungry stomachs is not so exciting.
Anyways, as usual I digress so this Ghughni inspired lehsuni cholia was born on one such listless day. The cook had made some food but one look at it and I didn’t want to eat it. One look in the fridge to forage for something more interesting to eat, didn’t lead me anywhere either. The mind was too restless and I decided to do cook up a meal. I had no idea what I was going to cook when I started, foraged through the fridge to find some turnip and fresh green gram. And as if in an auto pilot mode, I made the shalgam ka bharta from the turnip. While I was making the bharta, I put green gram aka cholia and a couple of potatoes for boiling on the other side. Still unsure what I wanted to do with that. And then suddenly I recalled the flavour of Ghugni I had eaten long ago at a friend’s house. It was made with fresh and tender peas and she told me it is from the UP region. I didn’t even have a recipe at hand, just a rough idea of what she told me. There was garlic, cumin, coriander and green chillies she said and rest all is the magic of the fresh peas. Surely that could be replicated with cholia. It was a risk I took and the risk worked. Everyone loved the super simple dish and I had two friends come over in the evening who literally fought on who will eat the little bit left over of that.
So while I don’t know what really to call this recipe but I can assure it is a fantastic recipe. One that can be eaten on it’s own, with a roti and raita as a meal, with evening cup of chai as snack and well since I am writing this post with a glass of beer as well.
Ghughni inspired lehsuni cholia
Ingredients
- 1 tsp ghee (or use mustard oil)
- 2 cups fresh green gram
- 1 large potato (optional)
- 1 tsp cumin seeds
To Grind together in masala
- 6 pods of garlic
- 1/2 cup fresh coriander leaves
- 4 green chillies (reduce if you don't want it very spicy)
Instructions
- Wash and boil fresh green gram and potato till just done
- Grind together all the ingredients mentioned in the masala heading namely - garlic, coriander leaves and green chillies
- In a heavy bottom pan, heat oil and add cumin seeds. Saute till they turn brown
- Add the ground masala, sautee for 1-2 minutes and add the boiled green gram and potato
- Fry for 4-5 minutes and serve hot with rotis
Add this to the bucket list and the beer too when we meet in Bangalore. We also have ghoogni which is little sweet with sliced coconut chunk and its a must for Shobho Bijoya
Add this to the wish list and the beer too when we meet in Bangalore . We have something called Ghoogni in bengalis which is little sweet and a compulsory dish during shubho bijoya. Its vegetarian but can be cooked with keema also.
For this you will have to come in winters but the beer is done anyways. Make a trip now. I have indeed hear about bengali Ghoogni but I don’t think I have ever tasted it