10 Delicious Vegetarian Snacks | 6 Vegan Finger Foods

A compilation of top ten delicious vegetarian snacks or six vegan finger foods.

Hey guys, how you doing?? So it's Friday and I'm all set to welcome in the weekend. How about you?

While the month on the calendar still says Summer, the weather does not feel like summer. It's been raining almost the entire month of May. And when it rains, I crave for delicious finger food with a hot cuppa tea. I love curling up with my hot snacks near the window and watch the rain. Do you love rain?

Here, in this post today, I have compiled a list of 10 of my favorite go to snacks when it rains. I hope you enjoy them.

1) Curried Brown Rice and Zucchini Fritters [Vegan]

Who said healthy has to be boring? We've taken healthy brown rice and zucchini and created a perfect snack. These fritters are flavored with spices and shallow fried in a pan. These fritters are also an awesome way to use leftover rice.

chawal tikki garam masala vegan pan fried snacks appetizer

2) Maggi Pakoda [Vegan]

Everyone knows that when it rains, it is the perfect time to eat Maggi. Maggi is an instant noodles from Nestle. The instant noodles are cooked and then dipped in a chickpea flour batter and deep fried until crunchy. Use your favorite instant noodles to make these fritters / pakoda.

maggi instant noodles fritters fried pakoda chickpeas besan

3. Instant Paneer Tikka

Chunks of Paneer or Cottage cheese marinated in instant marinade made of spices and chickpea flours and grilled. While Paneer Tikka is traditionally baked in a Tandoor oven, you can enjoy this delicacy at home with this instant version.

instant quick paneer tikka masala grilled capsicum pepper tomato spices

4. Cucumber Pakoda [Vegan]

Pakodas are the ultimate Indian snack when it rains. Generally made with a variety of vegetables like onions, potatoes, capsicum, we have made this deep fried snack a little healthier by using cucumbers. Sliced cucumbers are dipped in a spiced chickpea batter and deep fried to make crispy pakodas.

Cucumber pakoda fritter sautekayee bonda khira khire kakdi

5. Baked Wholewheat Chips [Vegan]

My Indian version of nachos. These whole wheat chips are made by baking chapatis or whole wheat flat breads into crispy chips. Serve it with freshly made guacamole.

6. Sabudana Vada [Vegan]

Sabudana Vadas are shallow fried vadas or poppers made with Sabudana/Sago, peanuts and mashed potatoes. While these can be deep fried, I have pan fried them to reduce the oil consumed.

How to make vegan sabudana vada sabakki vada recipe at www.oneteaspoonoflife.com

7. Chilli Basil Potato [Vegan]

Potato stir fried with fresh basil leaves and spicy red chilli flakes makes for a delicious snack. Unlike french fries, these are not deep fried but sauteed in oil until cooked.

chilli basil potato fry french fries chips thai aloo

8. Dahi Kebab

Dahi kebabs are yogurt kebabs. Thick yogurt is strained further, chickpea flour and spices are mixed in and then pan fried until golden brown. Crisp on the outside and cheesy on the inside, these will win you over for sure.

Dahi Kebab Yogurt Kebab kabab kebob hung curd punjabi besan chickpeas snacks

9. Broccoli and Zucchini Fritters

Broccoli, zucchini, carrots, peas are mixed with cheese and pan fried. Ultimate goodness!!!

10. Vegetable Cutlets

I can never have enough of these vegetable cutlets. Made from potatoes, beetroots, peas and a variety of other vegetables, coated in flour-milk wash, dipped in fine semolina and shallow fried until golden. Serve it with green mint-coriander chutney for added taste.

how to make vegetable cutlets recipe, aloo tikki recipe, vegan cutlet recipe, beetroot cutlet recipe at www.oneteaspoonoflife.com

If you tried these recipes, let me know! Leave a comment here or on Facebook, tag your tweet with @oneteaspoonlife on Twitter and don't forget to tag your photo #oneteaspoonoflife on Instagram. You can also email me at onetspoflife@gmail.com. I'd love to see what you are upto.

If you like these recipes, do not forget to share it with your friends and family!

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Dahi Bread Chaat Recipe

Toasted bread layered with crispy papdi and boiled chickpeas, topped with sweet yogurt, a mix of chutneys,spices and pomegranate seeds!!

Indian street food, chaat, made with bread, yogurt, chutneys and spices

Happy Tuesday! I hope all of you had an awesome fun filled weekend. I sure did. In fact, I had a fun filled week!

If you follow me on Instagram, you would know, I was out vacationing the last week in Karkala at my in-law's place. I met a lot of relatives, ate a lot of good food and visited a lot of places. And my favorite among them was this beautiful little Jain temple at Varanga. Set amidst a lake and surrounded by greenery, it was mesmerizing. The temple is 850 years old!!! Check out the pics on Instagram.

There was also a TV serial shooting going on there, so we had some of our own fun directing it among ourselves, we created so many story lines in a short span on 10 minutes. Don't you just love making up your own movies? I definitely do.

Now back to my recipe - Dahi Bread Chaat. I asked a few of my readers who I know personally what they would like me to publish, and a few of them wanted quick snacks, so here it is. This Dahi Bread Chaat is my take on Dahi Bhalla, only it is super instant. No soaking, no grinding, no frying. Healthy and ready in a jiffy. Could you ask for more?

Dahi Bread Chaat is made by layering a few goodies like papdis and boiled chickpeas along with plain toasted bread and soaking them in generous portions of dahi (yogurt), tamarind chutney and green chutney. A dash of spice and a sprinkle of fresh pomegranate seeds and you have a delicious healthy snack to squash that evening hunger. The recipes for baked papdi, yogurt, tamarind chutney and mint-coriander chutney are all available on the blog, however, you can also buy them in stores or online here- Date and Tamarind Chutney, Mint Chutney,

Dahi Bread Chaat is the perfect dish, if you are personally catering to a small group of friends or family or kitty parties. It requires minimal prep and can be assembled quickly, so you won't be spending all your time in the kitchen instead of mingling with your loved ones. This is also ideal as an after school snack for kids.

To make this dish vegan, use any vegan yogurt such as soy yogurt or cashew yogurt.

If you made this recipe, let me know! Leave a comment here or on Facebook, tag your tweet with @oneteaspoonlife on Twitter and don't forget to tag your photo #oneteaspoonoflife on Instagram. You can also email me at onetspoflife@gmail.com. I'd love to see what you are upto.

If you like this recipe, do not forget to share it with your friends and family!

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Dahi Bread Chaat Recipe

Dahi bread chaat - Indian street food with toasted bread layered with crispy papdi and boiled chickpeas, topped with sweet yogurt, a mix of chutneys,spices and pomegranate seeds.

Recipe Type: Snacks
Cuisine: Indian
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook time: 10 minutes
Total time: 25 minutes
Yield: Serves 2

Ingredients:

4 slices Brown Bread
1 cup cold Yogurt
0.5 cup boiled Chickpeas
12-15 Papdi
3 Tbsp Date Tamarind Chutney
3 Tbsp Mint Coriander Chutney
0.5 cup Pomegranate Seeds
1.5 tsp powdered Sugar
1 tsp Red Chilli Powder
1 tsp Cumin Powder
1 tsp Chaat Masala
2 Tbsp finely chopped Coriander leaves
Salt to taste

Method:

1. Whisk the yogurt and add the powdered sugar to it. Mix well and chill till you are ready to assemble the chaat.
2. Toast the bread and cut the bread into 9 small pieces.
3. Divide the papdi and layer in the plates that you will be serving the chaat in. The following instructions are to be repeated for each plate.
4. Place the bread over the papdi.
5. Add the chickpeas to the plate.
6. Now spoon the whisked yogurt over the plate.
7. Drizzle the sweet date and tamarind chutney and the spicy mint coriander chutney.
8. Sprinkle red chilli powder, cumin powder and chaat masala.
9. Sprinkle salt as required.
10. Add fresh pomegranate seeds.
11. Garnish with the chopped coriander leaves and serve.

If you liked this, you may also like:

How to make shakarakand or aloo chaat recipe at www.oneteaspoonoflife.com

Sweet Potato Chaat

Pani Puri

popular street food made from puri, peas and a spicy gravy

Masala Puri

Baked Papdi | Carom and Cumin Crackers

Guilt free baked popular Indian snack made from wholewheat flour and spices...

popular Indian snack - baked flat discs made of four and spices

Hiya folks!!

This is my first outstation post in a long time. As you must have read here, I am not in Bangalore, but at my in-laws place near Mangalore on the West Coast. I've been enjoying my time off but definitely not the heat. We can feel the full effect of summer out here. I'm just thankful for the bursts of rain at night which make it cool enough for me to sleep.

And of course, the ice creams!! If you have come to Mangalore and missed the ice creams here, you have missed out on a lot of deliciousness. From when I can remember, Mangalore had the best ice creams ever!! I never miss a chance to hog on those when I'm out here.

While the ice creams are tempting, this post is not even remotely related to ice creams, but I could really not get them out of my head. This post is about a much healthier snack - Papdis, that have been baked. Papdi are just flat discs made from wholewheat flour and flavored with some spices. Traditionally these are deep fried, but I baked them, just to keep them guilt free. And they tasted just as delicious, but now I can eat a lot more without worrying.

Papdis can either be eaten as a tea time or mid day snack or can be added to other dishes, most popularly - Chaats. Chaat is a collection of Indian street food and many of them use papdis as the building blocks for them. They are the crunch element of the dish. They are added to Masala Puri, Papdi Chaat, Sev Puri etc. You can either make plain papdi, where you don't add any spices but personally I like ajwain (carrom) and jeera (cumin) a lot, so I never skip them out.

Also, I suggest get on to making papdis fast and log onto the blog soon. I have a new recipe planned that uses these crunchy papdis in a simple yet fabulously delicious dish.

Until then, goodbye from the West Coast!

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Baked Papdi

Flat round discs made with flour and spices, a popular vegan Indian snack.

Recipe Type: Snacks
Cuisine: Indian
Prep Time: 60 minutes
Cook time: 20 minutes
Total time: 80 minutes
Yield: 75 papdi

Ingredients:

0.5 cup Wholewheat Flour (50 gms)
0.5 cup All Purpose Flour (50 gms)
0.5 tsp Carrom seeds
0.5 tsp Cumin seeds
3 tsp Oil
0.5 tsp Salt
0.75 cup Water
Oil for brushing
Wholewheat flour for dusting

Method:

1. Take wholewheat flour, all purpose flour, carrom seeds and cumin seeds in a large bowl.
2. Add the oil and salt. You may need less/more salt, so add it little by little.
3. Start by adding half the water and knead the dough. Add more water by the spoonful as required.
4. The dough should have a stiff consistency.
5. Cover and rest the dough for 20-30 minutes.
6. Divide the dough into 2 balls and roll one of them out until it is 1 millimeter thick.
7. Use a cookie cutter to cut the dough into papdis. You can also use a bottle /box cover to do the same.
8. Do the same with the second ball of dough.
9. Preheat the oven to 180 degree Celsius.
10. Grease a baking sheet and place the papdis on it in one layer. They should not overlap.
11. Using a fork, prick holes into the papdis.
12. Brush oil over them and bake until golden.
13. Mine took 14-15 minutes to bake. If the papdis are rolled out thin they will start burning, so I suggest checking on them after 12 minutes.
14. Allow the papdis to cool completely before storing in an air tight box.

If you liked this, you may also like:

Baked Chapati Chips

Baked Sweetpotato Chips

Sun dried Potato Chips

Mushroom Palak Recipe | Spinach Mushroom Curry

Delicious vegan spinach and mushroom curry that can be cooked up in no time at all. Healthy and tasty!

Mushrooms cooked in a vibrant spinach curry

How has the week been for you guys? Remember, when I told you how awesome last week was? Well, this week's been kinda okay in comparison. I've been alone at home this week with Raj on a long forced vacation. He had to take 2 weeks off work as per company policy and so he did. He is right now spending time with his parents and sis at their house and I'm all set to travel there today. So while he's away I've been watching endless reruns of "Small Wonder". You remember that show? The show is literally as old as me. But I'm loving the simplicity of the show and it is just plain cute. I miss TV of the 90's. Right now there is barely a series on TV that I can watch without wanting to flip channels.

Back to today's recipe. So when Raj is away or skipping a meal, I only have one thing on my mind - Mushrooms!! The man won't eat mushrooms and it is super boring when I have to cook different things for him and me. So I use the few chances I get to hoard up on Mushrooms. I love Mushrooms and I love Spinach, so what's not to love in a marriage of the two.

While I'm utterly disappointed with my photos for this recipe, I really could not seem to get a good delicious picture. I know I tried, I added props, removed props, changed backgrounds, but nothing seemed to work. But I did not want to keep myself from sharing this recipe, so forgive the photos. It tastes much better than it looks.

So this is actually a very simple vegan curry. It starts by making the spinach puree. There are no filters in the photos, the spinach gravy is really that green. And I'm going to share my secret of How to make the vibrant green gravy

Never ever cover spinach while it is cooking or while it is hot. That's it! Cook spinach in a open pan always.
First boil the water, add the spinach and let it bubble for 4-5 minutes, then remove the pan from heat and let it rest for another 3-4 minutes.
Drain out the spinach and dunk it immediately in cold water. The spinach has to cool down before you move on.
Once the spinach is at room temperature or cooler, puree it. You can add ginger, garlic or green chillies while pureeing the spinach.
Now you have the vibrant green gravy. You will be cooking the spinach again, along with the mushrooms in this case, keep in mind to never cover the spinach, else you will lose the vibrancy.
Also to store this curry, allow the spinach to cool to room temperature before closing the pan/box, so that the color is retained.

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Mushroom Palak | Spinach Mushroom Curry

Curry made by cooking button mushrooms in a vibrant green spinach gravy.

Recipe Type: Side
Cuisine: Indian
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cook time: 30 minutes
Total time: 60 minutes
Yield: Serves 2

Ingredients:

150 gms Button Mushrooms
300 gms Spinach (3 cups)
2 tsp Oil
0.5 tsp Cumin seeds
1 tsp finely chopped Garlic
1-2 finely chopped Green Chillies
Salt to taste
Water as required

Method:

1. Heat water in a large pot or pan.
2. Once the water comes to a rolling boil, add washed spinach to it.
3. Allow the water to bubble for 4-5 minutes without covering the pan.
4. Remove from heat and allow to rest for 3-4 minutes.
5. Drain the spinach and submerge it in cold water or wash it with cold water until the spinach comes to room temperature or cooler.
6. Grind the spinach into a puree along with the garlic and green chillies. Keep aside.
7. Clean and halve the mushrooms.
8. Heat oil in a pan and add the mushrooms.
9. Add a little salt and allow the mushrooms to sweat.
10. Once the mushrooms are cooked to your liking, add the spinach puree and simmer for 5 minutes.
11. Add salt to taste and mix well.
12. Serve hot with phulka or rotis.
13. To store the Mushroom Palak for later and not lose the vibrant color of the spinach, allow the curry to cool to room temperature and only then cover it and store in fridge

If you liked this, you may also like:

Chhole Palak

Palak Paneer

Mushroom Cafreal

Lauki Kofta Recipe [Video]

Dumpling made from Bottle Gourd and simmered in a creamy tomato and nut based vegan gravy.

Bottle gourd dumplings in a tomato based gravy

So I've had a good last week. My bestie flew in on Sunday and we had one of those "Shop-till-you-drop" evenings, where we managed to fill her empty bag with all sorts of stuff and our tummies with some guilty goodness. She even got me juicy ripe sweet Mankurad Mangoes, a variety only available in Goa and cherished by all back home. I'd forgotten how delicious they tasted. Thank you Nammu!

And then there was a very slow monday at work, which was just fine with me.

Tuesday was Labor Day, so we took full advantage of the holiday and went out to meet more friends.

That's how the week looked like, meeting friends and eating delicious mangoes that reminded me of my seaside state of Goa. And yes, the rains!!!

It's also been raining heavily at nights with strong winds. The kind of nights you want to sit near the window with a cup of hot tea and feel the occasional spray of water on your face. I've been enjoying those.

A good mood also makes me want to cook good food. So I've been whipping up some delicious indulgent treats. Did you check out my last post on Eggless Blueberry Muffins? They are a winner and definitely not to be missed!

While I was onto to cooking good food, I made this Lauki Kofta in a creamy spicy tomato based gravy too. One more into the indulgent basket. The only reason I feel a little less guilty about this one is because of the Bottle Gourd or Lauki - it is super healthy. Bottle Gourd is full of water and fiber and is perfect for summers. It is known to cool down your body plus help you reduce weight.

Although I know it is good for me, I am not particularly fond of bottle gourd. But this is one of the only ways I really enjoy it. It is also a sneaky way to make your kids / family eat this bundle of health.

Traditionally, koftas are dumplings made of meat, but this is a vegan version of the same. Also, koftas are usually deep fried. I tried to make it slightly healthier by shallow frying them in a Paddu Tava. You can bake them or shallow fry them in a regular pan too.

Shallow frying in a paddu tava

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Video Recipe

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Lauki Kofta

Bottle gourd dumplings in a tomato based gravy

Recipe Type: Main
Cuisine: Indian
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cook time: 45 minutes
Yield: 2-3 Servings

Ingredients:

For the Lauki Kofta

1 whole or 2.5 cups grated Lauki or Bottle gourd
3-4 Tbsp Besan / Gram flour
1 tsp Ginger Garlic Paste
1 tsp Red Chilli Powder
0.5 tsp Garam Masala
1 tsp Salt
Oil to fry the Kofta

For the Creamy Tomato Gravy

2 medium Onions
2 medium Tomatoes
0.25 cup Cashews
0.5 tsp Garam masala
1 tsp Red Chilli powder
1 tsp Cumin Seeds
2 Tbsp Oil
Salt to taste
Water as required
Coriander leaves for garnishing

Method:

To make the Lauki Kofta

1. Peel and grate the lauki. Squeeze out as much water as you can from the lauki and keep the water aside to use later.
2. Add the garam masala, red chilli powder, ginger-garlic paste, besan and salt.
3. Mix well. If the dough is too stiff, add a little of the water set aside. If the dough is too watery, add more besan.
4. Shape the dough into koftas.
5. At this point, you can choose how to cook the koftas, you can deep fry them until golden brown or shallow fry them. I fried in a paddu tava. You can use a regular pan to shallow fry, however you may need to flatten the koftas a little bit. You can also bake or deep fry the koftas.
6. Fry them until golden brown and crisp. Keep the kofta aside.

To make Creamy Tomato Gravy

7. Soak cashews in warm water and keep aside. You can use almonds instead.
8. Grind together the onion, tomato and ginger-garlic paste with a little water until smooth.
9. Heat oil in a pan and add the cumin seeds.
10. Once the cumin seeds brown, add the onion-tomato paste and cook on low flame until the water evaporates.
11. In the meanwhile, grind the cashew or almonds into a fine paste using a little water.
12. Once the gravy thickens, add the red chilli powder, garam masala and cashew paste. Mix well.
13. Add the squeezed lauki water as required. Add more water for a thinner consistency.
14. Add salt and mix well.
15. Simmer for 4-5 minutes on low heat.
16. Add the koftas and garnish with finely chopped coriander leaves.
17. Serve hot with rice or roti.

If you liked this, you may also like:

Babycorn Masala

Dal Fry

How to make gujarati undhiyo recipe at One Teaspoon Of Life. How to make vegan mix vegetable curry recipe at www.oneteaspoonoflife.com

Gujrati Undhiyu