Jhal Muri / Spicy Puffed Rice Snack Recipe

Jhal Muri, a lip-smacking snack is popular street food from the Indian state of West Bengal. Basically, it is a spicy puffed rice salad made with basic ingredients from your kitchen pantry like peanuts, boiled potatoes, tomatoes, onions, spices, and herbs. It takes just 10 minutes to make this vegan and gluten-free snack. Jhal muri can be enjoyed as a light evening snack and taste best when served immediately after making it as the puffed rice turns soggy if kept for a long time.

What goes into my Jhal Muri?

Bengali Jhal Muri is a very delicious and super addictive street food. Jhal means spicy and Muri is puffed rice in Bengali. So basically, Jhal Muri is a spicy puffed rice snack. A quick and simple recipe in which crispy puffed rice is tossed with spiced veggies, roasted peanuts, raw mustard oil, lemon juice and chanachur to make an irresistible Jhal Muri. Chanachur is a Bengali style farsan or mixture. Any crunchy fried snack like sev can be used instead of chanachur. Muri masala is the spice powder used to make Jhal Muri. It is a blend of coriander powder, cumin powder, amchur powder, black pepper and rock salt. I have used chaat masala instead. Traditionally raw mustard oil is used, i have used mustard oil from pickle instead which makes the snack all the more flavorful. The veggies used are boiled and cubed potatoes, chopped onion, tomatoes, cucumber, coriander leaves and green chili. Lemon juice, salt and spice powders like red chili powder and chaat masala season the Jhal muri. 

Is Jhal Muri and Bhel Puri the same?

Both Bhel Puri and Jhal Muri are puffed rice-based snacks and popular street foods of India. While Bhel Puri comes from Mumbai in Maharashtra, Jhal Muri originates in Bengal. We can call Jhal Muri as the Bengali version of Bhel Puri but taste-wise it is different. A distinctive feature of Jhal Muri is the use of raw mustard oil which gives it a pungent flavor and taste. Jhal muri also do not use the tangy-sweet tamarind chutney and the spicy green chutney which is the specialty of Bhel Puri. Roasted peanuts are used in Jhal Muri while a typical bhel puri does not have it.

West Bengal and the Bengali Cuisine:

West Bengal is a state in eastern India, between the Himalayas and the Bay of Bengal. Kolkata is its capital city. Bengali Cuisine is rich and distinct and known for its blend of sweet and spicy flavors. Rice is the staple food which is served with vegetables, lentils, and fish. Food is served in courses rather than all at once. Bengali Cuisine can be subdivided into four different types of dishes, Charbya or the food that is chewed, such as rice or fish; Chosya or the food that is sucked, such as ambal and tak; Lehya or the foods that are meant to be licked, like chutney and Peya, which includes drinks, mainly milk. Daily meals are usually simple and nutritious and make extensive use of vegetables. Bengali curries have a distinct flavor coming from the tempering of Panch Phoran which is a blend of 5 spices - cumin, nigella, mustard, fenugreek, and fennel seeds. 

                                       

Related Event:

It is month-end, and the time for my regional Indian post for our Facebook group, Shhhhh cooking secretly challenge, started by Priya of Priya's versatile recipes and taken further to date by Mayuri di who blogs at Mayuris Jikoni. In this group, each month we select an Indian state depending upon the alphabetical order and partners are assigned for the challenge. The chosen partners then exchange a set of ingredients among themselves and cook a dish with it from the regional cuisine of that month. The other group members who are not aware of the secret ingredients, then take turns to guess the ingredients just by looking at the pic of the dish. Doesn't this all sound interesting?

Swaty who blogs at Food Trails is my partner for this month's challenge. She gave me mustard oil and peanuts as my two secret ingredients and i made this lip smacking Jhal Muri using the two ingredients. In return, i gave her turmeric powder and mustard oil and she prepared delicious Beguni using her set of ingredients. Meanwhile, do check out her space for healthy and delicious recipes from both Indian and International Cuisine.

I owe so much to this group. If it was not for the sake of the challenges of this group, i would not have dared to research so much and come up with regional recipes of each state of India every month. Sadly, this is the last month of our regional Indian Cuisine cooking challenge but we are all set to come up with yet another interesting themes from next month. Stay tuned for the new recipes and challenges of this group. Following are the regional recipes from Indian states that i contributed to this group's challenge.

                                       


Preparation Time: 5 minutes
Cooking Time: 3-5 minutes
Serves: 2-3

Ingredients: Measurements used 1cup = 240 ml

• 2 cups puffed rice /murmura/muri
• 1/4 cup peanuts, roasted and de-skinned
• 1/4 cup cucumber, finely chopped
• 1/4 cup potato, boiled, peeled and cubed
• 1/4 cup tomato, finely chopped
• 1/4 cup onion, finely chopped
• 1/4 cup fresh coriander leaves, finely chopped
• 1/4 cup sev/ chanachur/farsan
• 2 green chilies, chopped
• Lemon juice as per taste
• 1 tablespoon mustard oil ( i have used oil from pickle)
• 1 teaspoon red chili powder
• 1 teaspoon chaat masala
• Salt to taste

Method:

1. To make Jhal muri our puffed rice has to be crisp, for that we will dry roast it on low to medium flame for 3-5 minutes while stirring intermittently. Once it is crisp, you should be able to break the puffed rice with your finger with a crunch sound. Do not skip this step as the jahl muri will become chewy instead of crispy. Allow the puffed rice to cool down in a plate while you chop the veggies.

2. In a large mixing bowl, take boiled, peeled and cubed potato, finely chopped onion, cucumber, tomato and green chilies.

3. Add chopped coriander leaves and season the veggies with red chili powder, chaat masala, salt and lemon juice.

4. Next, add the raw mustard oil or the oil from the pickle. Give everything a good toss.

5. To this, add the roasted, skinned peanuts and puffed rice. Toss everything very well.

6. Lastly, add the sev or chanachur and serve the Jhal Muri immediately. Enjoy the blast of flavors !

Recipe Notes:

• Chanachur is a Bengali style farsan or mixture used in Jhal Muri. Any crunchy fried snack like sev can be used instead of chanachur.
• Muri masala is the spice powder used to make Jhal Muri. It is a blend of coriander powder, cumin powder, amchur powder, black pepper and rock salt. I have used chaat masala instead. 
• Traditionally raw mustard oil is used, i have used mustard oil from pickle instead which makes the snack all the more flavorful.
• Make sure your puffed rice are crisp or else the Jhal Muri will be chewy. You may dry roast the puffed rice on low to medium heat in a pan for 3-5 minutes to make it crisp.
• Adjust the quantity of red chili powder and green chilies as per your spice tolerance.
• Serve the Jhal Muri immediately once it is ready as the moisture from the veggies will make it soggy if kept for a long time.

I hope a few of you would love to try out this recipe. If you do so, feel free to share your feedback with us in the form of likes and comments in the comment section below this post. All your suggestions are also more than welcome. If you like my work and feel it is worth following, do hit the follow button at the top right corner of this blog. Your appreciation means a lot to me. For more recipes and new updates follow us on social media.

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If you are looking for more Bengali Recipes, do check out the following from my blog

• Misthi Doi

                             

• Bengali Sandesh

                      

• Sponge Rasgulla

                      

• Vegetable Chop

                     

• Kasundi

                    

• Bengali Vegetarian Platter / Durga Puja Thali

                    

• Begun Bhaja

                    

• Aloo Posto