Bhel Puri (2 Ways)

Bhel puri – better than you’ve had before! It’s brimming with a perfect combination of flavors (salty, spicy, sour, tangy and slightly sweet) and textures (crispy, crunchy, soft) all together.

Talk about delicious and most popular Indian street food (chaat recipes), this bhel puri chaat comes in the top 10 list. It is often identified as a beach snack as you’ll find many vendors selling bhel at the beaches of Mumbai. 

❤️ What Is Bhel Puri?

Bhel puri recipe is made from puffed rice (murmura), sev, papdi, veggies (like onion, tomato, potatoes, raw mangoes, sometimes moong sprouts), spices and 3 chutneys (green chutney, meethi chutney and garlic chutney).

If you’ve all three chutneys ready then tossing the bhel together takes under 10 minutes.

Two types of bhel recipe

Both recipes are shared below.

1. Geeli bhel puri: This is the most popular one amongst the two. 3 chutneys used here are wet and runny in consistency. Hence the term ‘geeli’ is used. Geeli is the Hindi term for wet.
2. Sukha Bhel: a dry green chutney is used here. Sukha is the Hindi term for dry. This kind of sukha bhel is usually sold at the railway stations or bus stations and sometimes outside the college or commercial office buildings. 

Variations: This is a Mumbai style bhel recipe. But other regions of India have different versions with different names like jhalmuri (from Kolkata), churmuri (from Karnataka), etc.

How Is Bhel Puri Served?

• If you talk about the vendors at the beach, they serve bhel puri chaat in paper cones along with one or two papdi to use as a spoon. 
• Nowadays street vendors and snack shops serve it in a paper plate or bowl with a plastic spoon.  

🧾 Ingredients For Bhel Puri Recipe

• Puffed rice: Also known as murmura, kurmura, mamra. It is easily available in Indian grocery stores. Buy the regular puffed rice. The kolhapuri puffed rice is not good for bhel puri, you can use this one for vagharela mamra.
• Sev: I have a homemade sev recipe on the blog. You can make it ahead of time or just buy a packet from the store.
• Papdi: It is a flat, round puri. Make it at home or buy a packet from the store. It has to be crushed and used in the recipe.
• Peanuts: Dry roast the peanuts before adding. It adds a nice crunch.
• Onion, Tomato, Boiled potato: They add fresh flavor with a crunchy texture.
• Sprouted moong: It is optional. Street vendors mostly do not add sprouts. I have added it just to add a healthy element here.
• Raw mango: It adds a nice tangy taste.
• Pomegranate: It is optional. 
• Spices: Chaat masala and roasted cumin powder are added.  
• 3 Chutneys:
  • Green chutney: It is made from cilantro (sometimes mint is also added), green chilies, lemon juice, etc. It adds a refreshing flavor with a spicy taste.
  • Tamarind date chutney: Also known as meethi chutney. It adds a slightly sweet and sour taste.
  • Garlic chutney: It adds a garlicky flavor with a spicy taste.

👩‍🍳 Recipe 1 – Geeli Bhel Puri Recipe

1) Take murmura and sev in a large bowl.

2) Now take one papdi and break it into tiny bite-sized pieces using your fingers and thumb.

3) Repeat for all papdi and add. Mix everything together.

4) Add onion, tomato, boiled potato, raw mango, pomegranate, peanuts, moong sprouts and cilantro.

5) Sprinkle a little salt and chaat masala over it.

6) Also, sprinkle roasted cumin powder.

7) Drizzle green chutney.

8) Followed by tamarind date chutney

9) And red garlic chutney.

10) Toss everything together until mixed. Serve bhel puri right away before it gets soft and soggy.

💭 Expert Tips

• Make sure puffed rice, sev and papdi are fresh-tasting (and not stale). If puffed rice are not crispy then dry roast until crisp on medium-low heat. Alternately, you can use the oven to roast.
• The ready bhel mix (without chutney) is available in Indian grocery stores. You can use that in place of murmura, sev and papdi mixture. I prefer suruchi bhel mix. If the ready bhel mix is already spiced then skip the spice powders here.
• It is hard to make the chutneys in smaller portions (like 2 servings only). So you can store the leftover chutney in the fridge for a few days or in the freezer for a few months.
• Bhel puri must be served right away otherwise it will turn soft and soggy. It’ll sure taste good but you’ll miss the crunchy, crispy texture.

Did you try this bhel puri recipe? I’d love to hear about it! Click here to leave a review.

👩‍🍳 Recipe 2 – Sukha Bhel Recipe

1) Take cilantro, mint leaves, green chili and roasted chana dal in a grinder jar. Do not add any water, the water clung to the mint, and cilantro after washing is enough.

2) Grind into a moist, dry chutney.

3) In a large bowl take murmura and sev.

4) Break the papdi into pieces and add.

5) Add onion, tomato, boiled potato, peanuts, and raw mango.

6) Sprinkle red chili powder and salt.

7) Followed by black salt,

8) Chaat masala,

9) Roasted cumin powder.

10) Add dry chutney.

11) Squeeze fresh lemon juice.

12) Mix everything together until combined. Serve in a bowl with a garnish of freshly chopped cilantro.

Even though it is dry version of bhel puri, it should be served right away otherwise, it’ll get soggy from the moisture of the veggies.