Mindful Eating- Oats and Vegetable cutlet.

I experimented with the usual veg cutlet yesterday and added a little twist which turned out quite nice. I would like to share this vegetable cutlet recipe with all of you. Vegetable cutlet as we all know is basically a snack item made with mix boiled vegetables and of course a good dose of potatoes. Many add bread crumbs to it to get the crispy bite. It is normally a soft snack. I Tried a different version. It tastes differently that the usual veg cutlet but that's exactly the point -Recipes with a healthy twist which appeals to the palate.

Here I have limited the use of potato and not boiled the vegetables so that we get the nice crunch from the chopped veggies and the goodness and crispiness of OATS- Having Oats is the highlight here because I am into fiber based foods. Mixing with oats made these balls/cutlets turn out nice and dry and one doesn't need to coat them in corn flour/maida (All-Purpose flour)/rava (Semolina) or besan (Gram Flour) batter to fry. These cutlets won't stick to your pan or lose shape or scatter around. It's the OATS wonder.

Preparation Time- 20mins (The chopping of vegetables is done by my veg chopper so I save time there)

Cook time - 20 minutes

Total time taken - 40 minutes.

Recipe- Snacks.

Cuisine-Indian

Serves-4-6

THE WHAT?

Ingredients (measuring cup used, 1 cup = 250 ml)

1 cup powdered oats

½ cup finely chopped carrots 

½ cup broccoli finely chopped or two to three big florets

½ cup boiled and mashed potatoes or 2 medium size potatoes 

1/3 cup fresh corn or frozen sweet corn.

½ inch ginger crushed

½ tsp green chili finely minced

½ tsp cumin powder/jeera

½ tsp garam masala powder

½ tsp amchur (dry mango) powder

¼ cup chopped coriander leaves or parsley leaves (whichever flavor you prefer)

2 to 3 tbsp oil for shallow frying

THE HOW?

· Take a big bowl because a lot of mashing and rolling has to happen. :)

· Dry roast the oats a little till it turns light brown. I have here used rolled Oats -Classic style from Quakers and then grounded it in a blender to get the oats powder. Please be mindful that we don't add any water here.

·  Pour the oats powder. Add the boiled potatoes and finely chopped vegetables.

· Add the crushed ginger and green chili paste, cumin powder, garam masala powder, coriander leaves and salt as required.

· Mix everything very well. Check the taste and if desired by you add more salt or the spice powders. Shape them into balls or flat like patties. 

· Heat 2 to 3 tbsp oil for shallow frying in a pan. Take a veg ball and putt it to fry. You can put together three or four balls. You can give them any shape you desire. I preferred it round today but you can make it like tikis or use a cutlet mould to give an interesting shape.

· Try to keep rolling these cutlets so that all side turn a nice golden color and crispy.

· Drain veg cutlets on paper napkins.

· Serve vegetable cutlets with the sauce of your choice. Due to the paucity of time, I went ahead with tomato ketchup. 

Some tips for adding your own twist-

· You can add vegetable of your choice-beetroot, green peas, bell pepper but remember that keeping them finely chopped helps them roll better into a cutlet/ball.

· In case you find that the balls are too dry and not forming the shape, add half of another boiled potato or few drops of water.

· You can play around with spices as per your taste preferences. You can also use black pepper powder or white pepper or red chili powder.

· Prefer not to use the market sold ginger paste. It has a very strong flavor which smells much differently from the freshly ground ginger or garlic and has a smell which refuses to go. I absolutely say no to the market ginger garlic paste.

· You can also deep fry them instead of shallow frying. I would always prefer a shallow fry or even a baking (will try and see how it comes out:))

 
Author- Namrata