During festivals we have a tendency to eat high calorie and many times, unhealthy food. As a result nowadays I have become calorie conscious.I have been relentlessly indulging in sweet dishes these days. I have sweet tooth, and festivals gave me a reason to eat sweets to my heart’s content. Now on diet, I was wondering what are the options of items that I could snack on whenever hungry? I also like to take light snacks with my evening cuppa. I decided to make namkeen with roasted chivda, that is also called poha in western India. Chivda is nothing but flattened rice. The snack came out really well. So now I will share this Chivda recipe.
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When I used to stay in Bhopal, we could buy roasted flattened rice from the market. In Delhi there was no such luck. I roasted chivda in microwave. Though the result was not perfect, but it was good enough. It can also be roasted in a heavy bottomed pan or a kadhai on low heat. Thick chivda/poha should be used for roasting. It can also be deep fried, if you do not care about calories. For frying, thin poha is more suitable. Chivda is easily available in India, and those outside India can easily buy it from Indian stores.
Ingredients for namkeen chivda recipe
Most of the other ingredients that I have used in this chivda recipe are also good for health, such as roasted peanuts, sesame seeds, roasted gram dal, asafoetida or heeng, and curry leaves. On the whole, we can easily snack on it whenever we have an urge to eat something, and not feel guilty later on.
I have made salty and slightly sour snack, because this is how it is liked in my family. If you want, you can also add some powdered sugar to give a sweet tinge to this snack. You can also add thinly sliced dry coconut,cashewnut, and raisin (kishmish). Some people fry onion and add that too. In that case, we cannot store this namkeen, and it has to be consumed fresh. So you see, it all depends upon what ingredients you like in your snack, and accordingly you can add or remove some of the ingredients.
Tasty snack is ready: using roasted chivda recipe
This snack can be stored in airtight container for a week or two; though in our house it gets consumed much before that. There are many more ways to eat chivda, most of them pretty healthy. In U.P. people eat chivda with milk. In Northeast, dahi (yogurt) chivda is very popular. In central and western India light breakfast of poha is very common, and it has become very popular throughout India now. It is prepared with onions, potatoes, and many other spices. I will share this recipe in another post.
In my earlier posts I have shared recipe of some other snack ideas such as cinnamon rolls, pinwheel sandwich (needs to be consumed fresh), and fruit chaat.
Chivda Recipe | How to make Chivda namkeen
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| Servings | Prep Time |
| 7-8 | 5 minutes |
| Cook Time |
| 10 minutes |
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If you can get roasted chivda/poha/flattened rice in the market, use that. In that case, skip step 1. I have not added sugar in the recipe. If you want to add slightly sweet flavor, add a teaspoon of powdered sugar to the mixture after turning off the heat.
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- 2 cups chivda/poha/rice flakes
- 3/4 cup peanuts
- 2-3 sprigs curry leaves
- 1 tablespoon roasted chana dal (yellow lentil)
- 1/4 teaspoon asafoetida
- 1/2 teaspoon turmeric/haldi powder
- 1 tablespoon sesame seeds
- 1/4 teaspoon citric acid
- 1 tablespoon oil any neutral oil
- salt to taste
- Take chivda in microwave safe bowl. Microwave for 1 minute on high. Take it out and stir the content. Microwave once again for one minute. Check if the chivda has become slightly fluffy and crisp. If so, it is done. Alternately you can roast it in a heavy bottomed pan. Keep the pan on medium heat, and keep stirring the chivda. Switch off the gas when done.
- Take a heavy bottomed pan and add peanuts to it. Roast peanuts on low flame for about three to five minutes, or till they slightly change their color.
- After removing peanuts from the pan, add sesame seeds to the same pan, and roast them on low heat, till they start to splutter, and are slightly puffed.
- Take out the sesame seeds from the pan, and add 1 tablespoon of oil in the pan. When the oil is slightly hot, add asafoetida, and then quickly add curry leaves and green chillies one after the other. After that add turmeric powder and stir.
- Now add peanuts, and stir for a minute. After that add sesame seeds and chivda. Stir the mixture for two minutes. Then add citric acid and salt to taste. If you like sweet and salty taste, you can add one teaspoon powdered sugar as well. Stir the mixture properly, and switch off the gas.
- Allow the mixture to cool down completely. Serve with tea or coffee.
Tips:
- You can add coconut slices (gari) to the mixture as well (slightly roasted).
- If you want, you can also add roasted cashew nuts and raisins (kishmish).
- Store the mixture in an airtight container. It remains good for few weeks.
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