Spiced Potato Broccoli Croquettes
In Indian food culture, there is a big tradition of evening snacks to go along with tea. There are so many different versions of these snacks, varying from states and usage of ingredients, but one thing is common in all, they all super delicious.
In our home, we prepare a lot of Indian food including snacks, and our kids enjoy almost all of them. As other kids do, they are also sometimes quite fussy about certain food. As a parent, you can very well relate that it is not that easy to convince your kids to eat veggies. When I offered them vegetables, especially green ones like broccoli, kids were like no, we don’t want any…it tastes horrible. So, I started looking for ways to include green veggies in their diet. One of my first attempts were to make simple patties using potatoes and ‘dreaded’ green broccoli. To my surprise, they just loved it. What a relief!!!
I have made them many times and each time tried to improve it. The recipe for this post is based on the idea to incorporate veggies for kids, but with much more flavor and punch. These mouthful delicious goodies have crispy, spicy addition to traditional croquettes. Also, adding fried onions and coating it with panko crumbs provides additional crunchy crunch.
Loved the crunch!!
Here is my recipe
Ingredients
400g potatoes steamed and peeled
150g broccoli, steamed
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 red chili, deseeded and finely chopped
2 tsp ginger, freshly grated
1.5 tsp cumin, freshly grounded
1 tbsp of coriander, freshly grounded
½ tsp of fennel, freshly grounded
1 tsp, garam masala
1 dl fried onions
5-6 tbsp bread crumbs
4 tbsp, peanuts
2-3 tbsp fresh coriander, finely chopped
Salt, according to taste
Red chili powder, according to taste
1-2 tsp amchur powder
Oil for frying
For coating
Flour
Milk
Panko crumbs
Method
Place a small pan on medium heat. Roast the peanuts on low-medium heat until lightly brown. Remove from the heat and place it in a bowl. Once cooled rough them coarsely in mortar and pestle and keep aside.
In a large mixing bowl, mash the potatoes well to get smooth texture.
Place the steamed broccoli between paper towels to remove extra water. Place it in a hand blender and roughly grind it. Mix the crushed broccoli with the potatoes.
To this add chili, onion, ginger, bread crumbs and all the spices. Using you hands mix everything together. If needed, add in the bread crumbs. Finally mix in the roasted peanuts and fried onions.
Divide the dough into 20 portions and shape them into balls.
Prepare the ingredients to coat in three separate bowls.
To fry the croquettes, heat enough oil in a wide, heavy-bottomed vessel. The oil should be hot but not too hot.
While the oil is heating up, prepare the croquettes to fry by coating it first with flour, then dipping it in milk and finally coating it with panko crumbs. For better coating repeat the flour-milk step twice.
Keeping the heat at medium to high slowly drop 3-4 croquettes into the oil. Turn them around few times to cook them on both sides. They should be golden brown in color. Remove from the oil and drain them on paper towels.
Serve them hot with ketchup or spicy mint-coriander chutney or yogurt dip.
Enjoy!!
Preparation time 15 minutes
Cooking time 15 minutes
Makes 20