Jhal Muri
Jhal Muri is one of Kolkata’s most popular street food snack. The Bengali word, Jhal means “Spicy” & Muri means “Puffed Rice”. Jhalmuri is not just Spicy Puffed Rice but it is so some much more. A melange of flavors, different tastes and texture tossed together to make a mouth-watering delicious snack. In this post I share the easiest way to make Jhal Muri at home.
About Jhal Muri
Jhal Muri is a street food snack made by tossing crispy puffed rice with muri masala, pickled mustard oil, boiled potatoes, chopped tomatoes, onions, cucumber, green chilies and coriander leaves.
To add a crispy crunchy texture roasted peanuts, bhujiya & chana chur are added at the end.
Some versions also use sprouted black chickpeas (kala chana), boiled white peas and fresh chopped coconut.
The resulting dish is sweet, spicy and tangy with a punch of flavours that will leave you craving for more. It is served immediately after mixing as the muri begins to soften upon resting.
Jhal Muri aka spicy puffed rice exists in different forms all-over India and is called by regional names. Every variation is fine tuned to suit the regional taste buds. Bhel Puri, Churumuri and Girmit are various similar dishes made with puffed rice.
The key difference between the Jhal muri and the other versions is the use of pickled mustard oil which imparts a heavenly flavour.
Jhalmuri is eaten on their own as a snack. At home we usually serve with crispy Onion pakoda or Mirchi bajji.
How to make Jhal Muri
Please scroll down to find the quantity of ingredients mentioned in the recipe card.
Preparation
1. Wash and chop onions, tomatoes, cucumber and green chilies as well. If you have kids at home, skip green chilies.
2. Chop the boiled potato to small cubes. I cubed the potato first. Then boiled in a pan with some water. The potatoes must be cooked but firm. Do not make them mushy.
3. Also add in chili powder, salt, red chilli powder and muri masala. If you do not have muri masala, then add roasted cumin powder and chaat masala.
4. Next squeeze in lemon juice as needed.
Make Jhalmuri
5. Add mustard oil. I used mustard oil from pickle. Earlier I had eaten jhal muri made using oil from pickle and just loved it. So I used the same here.
6. Chop coriander leaves and transfer them here. Make sure the coriander leaves are not too moist. Otherwise jhal muri may turn soggy very quickly.
7. Give all these a good mix. Taste it and add spice powders if you prefer more.
8. Add roasted and skinned peanuts.
9. Pour crisp puffed rice as well. Make sure they are crisp otherwise muri will turn chewy. You can roast them for few minutes to crisp them before adding here.
10. Mix up well. You can add in more puffed rice if it turns moist.
11. Finally add in chananchur or sev.