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Being gluten-free a lot of the time, my wife’s fave chaat item when we travel in India is 100% bhel puri (our younger daughter's fave is still pani puri). Because of that, we have had it a zillion different ways all over the country, and outside of India too, and put this recipe together to be everything we think a great bhel puri should be! And this is it, the best one we have ever had in our lives!
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This popular grab-and-go snack is a staple from roadside food hawkers, but the first time I ever had it was on a long multiple-day train ride from Mysore to the holy city of Banares (aka Varanasi) when I was first in India as a 19-year-old. Because I was traveling on my own as part of a spiritual pilgrimage, I had been fasting for most of the trip. But the nice family seated near me was whipping up Bhel Puri right there on the train. The cucumbers and chilies glistened as they cut them up in the balmy hot train car. When they started passing around paper cones made from newspapers to share with everyone, I would have been nuts if I said no. It's a very sweet memory, and really encapsulates typical Indian culture.
Bhel puri is one of the classic chaat recipes in the Indian snack hall of fame, along with aloo papri chaat, shakarkandi chaat, and bhaji. And I am pretty sure when you make it from this recipe, you will fall head over heels in love forever. So let’s get this bad boy all mixed up!
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🥰Why you'll adore this recipe with green chutney
✊ Vegan AF, SF & GF: Just like all of my vegan Indian recipes, this popular Indian street food is completely plant-based. What’s that? It’s also one of my slammin’ gluten-free vegan recipes too? And no soy to be found anywhere in the darn thing? I guess just about anyone can eat this, then, right?
🌿 Chutney Chemistry: Using both tamarind and cilantro chutneys makes for a hyper-flavorful chaat, that can be made quickly. So like, make this snack if you are being chased by the police, okie dokie?
✅ Tested and Approved Worldwide: Like all of the vegan recipes I share, after tweaking and perfecting this vegan bhel puri, I shared it with a massive team of recipe testers from around the world who replicated it and love the heck out of it!
Curry in a Hurry - Vegan Indian Recipe Club! 🍲💌
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🌿Ingredients for bhel puri
Puffed Rice
Dry Bhel, Murmura and Mumurey are all names for the large white puffed rice used for chaats and snack mixes in India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan. It's low in calories but high in the satisfaction factor, making it a guilt-free base for the rich flavors of the chutneys and spices. If murmura isn't available, this snack can be made with unsweetened puffed rice cereal. Actually, there’s a really adorable scene in the movie The Namesake, where you can see someone doing just that.
Chickpeas
Chickpeas, or chana, are a fantastic source of protein and fiber, lending a satisfying bite and nutritional heft to the Bhel Puri. Not everyone includes them in their bhel puri recipes, but my wife and I are chickpea freaks, so we couldn’t NOT have ‘em in here. Got some leftover from making this recipe? Make my super-fast chana masala next!
Green Chilies
Indian green hari mirch chilies, bring a fresh, fiery zest that is crucial for authentic Indian street flavors. They can be adjusted according to heat preference, but no Bhel Puri is complete without their kick. Got some leftover? Hari Mirch pickle are a staple at my house, and they are stupid-silly-good in lauki, daliya khichdi, and turai ki sabji. Otherwise, if you don’t see them at your local Indian grocery store, you can use minced jalapeños (to taste) in their place.
Pomegranate Seeds
These jewel-like seeds are visually appealing and pack a sweet, tart punch that amps up the complexity of chaats, and also they perform miracles to dips like mutabal.
Tamarind Chutney
This bhel chutney recipe is essential for nailing the sweet and tangy taste that is signature to many Indian chaats. It marries well with the other ingredients, binding them with its sticky, rich flavor. My tamarind chutney recipe is easy, better than what comes pre-made from a store, and the stuff lasts a good long while.
Cilantro Chutney
This spicy green chutney infuses the Bhel Puri with a pungent, slightly citrusy herbal flavor. You can use store-bought if you wish, or make my Cilantro Mint Chutney and prepare for cosmic levels of yum! If you have some leftover after making this, you can use it up in aloo tikki chaat, which ALSO happens to be vegan and gluten-free.
Chaat Masala
Chaat masala, a spice blend that typically includes amchur (dry mango powder), cumin powder, coriander, dried ginger, salt, black pepper, and asafetida, adds a tangy, slightly spicy edge that activates all the flavors within the Bhel Puri. My personal favorite store-bought brand is the MDH Chunky Chaat Masala, which also goes great sprinkled on my masala phool makhana. If chat masala, a little bit of my homemade madras curry powder, or achar ka masala is also delicious in this recipe, although a little hotter, and more mustardy flavor.
Kala Namak
Pretty much no chaat is complete without a little Kala namak or black salt. You can get it at Indian grocery stores, or online. The stuff is amazing in homemade amla candy, and also less a special sulfury-funk to my vegan parmesan recipe. Of course, if you can’t find any, you can use boring ol’ regular salt in its place.
*See the recipe card at the bottom of the page for exact quantities, nutritional info, and detailed cooking directions.
🤯Variations
Indore Style Bhel Poori
Indore, a city known for its culinary variety, offers a unique twist on traditional Bhel Puri by incorporating puffed whole wheat flour crisps and a mix of sweet, tangy, and spicy sauces including ground nuts, garlic, and chutney. This version is heavier on the dry ingredients, making for a heartier, crunchier snack.
Kolkata Jhaal Muri
Kolkata's take on Bhel Puri, known as Jhaal Muri, emphasizes mustard oil and green chilies, giving it more of a Bengali flavor. This version typically skips the sweet chutneys in favor of spicier, tangier seasonings and includes boiled Bengal gram (the same thing you use to make chana dal) and sometimes sprouted mung beans.
Gujarati Sukha
Often referred to as Sukha Bhel, this popular street food in Gujarat is drier than the typical Bhel Puri and omits wet dressings like chutneys. Any good sukha bhel recipe focuses on a blend of spices mixed directly with the dry ingredients, including roasted chana dal, diced raw mango (the same kind of firm mango you would use to make avakayya pachadi, Vietnamese Banh Trang Tron, or Indonesian Asinan Buah), and sometimes grated coconut. It’s sometimes served with lemon wedges on the side, allowing each person to customize the sourness to their taste.
📖 How to make this Bhel Puri recipe
Nail this vegan chaat on your first shot by following these step-by-step photos with helpful tips. Or scroll down to the bottom of this page for the easy-to-print recipe card.
Step One
Sir Mix A Lot:
Toss together potatoes that have been boiled, cooled, and diced or torn by hand, chickpeas that have been rinsed and drained, and your minced red onions, green chilies, chopped cilantro, diced cucumber, pomegranate seeds, chopped peanuts, and tomatoes.
Step Two
Dress to Impress:
Drizzle the sweet chutney and coriander chutney over the mixed ingredients. Sprinkle the chat masala and kala namak over the top. Stir everything together, ensuring the spices and chutneys evenly coat all the ingredients.
Step Three
Add the Dry Stuff:
Just before serving, stir in the puffed rice, boondi, and sev. Mix just to incorporate, but remember that the longer the puffed rice sits in all the juicy ingredients, the sooner it becomes soggy, so work quickly!
✅ Both the sev and boondi are made from chickpea flour, so they are both gluten-free. Think of boondi as little pearls of fried chickpea flour batter, whereas the sev are like crispy gram flour vermicelli.
Step Four
Serve with Style:
Dish out the Bhel mix right away to keep the puffed rice crispy. Garnish each serving with an extra swirl of tamarind sauce, a dollop more of cilantro chutney, a handful of sev, a sprinkle of Kashmiri chili powder, some more roasted peanuts, and a few fresh cilantro leaves.
💡Serving Ideas
Bhel Puri, makes a perfect snack or a light meal, especially when made with chickpeas and other nourishing touches this recipe offers, but it truly comes into its own with a few well-chosen companions.
Some vegetable sabjis like saag aloo, aviyal, chana palak, or parwal sabji could be just the thing to make this meal a little less carb-heavy.
If you want something meaty-like that’s still 100% plant-based, my vegan tikka masala, soya chaap sabji, vegan butter chicken, or kathal sabji are def gonna blow your mind!
If you simply want to intensify the flavors, a couple of condiments you might wanna mess with are gajar ka achar, amla pickle, or turn up the heat to 11 with a spoonful of fermented shatta sauce added to the chaat.
👉Top tips for perfect bhel puri
- Keep Final Ingredients Separate Until Serving: Same as when you make phool makhani as a sabji, the secret to maintaining the crispy nature of Bhel Puri lies in the timing of assembly. It’s like if you put milk into cereal, but waited 24 hours to eat it. That’s against the Lawww and will 100% give you soggy snack syndrome. Mix the puffed rice, sev and boondi into the wet ingredients JUST before serving it!
- Roast Your Spices (if you want): Want a quick win for intensifying the flavors of this chaat? Just roast your chat masala and other dry spices in a dry skillet for about 45 seconds over medium heat. This unlocks the aromatic oils that lie dormant in the dried spices, giving your Bhel Puri an edge that raw spices can't match.
- Custom Chutney Proportions: All chutneys are made differently. My recipe relies on my homemade cilantro chutney and tamarind chutney, and I recommend making them! But if you can’t, keep in mind that store-bought varieties will probably taste different than mine, so you might want to start with a little less and adjust as you go until it tastes awesome to you.
🤷♀️ Recipe FAQs
Don’t even think about storing bhel puri! It is best enjoyed fresh and does not store well once assembled due to the mumurey (puffed rice) losing its crunch. If necessary, store the dry and wet ingredients separately in airtight containers in the refrigerator and assemble just before serving.
Common substitutions for Vegan Bhel Puri include using puffed wheat, or puffed quinoa instead of puffed rice for a different texture, jalapeños in place of green chilies for a milder heat, and diced green mango instead of cucumbers.
Vegan Bhel Puri is gluten-free as long as the puffed rice or substituted ingredients like sev are confirmed to be gluten-free. Always check labels to ensure there are no gluten-containing additives.
Adjust the heat level of Vegan Bhel Puri by varying the amount of green chilies, choosing milder substitutes like jalapeños, or just leaving them out entirely. You can add more or less of the chaat chutneys depending on your preference for spiciness, sweetness, and tanginess.
While typically served as a snack or side, Vegan Bhel Puri can be bulked up with additional protein like sautéed bits of my vegan chicken, or tofu chorizo to serve as a light main dish, especially when paired with other sides or salads.
✌️My faves to serve with this bhel puri recipe:
Learn to make your fave pure veg. Punjabi classics in a super-fun recorded cooking class with Chef Adam Sobel!
Vegan Bhel Puri
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 cup potato peeled, boiled, drained, and cooled
- 15 ounce canned chickpeas rinsed & drained
- ½ cup red onions minced
- 2 green chilies hari mirch, minced
- ¼ cup cilantro chopped
- ½ cup seedless cucumber diced
- ⅓ cup pomegranate seeds
- ¼ cup unsalted dry roasted peanuts chopped
- 1 cup tomatoes small diced
- 2 tablespoons tamarind chutney
- 3 tablespoons cilantro chutney
- 1 teaspoon chaat masala
- ½ teaspoon kala namak black salt
- 3 cups mumura large puffed rice
- ½ cup boondi
- ½ cup fine sev thin
To Garnish:
- Additional tamarind sauce to taste
- Additional cilantro chutney to taste
- fine sev
- Additional unsalted dry roasted peanuts
- Kashmiri red chili powder
- Cilantro leaves
Instructions
- In a large mixing bowl, combine the boiled and cooled diced potatoes, rinsed and drained chickpeas, minced red onions, green chilies, cilantro, diced cucumber, pomegranate seeds, chopped peanuts and small diced tomatoes. If you have raw peanuts, dry roast them in a pan over low heat for a few minutes before crushing them to use in the chaat.
- Add the tamarind chutney and cilantro chutney, chat masala and kala namak. Mix thoroughly to ensure all the ingredients are well coated with the seasonings and chutneys.
- Mix in the puffed rice, sev and boondi.
- Serve the bhel puri immediately to maintain the crunch of the crispy puffed rice. Garnish each serving with additional tamarind sauce, more cilantro chutney, a handful of sev, roasted peanuts, a tiny sprinkle of Kashmiri chili powder, and a few fresh coriander leaves (cilantro).
Notes
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