Oats-crusted Veggie Tikkis | Oats-wala Hara Bhara Kabab

It was a productive Sunday at home. I got a lot of things ready for the upcoming week. Made two types of wheat dough... for making Methi Paratha and Beetroot and Potato Paratha, cut some veggies and made a dosa batter. All stacked in the fridge and ready for the busy work days ahead.

While I was at it, I put on some potatoes to pressure cook as the sudden craving to munch on tikkis struck! I had not really planned on what type of tikki I was making, but yeah tikki it was for dinner :) 

I had a lovely bunch of spinach and one too many carrots. So, I decided they should go into the tikkis too. I pressure cooked the carrots too and blanched and pureed the spinach. That was when I recollected an interesting post that my sister-in-law had posted here of a super yummy looking Hara Bhara Kabab recipe.

Following a bit of the recipe and a bit of my instincts, I created the dough which because of the tad bit of extra water I had added to make the spinach puree turned out to be a little too sticky! Now, the genius of genius ideas (at least in my kitchen!) comes in crisis situations... like this one! So, to make the batter a bit more pliable and less sticky, I tossed in some oats! Yes, oats!! Now, that really served the purpose and my dough was as good as ever.

But the experiment didn't stop there :) I further played around with the oats and used it to crust my tikkis and oh-good-gracious-me it added such a magical touch to the tikkis, if I may say so myself, the tikkis were real good and I was thrilled to bits! 

The crunch they rendered to the tikkis took it to an all new level and the inside was just perfect and soft. We teamed the tikkis with some burger buns and made simple burgers with mayo and ketchup seasoning along with some tomato soup. That was our Sunday dinner :)

Try this simple recipe and you would love how such a humble ingredient such as oats can elevate a dish so beautifully. And you will absolutely feel good about munching on a tasty snack, while enjoying the health goodness of oats. 

Makes: 12 tikkis

Prep Time: 30 mins

Cooking Time: 30 mins

Ingredients:

Potato - 4 large
Carrot - 2 medium
Spinach - 1 cup
Mint leaves - ¼ cup
Green Chillies - 2
Red Chilli Powder - ½ tsp
Ginge-Garlic paste – ¼ tsp
Cornflour - 2-3 tbsp
Oats - ½ cup + little more (to coat the crust)
Salt - to taste
Water – 2 cups
Oil - 2-3 tbsp

Method

• Peel the carrots. Pressure cook potatoes and carrot separately.
• Allow to cook for about 5-6 whistled. Cool and peel potatoes.
• In a mixing bowl, mash the potatoes and carrots.
• Meanwhile, blanch spinach in a pan of water.
• Allow to cool and then blend along with mint, green chillies, salt, ginger-garlic paste and a little water.
• Add the puree into the potato-carrot mash.
• Toss in the oats as well (keep aside 1 tbsp to using as coating later) and a tsp of cornflour.
• Make a dough ball and keep in fridge for about an hour to firm up (you can use it immediately, if you do not have the time.)
• Take some cornflour in a plate and the remaining oats in another plate.
• Make small lemon-sized balls of the tikka dough and gently flatten in between your palms. Place these on a mildly greased plate. Store in the fridge for half an hour to firm up (again, you can use it immediately, if you do not have the time.)
• When ready to fry, take a pan and pour on some oil.
• Dip each flattened tikki in cornflour to coat evenly on both sides and then dab it in the oats such that the oats stick on to both the sides of the tikki.
• Place the tikkis in the hot pan of oil and shallow fry. Turnover and fry the other side as well, until both sides are crispy brown.
• Place the fried tikkis on a tissue paper-lined plate and serve hot as is, with ketchup, as a burger filling or any other way that you fancy!