This Indian inspired salad has spicy chickpea rolls/muthiya, soft sweet pears, the salty goat cheese, and fresh greens.
We are in mid August, and there’s autumnal winds blowing every now and then. While the kids are getting ready to head back to school in a few weeks, I busily plan on squeezing in a few more days of fun with the boys.
The past few months have just flown by and and I’ve wondered every now and then, how did it fly by so quickly?
Time flies.
Do we always need to spend time wisely? Do we always need to be productive? Do we always have to be accountable for every second of our time? The word “always” in that question may force me to answer otherwise. I used to be that person who wanted every hour to be accounted. By me. I would look back at my day, and smile or frown depending on how effective I was. There were days when I had a schedule written, and it sounds silly and funny now, but I had scheduled 30 minutes to have my coffee and do nothing.
Years of doing that not only stressed me out, but probably made my family quite conflicted. I would tell them to enjoy life, don’t take things seriously, don’t stress. And here I was, trying to account my every waking hour.
Experiences in life teach you a lot. There are moments in my life now, when I do waste time. I appreciate it. Prioritizing the principle of play has helped me to enjoy my work. Perhaps counter intuitively, playing more has helped me to work more.
We don’t need an agenda for every moment we are awake. A routine mundane life that our days are filled with fade with time. Unless it was a special occasion, you’ve probably forgotten the experiences from an entire day. Sometimes, I think it’s important to have fun, however mindless or useless it may seem. After all, only the density of unique experiences remain.
So, I guess, work hard and play hard.
This is a classic dish that I learnt from my friend’s mom decades ago and I had it scribbled messily in my diary. I love making this and freezing it. It works so well in curries: pan fry it and have as a snack or pump up your salad with it.
The key to getting this set and not crumbly is, cooking it on medium heat and stirring it religiously. At around mid point, you might think it’s cooked, but take it a bit further until a thin film starts coating the bottom and it all comes to a smooth ball. Once it all comes to a ball, cook it for another few minutes. At this point, you can roll it into logs and cut it to 2 inches in size or flatten it and cut to any shape you want. If you want it crispier, pan fry them with little oil and serve room temperature or warm.
This is the way we have been eating our muthiya all summer. The combination just works.
Thanks for reading. Have a great day!!
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Have a fabulous week.
Ash.
- ½ cup chickpea flour
- 2 cups water
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 tsp cumin seeds
- ½ tsp chili powder
- ⅓ tsp sugar
- ⅓ tsp mango powder
- ⅓ cup cilantro, finely chopped
- 1 tsp white sesame seeds
- 1 tsp black sesame seeds, optional
- 2 tbsp of vegetable oil
- 4 tbsp extra virgin oil
- 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
- 2 tbsp grated pear or juice
- 1 tbsp rice wine vinegar
- salt and pepper
- Greens:lettuce, pea shoots, any greens of your choice
- 1 pear, thinly sliced
- goat cheese
- pine nuts, toast it lightly
- In a large bowl, add the chickpea flour, water, salt, chili powder, sugar, mango powder, sesame seeds, black sesame seeds and cilantro(if you want you can add it later). Using a whip, mix very well until all the lumps are gone and the mixture is smooth and mixed in well. Check for flavoring.
- In a large flat bottomed pan, add vegetable oil and let it get little warm. Add the chickpea mixture and using a nonstick spatula, keep stirring and cooking the mixture. Keep the flame on medium heat. Keep mixing. After about 7 minutes you will see the mixture coming together and leaving the sides. Cook it a little bit more until the mixture completely comes together to a smooth ball. The whole process will be about 15-20 minutes. Turn off the heat and you can dump it on a plate, flatten it. Let cool completely before you slice it to desired size. If you want to make it into rolls, you have to work the dough when it is warm. Carefully take a small portion, roll into thin logs and cut to 2 inch sized rolls which is traditional.
- In a bottle, add the olive oil, garlic, grated pear or juice, vinegar, salt and pepper and mix it very well.
- In a large bowl, add the greens, pear, few pieces of the chickpea rolls, goat cheese, pine nuts and drizzle some dressing.
You can grind the leaves and add it to the mixture.
These rolls can be frozen, and used later. You can mix it in curries for an authentic dish.
Toast or pan roast it with oil for a crispy snack.
Lovely post Asha! I’m still in that schedule everything mode, so it resonates well with me. 🙂 Love love the recipe…so easy too!!
Delicious and beautiful as always, Asha. Love those chickpea rolls.
this is such an interesting recipe and great use of chickpea!!! im going to have to revisit this.
There is nothing routine or mundane about this dish! It looks amazing!
This is so healthy and delicious!!! Mango powder isn’t available here, so we’ll try it without it. Perhaps adding something like fenugreek or paprika would add/or turmeric could add some extra flavor since we won’t the mango, right?:)
As for the words “Sometimes, I think it’s important to have fun, however mindless or useless it may seem”; we couldn’t agree more with this. If you don’t add a some “useless” time in your schedule you are not in balance with thyself. It’s 100% necessary for centering:)
Lots of hugs!
xoxoxo
Loving the chickpea rolls. You are a great artist and I love coming here and always seeing/learning something new and refreshing. I also feel you about time. I was more rigid not long ago but have really learned to take it easy and slow down to savor time. Regardless, it does fly! I just want to squeeze as many happy meals and times in as I can. : )
This looks wonderful! Terrific dish. And good post, too — enjoyed reading it. Thanks!
Love your take on this classic dish.
It tastes Awesome