Mooli Muthia

Looking for a healthy breakfast or snack recipe? This steamed and lightly sauteed mooli (radish) muthia will be a welcome change to the usual dishes we generally make the day in and day out.

Prep Time15

Cook Time35

Total Time50

Method: Cooking

Course: Food

Servings: 5 People

Ingredients

For making Muthia:

2 cups radish grated
1 cup chickpea flour besan flour
1 and ½ cups jowar flour sorghum flour
¼ cup plain yogurt
2-3 tablespoons cilantro chopped
2 teaspoons lemon juice
2-3 teaspoons ginger, garlic and green chilies minced
¾ teaspoon turmeric powder
3 teaspoons oil I used sesame
1 teaspoon fruit salt Eno
1 to 1 and ¼ teaspoons salt adjust as per taste

For Tempering:

2-3 teaspoons oil I used sesame
1 and ½ teaspoons cumin
2 teaspoons white sesame seeds
¼ teaspoon asafoetida

Instructions

Mix all the ingredients listed for making muthia in a large bowl, knead into a soft dough (like for chapathi) using 2-3 tablespoons of water or as needed.
Apply little oil on your palms and divide the dough into 5 to 6 equal portions and steam it into 2 to 3 batches.
Shape each portion into cylindrical rolls.
Arrange them on a sieve/steamer plate and steam for about 25-30 minutes. I did it in my pressure cooker. During the steaming, the rolls would have increased in size due to the fruit salt we have used.
Insert a knife in the middle of the rolls and see if the knife comes out clean. It should not have a sticky dough sticking on to it. If it comes out clean remove the rolls from the steamer and allow it to cool completely before you can slice it into small pieces.
For the tempering add the 2-3 teaspoons of oil and once it is hot enough add the cumin seeds. After it crackles add sesame seeds and asafoetida and sautee it for a while.
Then add the muthia slices and sautee it all together for a few minutes (3-4 minutes). You can also wait for the muthia to char a bit for a more smoky flavor and crispy texture.

Notes

The original recipes used ginger and green chili paste, and garlic paste. I had neither, so I chopped some fresh ginger, garlic, and green chilies and pounded them together in my mortal and pestle contraption I have and used a few teaspoons of that paste while making the dough.
When I tasted the uncooked muthia dough the amount of salt and spice level tasted perfect so I proceeded to steam it as mentioned. Once after it was steamed and sliced, I felt that it could use a bit more salt and spice. So I added some red chili powder and salt to the tempering and sauteed the muthias in it and it tasted perfect. So I would slightly increase the quantity of green chilies and salt while making the dough itself.
I have tried the same recipe with grated bottle gourd and shredded cabbage. Zucchini is also another vegetable that can be used in this recipe. Probably the water should be squeezed out or use the water content of the zucchini itself to make the dough instead of adding additional water to form the muthia dough.
If you don't have jowar (sorghum) flour you can use besan (chana dal/Bengal gram/chickpea flour) itself for making the dough.

Taste & Texture

For a steamed snack/dish these muthias tasted very good with a lovely crispy texture on the outside and soft in the middle. It was not spicy and hence perfect for us. If you want it to be more spicy increase the number of green chilies you use.

Nutrition