Vegan and Gluten Free Potato Murukku / Chakli |Toka Chef recipe
Last month I shared a sweet recipe, so this time I'm going savory with a Diwali special: murukku! It goes by many names: murukku in Tamil, jantikalu in Telugu, and chakli in many parts of North and West India. This version is potato murukku, which means no urad dal flour required. It's instant, crispy, vegan, and gluten-free, and it's a wonderful recipe to make together as a family.
Our Toka Box theme this month is Diwali, so a festive recipe felt like the perfect match. Murukku is especially fun to make with kids. We had a blast pressing out the spirals, though I'll admit our shapes were far from perfect. But who cares? It was all about family time and, of course, the taste. My little one couldn't stop at just one, and that says it all.
Fine Motor Skills
You don't need special toys to build fine motor skills, the coordination of small muscles in the hands and fingers with the eyes. Simple kitchen activities like peeling potatoes or pressing this murukku do the job. Let your child try safe, simple kitchen tasks and watch their fine motor skills grow.
Ingredients
- Medium Sized Potato - 1
- Water - 2 tbsps + as required. I used 1/2 cup+ 2 tbsps
- Coconut Oil - 2 tbsps + as required for greasing the chakli maker
- Rice Flour / Idiyappam Flour - 1 cup
- Cumin Seeds - 1 tsp
- Salt - 1
- Red Chili Powder - 1/8
- Hing - 1/2 tsp
- Oil - for frying
Preparing the Potato Puree
- Parent Step - Microwave the potato in the potato mode setting or boil the potato in your preferred way and let it cool.
- Child Step - Let your child peel the potato skin.
- Parent Step - Grind the potato into a smooth puree by adding 3 tbsps of water. Set aside 1/4 cup of this puree. We only need 1/4 cup of this mix.
Preparing the Chakli Dough
As kiddo was more interested in pressing the murukku, he didn't help me with mixing the dough. But you can get your child to help with this step too.
- Parental and Child Step - Sieve the flour in a wide bowl. To this add the potato puree, chili powder, , salt, cumin seeds coconut oil. Mix them thoroughly and add water little by little and start forming a dough. The dough should be smooth and thick. If it's too watery, it will absorb more water and if it's too thick it is hard to press. So carefully add the water. I used about 1/2 cup plus 2 tbsps of water.
Pressing the Chakli
- Parental Step - Let your child pick his/her favorite mold. Grease the chakli press with oil and add the dough inside. I filled the dough halfway through as it made easy for the kiddo to press.
- Parental Step - Heat the oil for frying.
- Parental and Child Step - Press the murukku on the back side of the ladle like below or you press on a plate as well. Help your child while pressing and as mentioned do not worry about the shape.
- Parental Step - Carefully drop the pressed murukku in the oil. Make sure the oil is over low-medium flame. Fry the murukku for 45 seconds on one side and carefully flip them over and fry until they turn light brown like below. I usually fry until the bubble sound ceases.
Let it cool and store in an airtight container and enjoy!. Happy Diwali Folks.
Toka Chef Moment
I wanted to use the simple round press mold, but opted for the star one. So I went with star-shaped one, but after pressing quite a few , he wanted to try the round one and also other molds. I just let him chose the pressing patterns, and these molds kindled his interest, and he started asking if we can press cookies like murukku. But coming to think about it, I have cookie press which pretty much works the same way. Why not try cookie in murukku shape? I like these food connections that makes.
Toka Yum Moment
As I mentioned above couldn't just stop with one murukku. He knew that we are preparing this recipe for Toka Box. After tasting, he made sure that I will be making the very same murukku recipe on the Diwali day too.