Baked Pani Puri with Tamarind Chutney & Teekha Pani

I haven’t met any Indian who doesn’t love Pani Puris. It is one of the most popular Indian chaats that everybody loves. People of every age group crave it. It is that delicious. & if you are someone who never tried it, then what are you waiting for? Grab all the ingredients today and make it.

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What is Pani Puri?

Pani Puri is one of the most loved Indian Steet food or an Indian chaat. You will find it in almost every street or corner in India. It is even known as Gol Gappa, puchka, pani batasa (or pani ke patashe), gupchup etc. It consists of a small tennis-ball-shaped puri filled with some boiled potato filling. Then the puri is lightly dipped in sweet tamarind or imli chutney (or saunth) followed by dunking it fully in spicy water made especially for this recipe.

Eating is also quite fascinating. You can’t take a bite of it instead you need to eat it in one go. That’s a challenge right 😀 But that’s the right way to enjoy it. If you take a bite of it, all the water flows out and it gets messy. Moreover, it is no fun.

Components of Pani Puri

You need to prepare following things for the recipe:

1. Pani – Special spicy water made for this recipe. Make sure that this water is cold while serving. These days you will also find many different flavors of this pani (or water). Some make it sweet by adding some jaggery or some make it garlicky by adding some garlic cloves in it. Some even add some fruits pulp in it. I am sharing just one recipe here which is the classic one. But of course, you can experiment with different flavors.
2. Tamarind Chutney (or Saunth) – This is optional. Some people like it or some don’t . We both love a little bit of sweetness. That’s why I make it. Again, it should be cold or at room temperature while serving
3. Potato Filling – This is the soul of this recipe. Boiled potatoes mixed with some boiled chickpeas or black chana and filled inside the puri. It gives a nice bite to it. You can’t ignore it. I prefer not to add any spice in the filling since the other components are already quite spicy. So, the filling balances all the flavors.
4. Puris – You can make the dough for puris at home but I prefer the easy method because it takes a very long time to roll each puri. And when we eat, we need around 40-50 for a family of two 😀 Yes. That’s the number. Now you can imagine how long it can take. But go for it of you want to. Here is the recipe whick you can follow for homemade puris. I buy the ready-to-fry puris from the store and then instead of deep frying them, I bake them. Easy Peasy.
5. Chopped Onion – Now this is totally optional and we never had pani puris with some raw finely chopped onions. But one day, we just added it randomly just to finish some chopped up onions. Voila. It tasted so good. The slight crunch of onion with its unique flavour, just wao.

It seems like a lot of components but it is totally worth it. And there is something about homemade pani puris that you can eat 25 in one sitting and still don’t feel heavy at all. My husband and I were surprised when we finished the entire pack of 50 puris and we were still craving. And when we eat out, we can only eat a maximum of 6. Yup. That’s my count. In fact, I start to feel uneasy after my 6th puri.

Benefits of Non-Fried or Baked Puris

If you are someone like me who doesn’t like deep frying food unless it is very much necessary for the recipe like when I am making chhole poori or bhaturas. I just can’t make them without deep frying. So, I saved my deep-frying quota only for these couple of recipes. Otherwise, I always prefer baking. By the way, have you tried our non-fried & healthier Spring Rolls, dum aloo, vada pav, Gobhi Manchurian & baked cheese balls? You must. I made them healthier with no compromise on the taste.

Here are the reasons I don’t deep fry (until necessary):

1. Deep fried food feels heavy and oily after eating them. On the other hand, baked ones feels lighter.
2. Baking instead of deep frying makes you feel that you are opting for healthier option.
3. The biggest reason of all is that the oil becomes un-healthy after reaching the temperature of deep-frying. We are not supposed to use the oil again for cooking. But obviously, we cant’t even discard the oil.
4. Baking is much more easier since you don’t need to spend a long time in deep frying each poori. You can simple place many your puris on the baking tray and bake them for a couple of minutes.

Can we use a microwave instead of an oven?

Yes. Of course.

Making puris in a microwave is even easier than baking them in an oven. You don’t need to preheat the microwave. Just place a few puris on the rolling tray and microwave for a minute or so. The puris puff up in no time. In fact, you can even make puris in an air-fryer.

Is this recipe Vegan?

Yes. All the ingredients used in the recipe are plant-based and vegan. If you are a vegan or vegetarian, you can enjoy this recipe.

Easy Swaps

1. Pani Puri Masala – To speed up the process, you can buy the spice mix to make the water for pani puri. You just need to dissolve in some cold water and it is ready in no time. It tastes good. I prefer either MDH or Everest Pani Puri spice mix.
2. Sugar – Instead of jaggery in the chutney, you can use sugar as needed. You can even use only jaggery or a mix of jaggery and sugar.
3. Black Chana – You can use boiled chickpeas instead of that.

Now grab all the ingredients because you are ready to make this delicious chaat recipe at home. If you like the recipe, please share the photo on Instagram and tag us too @marriedfriends. We just love to see your recreation of our recipes.

MORE RECIPES TO TRY:

1. Non-Fried Vada Pav
2. Non-Fried Spring Rolls
3. Hara Bhara Kebab

Happy Cooking 🙂

Love from us

Richa & Jatin