चिवडा/Chivda

चिवडा/Chivda is a traditional snack item from Maharashtra made during Diwali. It is a spicy mixture of पोहा/flattened rice and peanuts, roasted chana dal etc. Easy to make with minimum ingredients, चिवडा needs a little preparation time and no cooking time at all.

Ingredients
2 lb Thin Poha/Flattened Rice/पातळ पोहे
2 Cup Peanuts
1 Cup roasted Chana Dal
15 Green Chili's chopped
10-15 Curry leaves
5 Tbs Sugar
1 1/2 Tsp Chili powder
3 Tsp आमचुर/Dry Mango Powder
Salt as per taste
3/4 Cup Canola Oil
1 Tbs Mustard Seeds
1/4 Tsp Asafoetida
1/2 Tsp Turmeric Powder

Method
First step is roasting पोहे /Poha. There are several method for roasting. But I find roasting in oven more convenient and gives good results. Preheat the oven to 360 F. First you will need a चाळणी to separate whole poha from crushed poha which is in the powder form, discard the powder that separates from चाळणी.

Then arrange poha on cookie sheets. You may need to do it in batches. I used 4 cookie sheets and arranged poha in even layer and baked for 20 minutes flipping and tossing with spoon half way through until toasted and crisp. Make sure not to burn them. Remove from the oven and spread on newspaper to cool.
After it's done you will need a big pot to make चिवडा/Chivda. Get all the ingredients ready.

Heat oil in a large pot, fry peanuts until crip and remove them on cookie sheet on top of toasted poha. Next goes roasted chana dal, fry it for few seconds and remove it on toasted phoa. Fry green chili's until it changes color and them remove them on poha. Now add mustard seeds, once they crackle add Asafoetida, Turmeric powder and curry leaves. Throw in toasted poha along with peanuts, chana dal and green chili's. Add rest of the ingredients, sugar, salt, chili powder, dry mango powder. Shut off the gas. Mix together nicely so that all the flavors are combined and each and every poha is well coated with all the spices. Nice and tasty चिवडा is ready!! Keep it in a airtight container.

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