Indian-style Veggie ‘Aloo tikki’ Burger!

If you go through my blog, you can see from my choice of dishes that I am not too stuck on ..ummmm….”healthy eating”. I am a huge foodie and I can wolf down an entire pizza when I am hungry. No light soups and salads for me. Bring on the burgers and hot-dogs and noodles and biryani. I love it all! If it was not for my fitness-freak hubby, trust me, I would weigh around two hundred pounds by now.

One thing I desperately miss about India is the ‘Indo-western fast food’ and of course, the street food. Sure, the authentic Indian cuisine is divine…but when you are starving on a Saturday evening and want to curl up on the couch with a good movie, you don’t crave butter chicken, do you? You want popcorn or crisps or a huge, juicy burger with a large glass of milkshake!! Mmmm…..

If you go to Mc Donalds in India, you will see that the most popular burger there is the simplest and the cheapest one of the lot- Mc Aloo tikki burger. It translates to a ‘Potato patties burger’! It comprises of a spiced potato patty between a burger bun along with some spicy mayo. That’s it. You have to take my word on this, it’s so soooooooo delicious. When I go to India next, I am going to eat 5 of those in one go!

This recipe is my version of a veggie ‘aloo tikki’ burger. It’s perfect for those days when you don’t feel like eating your everyday routine meal. Give it a go and enjoy!!

Ingredients:

– 2 large potatoes- boiled, peeled and mashed

– ¼ cup peas, steamed

– 1/4 cup onion, finely chopped

– 1 tsp red chilly powder

– 1 tsp cumin (optional)

– 1 tsp red chilly powder

– 1/2 tsp turmeric powder

– 1/2 tsp coriander powder

– 1 tbsp cornflour + 1 tbsp more for the coating batter

– 1/2 cup bread crumbs

– Burger buns

– Slices of tomatoes

– Onion, sliced into rings

– Lettuce

– Cheese slices

– Ketchup and Mayo

– 2 tbsp plain flour

– ¼ cup water

– Oil to fry

Method:

– In a non-stick pan, heat a tablespoon of oil.

– Add the cumin seeds and allow them to crackle.

– Next, add chopped onions and cook till they turn pink and translucent.

– Add the steamed peas and cook for around a minute.

– Add the boiled potatoes and mix well with peas and the tempering. Saute for around half minute. Make sure there are no big chunks of potatoes left in the mix.

– Throw in your spices and salt. Mix and cook for about 2-3 minutes, till the mixture gets fragrant and well blended.

– Switch off the gas and let the potato mix cool completely!

– In the meanwhile, let’s make a wet batter for coating the patties. In a bowl, mix plain flour and 1 tbsp cornflour with a pinch of salt.

– Add water little by little and make a smooth paste like a pancake or a dosa batter. It shouldn’t be too thin or too thick. Set aside.

– Once the potato mixture has cooled off, add 1 tbsp dry cornflour to it and mix well. This ensures that our patties turns out crisp and uniform on frying.

– Now, let us make the patties for our burger. Grease your hands with a little oil. Take a handful of mixture and give a nice round shape. Press gently between your palms to make a flat patty. Adjust the size according to your liking. Prepare all the patties this way.

– Heat sufficient oil in your frying pan. (You can either choose to shallow fry your patties or deep fry them!)

– Dip each potato patty in corn-flour & flour batter. The patty should be completely coated. Hold the coated patty over the batter bowl for a few seconds to let the excess batter drip off it. Immediately after that, place the patty in a heap of breadcrumbs and coat it completely with them, flipping it a few times.

– Place your patty carefully in the medium hot oil and shallow fry till each side is golden brown. (Try to flip it only once or twice while it’s cooking. Flipping a patty too many times can make the coating fall off or break.) You can fry 2-3 patties at the same time but carefully. Once ready, keep the patties on kitchen towel to remove excess oil.

Patties for your burger are ready. Let us assemble the burger!

– Put a frying pan on heat and sprinkle a few drops of oil. Put one prepared patty on the pan and right away, put a cheese slice on top of it. Cover it with a round utensil till the cheese slice melts. Keep aside.

– Heat the burger buns with a little butter.