Ghugni! Have you ever heard of this food? Does it sound weird? I mean, the name of this food does not reflect the ingredients of this food and it does not even say anything about this food. But if you have tasted this food then definitely it has already brought water in your mouth. That strong spicy hot & sour taste, yummmm, really mouth watering. Does not it? What do you say?
Ghugni – A popular street food
Ghugni is popular in West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, east Uttar Pradesh, Odisha. But it is a very famous street food in Kolkata. You can see many ghugni food sellers across the city. Many street food vendors are also selling ghugni along with other street food or snacks. You can often see pani puri (or golgappa/puchka) sellers are also selling this.
Let’s have a plate of ghoogni
This food is hot and sour in taste. Dried yellow peas are used to make this. You just need a cup of dried yellow peas soaked in enough water for 5 to 6 hours, one small size potato, turmeric powder, tamarind pulp, salt and oil (here in this recipe, brown chickpeas is also used, but it is absolutely optional, avoid this if you want to get traditional taste). Put all these ingredients in pressure cooker and cook till 5-7 whistles. Once you have boiled all then you have almost done it.
Now it is time for preparing ghugni masala. Roast red chilli, cumin seeds, coriander seeds and grind all to make powder. Spread this masala over ghugni and garnish it by spreading coriander leaves, green chillies, chopped onion and sev / bhujia (farsan).
Ghugni recipe, Easy to make
Preparation time 6 hours and cooking time 15 mins
- Dried yellow peas / sukha matar - 1 cup
- Brown chickpeas / chana - 1 tbsp (optional)
- Potatoes - 1 small size
- Turmeric / haldi powder - 2 tsp
- Ripe Tamarind / Imli - 10 gm
- Lemon juice - 1 tsp
- Oil - ½ tbsp
- Ghugni masala
- Red chilli / lal mirch powder - 1 tsp
- Roasted coriander/bhuna dhania powder - 2 tsp
- Roasted cumin/bhuna jeera powder - 1 tsp
- For garnishing
- Onion - 2 small size (chopped)
- Coriander leaves / Dhania Patta - 2 plants
- Green chillies / hara mirch - 2 (chopped)
- Sev/bhujia/farsan - 25 gm
- Soak dried yellow peas and brown chickpeas (optional) in water for 5-6 hours
- Now pressure cook yellow peas, brown chickpeas, potatoes, tamarind (remove seeds), turmeric powder, salt and oil together till 5-7 whistles
- Now mash potatoes and some of those peas
- Take it in small bowls or serving plates
- Mix all ghugni masala and spread over ghugni
- Now add chopped coriander leaves, onion, sev/bhujia and green chillies for garnishing
Kala chana ghugni
As said earlier, here brown chickpeas (kala chana) is also used to bring little different but if you want to taste traditional ghoogni then avoid brown chickpeas (chana) and follow the same recipe. In Bihar, kala chana ghugni is very much popular, people in Bihar love to have this chana ghugni with poori or bread.
But in Kolkata most people prefer sun dried yellow peas ghugni instead of kala chana ghugni. So you can only see such yellow peas ghoogni across the city.
Do you love to try different snacks then try karela pakoda, gobi 65, gajar tikki sandwich, vada pao etc.
Why is ghoogni so popular in West Bengal?
If you are looking for this answer then probably you will never get one answer but everybody will have one reason or many. I also personally asked many people (friends, relatives, and also myself too) and initially, nobody was interested in giving an answer but when I just said to tell anything that comes in their mind without any thinking then they answered.
The answer is
It is spicy and tasty. It is hot & sour in taste. This is tasty and easily available. This food is cheap and tasty. It is delicious and you can have this anywhere, you can stand and talk with your friends and eat this. You can have this with bread or roti. Its smell is so mouthwatering so it attracts foodie. It is so easy to make, a simple recipe so you can try it home. A traveler can have this as a meal with roti or bread, it’s tasty and works as a meal. Almost everywhere it is available, market area, near school & colleges, bus stand, railway platforms everywhere, so every body knows it and tasted it. You can get it for just Rs 5, so people start to trying this from school life. It is spicy & soft, so every body loves this. Tell me a reason to hate this (yes, somebody also gives such reason too). Well, I never thought of it, once I will know I will tell you (couldn’t digest this answer but he was irritated, so no normal answer was expected from him). I have eaten this at-least 1000 times, so I developed my own taste according to my habit, so I liked it as simple as it is (another honest answer).
When it is available everywhere then why I should cook this at home?
After reading all these you may think of it. Is it not correct? I think it is quite obvious that you will think the same thing, because this question will come in your mind naturally, otherwise who want to work hard when the thing can be done so easily. Will you do? Definitely not but here still, you will definitely want to do this because ghoogni is widely available in Bengal but the taste of ghoogni at each street vendor or restaurants are different that is many people also want to try this at different street vendors to discover best ghoogni in the city. The recipe of those ghooni differs from each other, not only that if you know the recipe & can make this food at home then you can do experiments to find out the best taste that suits you and you will ‘Yes, this is what I am looking for‘.
But if you are not residing in Bengal then you definitely did not see such street vendors who sell ghoogni in your locality then go ahead and try this street food at your own home and surprise others.
So what do you think?
Will you try this ghugni recipe at home?
do you want to share something about this recipe, any improvement trick or you want to just share your experience of the moment you last time had this street food? Whatever you want to do but I must thank you for visiting this page for the ghugni recipe and enjoying this post till the last words. So now it is your time to share something (if you want to) by leaving your comment below
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