Matar kulcha! A very well known street food in Delhi. Almost every corner of the city, you will notice a matar kulcha food vendor. It is a very smart ready to eat plain kulcha served with delicious matar masala. Food sellers already have soft precooked kulche. So they just melt butter on a big tawa and saute that precooked kulche and served those kulche with matar masala, onion, pickle & green chutney.
Delhi street food
I lived in Delhi for a few years. So I witnessed the popularity of this matar kulcha. Though most people use to call this as chole kulche but it is only available at a restaurant but when it comes to street food then it is basically plain kulche served with spicy white sun-dried peas dish. Most chole kulche wala usually sell such matar kulcha from a hand-pulled rickshaw cart. They put a large size metallic handi (traditional cooking pot) on that cart. They keep warm matar masala in that handi and use a stove to apply butter on ready-to-eat kulche.
People & matar kulcha
The shape of such kulche is different than homemade kulche. Those kulche are usually smaller and oval in shape. You can see a big crowd in front of such matar kulche wala during lunch time (12.30PM to 2.30 PM). Delhi people enjoy this food a lot. Some people even bring roti from home but buy matar masala from such stall to have roti with that very special matar masala. I have never seen such matar masala street food anywhere in India. Did you notice such kulche wala anywhere other than Delhi & its neighbouring places?
How to make matar kulcha at home?
Above pictures shown homemade plain kulche served with matar (white peas) masala & spicy green chillies & carrots. Those kulche were cooked on an iron tawa. You can not find any roadside matar kulche wala in Kolkata what you can see in Delhi. Ofcourse you will find kulche at a restaurant in Kolkata but you may need to pay approx RS30-50 per kulche and you have to order separately for matar, chole or paneer made dish. Whereas you can have a full plate of matar kulche from a roadside stall in Delhi only for Rs 20-30. So it is best idea to make matar kulcha at home and enjoy with friends & family members.
Matar kulcha recipe
- 1.5 cup all purpose flour/maida
- ½ cup yogurt/curd
- 1.5 teaspoons baking powder
- salt as needed
- 2 teaspoons sugar
- 2 teaspoons oil
- Water as needed
- 1 cup white peas/matar
- 2 medium size ripe tomato
- 1 big size onion
- 3 green chillies
- 1.5 teaspoons red chilli powder
- 1.5 turmeric powder
- 2 teaspoons cumin powder
- ½ teaspoons garam masala
- 2 teaspoons tamarind pulp/imli
- ½ cup finely chopped coriander leaves
- 1.5 cup water
- Salt as needed
- Mix all purpose flour, baking powder, sugar, curd, salt, oil and make dough by kneading (add water if needed)
- Spread oil over the dough and cover it with a cloth, now rest it for 3 hours
- Then make small balls and roll it to make oval or circular shape
- Now bake those over tawa, then put top side down over fire and cook for a few seconds
- Then spread ghee and serve
- Wash white peas in water and soak it in fresh warm water for 8 hours
- Add white peas, water, turmeric powder, salt and finely chopped tomato in a pressure cooker and cook it till 10 whistles and switch off fire, then wait for another 30 minutes till pressure cooker releases pressure
- Heat oil in cooking pan, add cumin powder, red chilli powder, green chilies and saute for 30 minutes then add finely chopped onion and cook for another 1 minutes
- Then pour pressure cooked white peas with water to the cooking pan and stir to mix with all other fried ingredients
- Now cook till you satisfy with residual water, then add garam masala and tamarind pulp, finely chopped coriander leaves and mix properly
So are you ready to make matar kulcha at home? It is very simple but all you need is your passion in cooking.
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