Ragda recipe | Ragda for pani puri | How to make ragda

Indian street food is an inimitable part of Indian cuisine. Especially, chaat recipes play an indelible role in it. Recipes of Chaat is known for its marvellous flavours, multiple layers of texture and combinational taste which tickles all the taste buds of our mouth. This marvellous experience is the primary reason to drool people for chaat recipes since decades. This is the reason why the chaat stalls are spread in every street and corner of India.

What is ragda?

Ragda recipe is a light stew prepared with dried white peas or dried yellow peas. It is a very essential component of any chaat stall to prepare various chaat recipe Indian.

Recipe for ragda is mainly prepared in two different ways. One is simple and the other one is spicy and flavoured.

For the simple one, the soaked dried peas are pressure cooked with only salt and turmeric powder. It is very light and known as ragda for pani puri. This light stew is topped on pani puris with different chutneys and chopped raw onion and coriander leaves.

But recipe for ragda chaat is much spicier and flavourful. It is prepared with different spices. Today, I am going to share the spicier version of ragda recipe with you.

Chaat recipes with ragda

Ragda is a versatile stew which is used to prepare numerous chaat recipes like Ragda Chaat, Ragda Pattice, Pani puri, samosa chaat, masala puri and many more.

While in India, I used to regularly eat different chaat recipes from the stalls of street venders. But after coming to the UK, I started craving for Indian street food very badly. Then, I decided to prepare chaat recipes at home. This decision has made me a chaat expert now. Till now, I have already tried and tasted many chaat recipes at home.

In fact, I regularly prepare papdis, chutneys for chaat and store them to make the chaat recipes handy. In lockdown, it is a big challenge to serve different types of snacks in every evening. These homemade chaat recipes helps me a lot to bring smile on the face of my family.

Ragda is a very simple and effortless recipe. It gets prepared very quickly without much fuss. It requires very common and easily available spices to get prepared.

Tips to prepare Perfect ragda

To prepare a perfect Ragda recipe, it is very important to soak the dried white peas or yellow peas overnight or at least for 8 hours or else the ragda will not get cooked properly.

Secondly, after pressure cooking them check multiple peas carefully because dried peas have the tendency of not getting cooked evenly. It is a common problem that some peas get cooked completely but few partially get cooked but not fully. At that situation, they need to be pressure cooked for some more time till soft and mushy.

The consistency of ragda recipe is neither too thick nor too runny. It is moderate in consistency. So, if your ragda is too thin then evaporate the excess water. If your ragda is too thick then add some extra water to adjust the consistency.

Ragda recipe with step by step photos and instructions have been provided in the ‘Instruction’ section of the recipe. If you follow the steps, then you will get the essence of street food in your kitchen.

How to make ragda?

To prepare the ragda, first I have soaked the white peas for overnight in a large bowl with enough water. On the next day, I have drained the water and washed the soaked peas for couple of times.

Then I have transferred the peas in a pressure cooker and add salt, turmeric powder, ginger paste and water into the cooker. After giving a stir, I have closed the lid of the cooker and pressure cooked it in medium flame for 6-7 whistles.

After that, I have added tamarind pulp, jaggery, chaat masala powder to the boiled peas and mixed them nicely to enhance the taste and flavour of the ragda recipe. After that, I have simmered the ragda for some time to get the desired consistency.

On the other hand, I have prepared a tadka in a tadka pan separately. I have added cumin seeds, chopped garlic, green chillies, asafoetida (Hing) and red chilli powder into the tadka. Then I have added the tadka into the ragda recipe and mixed it nicely.

If you don’t have tadka pan, then you can temper the ragda in a separate pan too. You can use the ragda as toping on samosas or aloo tikki or you can simply relish the ragda with some chopped onions, coriander leaves and some green chutney and sweet tamarind chutney.

If you like to try the lighter version of Ragda then you can skip the tadka part of the recipe.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup dried white or yellow Peas
• 3 cups Water
• 1 teaspoon Ginger paste
• 1 teaspoon Turmeric powder
• Salt to taste

• ¾ tablespoon Oil
• 2-3 cloves of Garlic, finely chopped
• 2 green Chillies, slit
• ½ teaspoon Cumin seeds
• ½ teaspoon red Chilli powder
• ¼ teaspoon Asafoetida (Hing)

• 1 teaspoon Tamarind pulp or 1 tablespoon tamarind water
• 1 tablespoon Jaggery, grated
• 1 teaspoon Chaat masala

1. Take the dried peas in a large bowl and soak it with enough water for overnight or at least for 8 hours. The dried peas will increase in size after getting soaked. So, it is important to soak it in larger bowl as compared to the volume of the dried peas.
   
   

2. Drain the water and wash the soaked peas nicely.
   

3. Shift the soaked peas into a pressure cooker.
   

4. Add 3 cups of water, salt, turmeric powder, ginger paste one by one into the pressure cooker. Give a stir and close the lid of the pressure cooker.
   
   
   
   

5. Put the pressure cooker on medium flame and cook it till 6-7 whistles. Allow the pressure cooker stand and release the pressure completely.
   

6. Check thoroughly whether the peas have got cooked completely or not.
7. Mash the peas partially with the help of a masher to get a thicker consistency.
   
   

8. Add tamarind pulp or tamarind water, grated jaggery and chaat masala powder one by one into the pressure cooker and give a nice stir.
   
   
   

9. Cook the ragda in medium high flame until you get the desired consistency. One thing needs to be taken care of is that the Ragda gets thicker after cooling down.
10. Check the salt and add if required. Then switch off the flame.
11. On the other hand, put a tadka pan on flame and ¾ tablespoon of oil in it.
    

12. Once the oil is hot put the flame in low and add cumin seeds into the tadka pan.
    

13. Add chopped garlic into the tadka pan and cook it till light golden not brown.
    

14. Add green chillies, asafoetida (Hing), red chilli powder and switch off the flame. Mix the tadka nicely.
    
    
    

15. Immediately pour the tadka over the ragda (Step 9) and give a nice stir.
    
    
    

Keywords:
recipe for ragda, ragda, ragda recipe, ragda for pani puri, ragda chaat, how to make ragda, how to make ragda for pani puri, how to make ragda at home, ragda chaat recipe, ragda pattice, ragda pattice recipe, Indian chaat recipe, Indian chaat recipes, chaat recipe, recipe for chaat, recipes of chaat, chaat papdi recipe, chaat recipe Indian, indian street food, list of indian street food, recipes for Indian street food, recipes of Indian street food, best Indian street food recipes, Indian street food recipes, Indian snack recipe, Indian snack recipes, Indian snacks recipes for evening, Indian snacks easy recipes