Macaroni Bhel-Macaroni Chaat Recipe

Macaroni Bhel is my second recipe in the fusion Chaat recipes (other being Mexican Chaat) that fuses two diverse flavors into this dish- Indian Bhel with Italian Macaroni Pasta. The idea for the dish was derived from an equally popular Chaat recipe-Chinese Bhel.

Experimenting on its line, I replaced Chinese noodles with Macaroni Pasta and results were impressive. I made this dish few times in past one week and each time my family polished off a generous serving of Macaroni Bhel in no time.

Before we delve further into this recipe, I would want to share an experience I had with Big Basket yesterday that I would like to think of as an aberration in their otherwise decent track record.  I have been trying to make amends into what I would call a broken relationship with Big Basket. I started ordering from them a couple of years ago when I first saw their vans plying on roads in Pune and heard decent reviews from my friends. Who would resist the temptation of groceries and vegetable delivered straight at home? So I gave into the temptation one fine Saturday evening and scheduled a Sunday delivery of my weekly purchase of vegetables. The quality that was delivered to me was dismal and below par and I decided to give up.  Notwithstanding the fact that they roped in one of the top actors of Bollywood in recent time I decided against purchasing my weekly staples from them.

Recently, I had few guests coming in for lunch and for some unforeseen reasons procuring the vegetables from my vendor was not possible. I was reminded of Big basket and I decided to try them again after a gap of 2 years. However, this time I was in for a pleasant surprise when the vegetables came as fresh as they should and were neatly packaged. Since then, I have ordered from them quite a few times now and was thoroughly happy with their delivery and the product delivered to me. However, yesterday’s incident was distasteful and could have been avoided by Big Basket. What transpired yesterday was something like this.

I had a delivery scheduled yesterday between 7.00 PM-9.30 PM slot and as going by their past delivery times I was expecting them to turn up at the end of the delivery slot. Surprisingly this time around, they came much earlier and unfortunately I missed the call from their call center. When I called back which was 15 mins later, I was told the delivery has been moved to the next slot which was next morning. I tried to reason the call center personnel about how I cannot take the delivery next morning and it was important for me to get those vegetables the same day. After having made couple of calls, he patched me to the delivery guy and I made the same pitch to him. He seemed convinced and promised of delivering late night post 10. I thanked him profusely for his gesture and apologized for having missed his call.

However, what happened later left a distasteful experience. Nobody turned up until this morning. This ‘oh-so-innocuous’ act of theirs left me with a wasted day and my ‘recipe shooting’ schedule has gone awry. I fail to understand how they plan their deliveries and not account for any such instances. ‘Missing a call’ is such a common issue that they should plan for and shifting the delivery to next slot does not always work.

I hope someone in their team takes notice and makes their delivery pattern flexible and responsive to such occurrences.

As I said, I would want to forget this episode as an aberration into their otherwise decent track record.

Coming back to the recipe, I hope you are enjoying our Chaat series. This is a penultimate episode of the series. Check out our other Chaat recipes from the series.  We have been brain storming on such ‘recipe series’ ideas and have few lined up already. If you have any interesting ideas to share, please do let us know in the comment section below.

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Macaroni Bhel-Macaroni Chaat Recipe

Rating  4.0 from 1 reviews

Prep time:  10 mins

Cook time:  25 mins

Total time:  35 mins

Serves: 3-4

Ingredients

• 1 Cup=100 gms Macaroni Pasta
• ½ Cup=125 gms Peanuts
• 1 Large=120 gms Onions-finely chopped
• 1 Large=90 gms Tomatoes- finely chopped
• ½ Cup sprouted Moong-steamed
• ¼th Cup fresh Coriander Leaves-chopped
• Cooking Oil
• 2 tbsp Schezwan Chutney
• 1 Green Chilies-finely chopped
• 2 tbsp Tomato ketchup
• Salt
• ½ tsp Sugar

Instructions

1. To start with, we will boil the Pasta. Boil 5 Cups water in a large Pan. While boiling Pasta, ratio of 1:5 must be followed. For 1 Cup Pasta, we need 5 Cups Water
2. When water begins to boil, add 2 tsp Salt. Adding Salt ensures that Pasta does not taste bland. Now, add 1 tbsp Cooking Oil. This ensures that Pasta does not stick to each other. Cover the Pan and let the water boil. When water begins to boil, add Pasta into boiling water. We will cook pasta completely in the boiling water
3. We have cooked Pasta for about 12 mins on medium-high heat. Remove from water and spread in a plate. Spread in a large plate-so that Pasta does not stick to each other
4. Meanwhile, in another pan, heat Oil for frying. When Oil becomes hot, put Peanuts and fry on medium heat. Keep stirring to fry Peanuts from all sides. Fry until Peanuts become golden brown in color. We have fried Peanuts for about 3 mins. Remove from Pan
5. Now, we will fry the boiled pasta in batches. Pasta has a tendency to stick with each other in the Oil. Separate with a spoon. Fry on low-medium heat. Fry Pasta for 4 mins. Remove from Oil
6. Our fried pasta and fried peanuts are ready. Ensure you do not use it immediately. Allow to cool down for 10 mins. This ensures that Pasta and Peanuts remain crunchy in Bhel. If you use it immediately, it becomes soft and soggy
7. Take a large bowl. Put Pasta and Peanuts. Add steamed Moong. Add chopped Onions, Tomatoes, chopped Green Chilies, chopped Coriander Leaves and mix well. Now add Schezwan Chutney and Tomato Ketchup. Add Sugar and Salt to taste and mix well.
8. Now, cover the bowl with a lid and shake well

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