A popular street food from Mumbai, the sev puri is a layered snack with sweet, spicy, tangy flavors on a bed of papdi and boiled potatoes. This no cook, vegan recipe is a great evening snack idea and much loved by everyone
I had been craving a chatpata sev puri for the longest time. I remember, I’d asked a friend to make it for me for our Diwali party too. Sadly, that didn’t happen and I kept longing for it. So, finally, this weekend I rolled up my sleeves and made a spicy, sweet and tangy papdi chaat for our evening tea time snack. I made a big batch just for the husband and myself so that I could satisfy my long pending craving for it. And satisfy I did! I had so much of that I didn’t even need to have dinner last evening. The best part about my easy sev puri recipe is that, it comes together rather quickly. This is a no cook recipe, however it does have it’s fair share of cut and chopping to do. That is because, the sev puri is assembled in layers. Layers of potato chunks, onions and chilis, chutneys, sprinkling of masalas and finally some coriander leaves.
Therefore the cutting and chopping of the vegetables takes some time. Besides this, you will also need to make three chutneys for this easy sev puri recipe. The three are, a spicy coriander and mint chutney, a sweet and tangy dates and tamarind chutney and thirdly fiery chili garlic chutney. The chili garlic chutney is my favorite. In Mumbai, from where I belong, these are the three chutneys the street vendors selling chaat use for sev puris. Loaded with boiled potatoes, chutneys and sev, this Indian street food is one of my favorites.
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Sev puri
The beauty of this delicious vegan snack recipe is that, you can modify it as per your taste, effortlessly. For instance, if you like it sweeter you could add more of the dates chutney, if you like it more savory then add more of the coriander and mint chutney. And if like me, you’d like your sev puri to be hot, it’s going to be more of the red chutney. However, that’s not all. You could even drizzle some chilled, sweetened yoghurt too over the boiled potatoes laden papdis to make a yummy dahi papdi chaat. The yoghurt makes the snack milder and much cooler. Thereby making it perfect to enjoy in the summers. In the colder days, I like to keep it spicy and fiery. 🙂
Coming back to my sev puri, I like to also sprinkle my sev puri with a dry masala mix of black and pink salts, chaat masala and red chilli powder. This makes the snack even more chatpata, just how we love it. The sev puri is finally topped generously with nylon sev, coriander leaves and pomegranate pearls. While the sev is a quintessential part of any Mumbai chaat, the coriander and pomegranate deliver a burst of freshness to the chaat. In Mumbai, the street food vendors even add chopped raw mango pieces to the sev puri, which I love to bits. Since I didn’t have have any on me when I made this yesterday, they aren’t there in my recipe. Nonetheless, if you find raw mangoes and like them, do add them to yours.
Serving suggestion
You can serve your lip smacking sev puri as an evening snack and also as a party appetizer. Not only are they yummy but also the easiest to make when entertaining guests. However, make sure to add a balanced mix of the chutneys when making for a bigger group. And if you do happen to try my sev puri recipe I’d love to hear how you enjoyed it. You could also share your food pictures with me over on Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest. I’d be thrilled to hear back from you.
Eat hearty!
Easy sev puri recipe
Ingredients
- 15-20 papdis for sev puri
- ¼ cup nylon sev
- ½ cup boiled potatoes chopped finely
- ½ cup tomatoes chopped finely
- ½ cup onions chopped finely
- 2 fresh chilis chopped finely (optional)
- 4-5 tbsp coriander leaves chopped finely
- ¼ cup pomegranate pearls
- 2 tbsp pink salt
- 1 tbsp black salt kala namak
- 1 tbsp chaat masala
- 1 tbsp chili powder optional
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
For the coriander-mint chutney (green chutney)
- ½ cup coriander leaves
- ½ cup mint leaves
- 1 tsp cumin seeds
- 2-3 chilis optional
- 1 tbsp ginger chopped
- salt to tate
For the red chili chutney (red chili chutney)
- 5-6 dried red chilis soaked in hot water for 30 minutes
- 4-5 cloves garlic
- salt to taste
For the dates and tamarind chutney (sweet chutney)
- ½ cup tamarind seedless
- ½ cup dates pitted and roughly chopped
- 1 cup jaggery
- 1 tsp ginger grated
- 1½ cups water
- 1 tsp pink salt
Instructions
- To make the green, spicy chutney, grind all its ingredients to a smooth paste along with ¼ cup water. Remove and set it aside
- To make the sweet and tangy chutney, set a sauce pan with all ingredients under "dates chutney" to cook over medium flame. Once the jaggery melts and the syrup thickens, remove from flame. Let this cool down then blend it to a smooth paste
- To make the red chili chutney, drain the chilis and grind it with the garlic, water and salt to a smooth paste. Remove in a bowl and set it aside
- In a small bowl, mix together the pink and black salts, chaat masala and red chili powder (if using) and keep it aside
- In your serving dish, place the papdis (preferably in a single layer). top it up with the boiled potatoes, then the onions, tomatoes, chilis and some chopped coriander leaves. Sprinkle some of the masala mix (don't go overboard as all the chutneys too have salt in them) and lime juice
- Top this up with the green, red and dates chutneys (amount of each could vary as per taste). Garnish with the sev, chopped coriander leaves and pomegranate pearls
- Serve you lip smacking and chatpata sev puri right away and enjoy!
Notes
- 1 cup = 250 millilitres
- tbsp - tablespoon
- tsp - teaspoon
