Poha, carb lovers’ breakfast

Poha is the comfort food of my undergrad days spent in Northwestern India. It was something I hadn’t tasted till then, which suddenly become my breakfast staple for the four years I spent in Rajasthan. Poha is flattened rice that can be cooked quickly, and is the main ingredient of this recipe. The final dish is also called Poha. I decided to make some this morning, following this recipe for inspiration.

I heated my wok, added oil, and seasoned it with mustard seeds and dried red chillies. When the mustard spluttered, I added in curry leaves followed by raw peanuts (I’m lazy, so I didn’t peel the peanuts).

Once the nuts started toasting, I added in diced potatoes (that I had nuked in the microwave for 2 minutes in lightly salted water). I allowed these to brown a little as well.

The next step was tomatoes. If you read the recipe link, you must be wondering what’s going on. So yeah, I ran out of onions, and I decided I would use tomatoes to make myself feel better about the state of my pantry 😉 I also added in 1/4 tsp turmeric powder at this point.

Finally, the rinsed & moist poha (flattened rice) went in, with some more salt. Once thoroughly mixed, I squeezed fresh lemon (1/2 small lemon) on it for tartness.

Ta-da! Kids eat it with ketchup, and grownups.. also eat it with ketchup 😀