Bengali Style Vegetable Chop | Vegetable Croquette

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Bengali Vegetable Chop or Vegetable Croquette is a popular snack made with beetroot, carrot, and potatoes, spices, breadcrumbs, and deep fried until golden brown. It is a well-known street food from Bengal and completely vegan.

Vegetable chop is nothing but vegetable croquettes. In Bengal, it is often pronounced as Bhejitabil chop. Bengal has varieties of inexpensive finger-licking street foods and chop is one of them.

Brief History of Chop

Bengal's cuisine has colonial influence and chop is an example of it. Chops were part of Anglo-Indian Cuisine and slowly became the part of Bengali cuisine. During British era, chops were prepared using meat pieces or minced meat dipped in egg, coated with bread crumbs and deep fried. READ MORE

Slowly, meat were replaced varieties of vegetables including potato, banana blossom, winter vegetables and so on. As vegetables were cheaper option, chop became a popular street food in Bengal. You will get this popular snack in almost every corner in neighborhood snack shops in Bengal (para r more telebhaja r dokan e).

What are the vegetables used in Vegetable Chop?

Bengali Style Vegetable Chop or veg chop contains beetroot, carrot, potatoes and sometimes green peas. The combination of vegetables indicates that this famous vegetable chop must have originated during winter. However, now it is available throughout the year. If you are making Bengali style Vegetable Chop avoid adding any other vegetables than mentioned above. Also, this Bengali Veg Chop is a no onion no garlic snack.

Step-by-step Instructions of Vegetable Chop Recipe

There are three key steps to this vegetable chop recipe. First, make the dry roasted spice mix that will be used later. The second step is to make the chop filling or chop mixture. The final step is to prepare the chop by preparing the outer covering and deep frying it.

In a wok, dry roast all of the whole spices. Try not to burn them. Allow them to cool completely. Then, powder the spices and set aside.

Peel the potatoes, beets, and carrots and cut them into medium-sized cubes.
Put the vegetable cubes in a pressure cooker with 1 cup of water and cook for two whistles.  Allow them to cool after draining the water.  Beet, carrot, and potato pieces should be mashed together.

Now, heat 1 tablespoon of oil and stir in the grated ginger.  Then add the grated and mashed vegetables and mix thoroughly.  After that, add the dry roasted spice mix, crushed peanuts, sugar, and salt to taste. Allow to cool after thoroughly stirring until the moisture has evaporated.

In a mixing bowl, combine corn flour, a pinch of salt, and a little water (about 1 cup) to make a batter. On the other hand, spread the breadcrumbs on a plate and mix in a little salt.

Once the chop mixture has cooled, divide it into equal portions, each of which should be the size of a large lemon. Take each portion and shape it into the shape you want (cylindrical or round). Now dip each chop into the corn flour mixture and coat well with breadcrumbs. Repeat the coating process, dipping in corn flour batter and coating in breadcrumbs.

Refrigerate the veg chops for at least 30 minutes after coating. Heat the oil in a wok over medium heat and deep fry each chop until golden brown in color. Remove them from the oil and place them on a kitchen towel to absorb any excess oil. Serve hot with a sprinkle of black salt on top.

Can I prepare Vegetable Chop without breadcrumbs?

Bread crumbs is an important ingredient of vegetable chop. After the patties are prepared, they are dipped in corn flour and coated in bread crumbs which gives the nice and crunchy outer shell to the chop.

How to make perfect breadcrumbs at home?

I often get this kind of queries from readers. Instead of ready made bread crumbs you can prepare your own bread crumb at home. We often throughout leftover slices of breads. Next time don't trash your leftover bread slices.

Instead toast them well but make sure slices should not get burnt. You can either use toaster, oven or stove top for toasting your bread slices. Allow them to cool. Now cut the toasted bread slices into small pieces and grind in mixer to get your homemade bread crumbs. You can store it in an airtight container in the fridge for later use.

Why is double coating required for Bengali Chop or Croquettes?

Once you shape the patties, initially you dip in cornflour slurry and coat with bread crumbs. After the first coating, the patties are again dipped in corn flour slurry and coated with bread crumbs.

Double-coating of croquettes or cutlets helps to coat each patty properly and also give the firmness to the patty. Hence, while you deep fry the cutlets in oil, they will not break. Double-coating gives the croquettes extra crunch and they don't turn out soggy.

Can I prepare the Bengali Vegetable Chop ahead?

Of course! You can prepare the mixture for chop a day ahead and give them shape, coat them with bread crumbs and store it in airtight container and keep them frozen. Make sure they should not stick to each other.

DO NOT thaw them.Take them out and deep fry them in oil under medium heat.

How to serve Bengali Chop?

Vegetable chop is a popular street food. It is served as evening snack. However, in marriage parties (Bangali bie barite) it is often served as no onion no garlic vegetarian starter.

Popularly, you can serve it with ketchup along with evening tea. In Bengal, it is served with Kasundi (Bengali style mustard sauce). We love our vegetable chop with puffed rice aka Muri.

If you are looking for some deep fried vegetarian snacking options, then here are some for you

Potato Stuffed Bread Roll

Kucho Nimki

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