It’s the weekend finally and I have a perfect recipe to share today – a low calorie beetroot cutlet that I made recently. I have just a few beetroot recipes on my blog and that’s because I am not a fan. While I really love beetroot halwa, I don’t enjoy a stirfry or paratha as much. All of that changed during this covid situation. At the beginning of the lockdown, I ordered a bunch of vegetables online and as such the selection was not that great. I chose vegetables that would stay fresh for over 20 days if there be a need. Along with the potatoes, onions and other root vegetables, I ordered a bag of beetroots too. After making beetroot poriyal a couple of times, I couldn’t take it anymore. I wanted to use them in a way all of us enjoyed. That’s when my sister-in-law shared a picture of her beetroot cutlets. That was a push enough for me to try it.
Those of you who know me, know my hatred for deep-frying. I wanted to make a snack/starter that is both light and guilt-free. So yes, this Beetroot Cutlet/Beetroot Tikki is a low calorie version made on tawa with very minimal oil. And yet, it turned out really crispy on the outside and soft/tender on the inside. This beetroot cutlet recipe is kind of a cross between the hara bhara kabab and raw banana cutlets, although I used boiled and grated potatoes along with beetroots. Potatoes are good enough for binding the ingredients together, but I also used some roasted gram flour. The tikkis are really flavorful with the addition of spice powders, fresh coriander leaves and of course finely chopped onions. To crisp the outer layer, I used semolina/rava. It is totally optional but I felt that it added a good crunch. Also, to perfectly cook these beetroot cutlets I pan fried them on low heat on my cast iron tawa.
Beetroot Cutlet is a delicious starter/appetizer and can be served with spicy green chutney. It can also be served with a hot cup of tea/coffee. I served a batch of these tikkis for the evening tea and converted some into tikki chaat (recipe coming up next). Cutlets can be prepared in advance, frozen or set in fridge until you are ready to make them. I can see myself making these often in my kitchen, as my family is a huge fan!
📖 Recipe
Pressure cook peeled beetroot and potatoes for 2 whistles. Let the pressure drop naturally.
Grate the beetroots and potatoes finely. To this, add finely chopped onions and coriander leaves.
In a small pan, dry roast gram flour/besan until nutty aroma comes up.
Add it to the beetroot mixture along with ginger garlic paste and other spice powders - red chilli powder, garam masala powder, coriander powder, cumin powder, dry mango powder, chaat masala and salt. Mix it well.
Divide the mixture into balls of equal size. Prepare cutlets of desired size and shape, set aside.
When the cutlets are shaped, press each one into the semolina/fine rava and coat both sides well.
Heat a flat cast iron pan and drizzle few drops of oil. Place the prepared cutlets in batches of 2-3 on the hot pan and cook on low flame until the bottom is golden brown.
Gently flip onto other side and drizzle some oil around the cutlets, cook until golden brown. Push the cooked cutlets to the sides of the pan, letting them cook on the sides crisping up for a few minutes before removing from heat.
Serve hot with spicy green chutney!
Cutlets/Tikkis can be prepared ahead of time and stored in deep freeze or fridge until ready to use. Make sure boiled potatoes and beetroots drained off the water as much as possible. Or else, cutlet mix will be runny, and shaping can be difficult. Adjust the amount of gram flour or besan depending on the consistency of the mixture. Bread crumbs can also be used in the place of gram flour. Adjust spices as per preference.
Reach out to me at [email protected]! Also follow me on: Facebook – Cooking From Heart Pinterest – Cookingfromheart Instagram – Cookingfromheart Twitter – Cookinfromheart
