Karapappalu - Crispy Ragi and Kale Patties

It's surely been a healthy ride these past couple of months...and still going! We're ending National Nutrition Month with a "Krispy" twist; scroll down for more details...

Every year my mom and I try various ways to eat better and stay healthy. Rice is our staple and we ate a lot of it. Alas, that has come to an end. Instead of eating rice heavy meals, we switched to salads for dinner. Don't get me wrong, I still eat rice but not as much as before. 

Does judge me when I say this but I love shopping for food items more than clothing. I love the aromas of different spices, herbs, fruits and vegetables. Our local farmers market has a good stock of vegetables and that's where we got the KALE. 

Didn't realize it at the time but I think we bought too much. So we started using it in everything. Even kale in Karapappalu! 

Karapappalu are crispy rice and moong dal patties that are a popular Telangana snack.  We got soo bored of eating salads few weeks back that we got creative and made Karapappalu with kale and other healthy ingredients. Check out the recipe below and tell us what you think:

Ingredients

- 1 cup Ragi flour

- 2 cups Rice flour

- 1 long squash

- 1 cup kale, finely chopped

- 1/3 cup moong dal, soaked in water for 30 minutes

- 1/2 Tbsp chili powder

- 3 Tbsp sesame seeds

- 2 Heaved Tbsp cornmeal

- 1/2 Tbsp Salt (or as needed)

- 2 to 3 cups Vegetable Oil (for frying)

Procedure

Combine all the dry ingredients in a medium to large bowl and mix well. Then add all the vegetables and soaked moong dal to the dry mixture and mix well. 

Slowly add water to the mixture and knead until it is of dough consistency. (Note: raw vegetables release water after few minutes of taking in salt, so keep the dough somewhat dry).

Heat oil in a frying pan on medium heat. Shape (lime size) dough balls into round flat ½ cm thick patties.

Quick tip: To avoid dough from sticking to your fingers, slightly wet your hands.  You can also use wax paper or plastic bag to press the dough into patties as shown below.

Transfer each shaped patty into hot oil and fry to golden brown/reddish color. 

For best results:  Use a steel skimmer to turn each patty in-between for even frying. Then use it to transfer the fried patty into a metal sieve resting in a bowl so that excess oil can be drained. After that, you can transfer the patty to a serving bowl (see video for for clarification). 

After the patties were ready, we served them with a dipping sauce we made with sour cream and crushed dried mint. You can use Greek yogurt instead of sour cream too.