Bunny Chow is a delicious street food from South African made with meat, chickpea in an aromatic sauce served in a hollow bread. You can think this a burger Sandwich as well!
Bunny Chow, often referred to as a bunny, is a South African fast food dish consisting of a hollowed out loaf of bread filled with curry [Wiki]. This delicious dish is supposed to have originated in the Durban Indian community, where bread is stuffed with a spice protein rich curry. It can be made with meat, chickpea or vegetables.
While there are so many references to this dish on the internet, I checked out this one and adapted to my own version. The version I checked was with chicken, and I simply replaced it with chickpea as I saw so many vegetarian versions with chickpea and potato. Don’t let the long list of ingredients scare you. As with most Indian recipes, there are a variety of spices and other ingredients used. If you plan well, you can easily make it very quick.
Just a few months back, I was doing a theme on quick breakfast dishes for kids and I happen to make this Quick Microwave Bunny Chow, using buns with leftover Chickpea Curry. However, that was my regular Chana masala.
Since I always make Poori Chana Masala twice a month, I planned my Bunny Chow on the day I was making. I made the regular curry and then took some of these bunny chows. The final dish was an instant hit. Both Konda and Peddu wanted more than the 4 buns that I made.
Bunny Chow is my choice for B, and I didn’t even search for anything else as I had this dish on my todo for a long time. This Mega BM, I had decided to clear my todo list and reached some goal. This is part of our Mega BM themed on “Explore the Flavours”, and I am doing A to Z International Street Food.
This was the first dish I made way back in Jan during the Sankranthi weekend. In fact, during that time, I hadn’t planned for doing a theme in C4AS, so I had cooked about 4 to 5 street food that weekend, out of which I had to repeat a couple again later. If you haven’t checked yet, I am doing A to Z International Flatbreads in Cooking 4 all Seasons. If you are interested to know the Flatbread for B, check this post.
In this A to Z International Street Foods:
A for Arancini / Arancini di Riso: Sicilian Rice Balls
B for Bunny Chow
Step By Step Picture for making Bunny Chow
Bunny Chow | Vegetarian Curried Chickpea in Bun
Ingredients Needed:
For the Chickpea Stew
1 cup Chana / Chickpea, boiled
2 tsp Butter
1 tsp Ginger minced
2 tsp Garlic minced
1 tbsp Chana Masala
3 /4 cup Onions finely chopped
3 /4 cup Tomato Puree
½ cup Tomato finely chopped
1 tsp Garam Masala
1 tsp Red Chilli Powder
Salt to Taste
Pepper Powder to Taste
To Assemble the Bunnies
4 Burger Buns
1 cup Onions, finely chopped
1 cup Tomatoes finely chopped
Coriander Leaves for garnish.
Making the Chickpea Stew
Soak the Chana overnight and pressure cook till soft. Keep it aside.
What makes this dish really different is making the chickpea masala on a tawa or an almost flat pan.
Melting butter and cooking on high flame gets you the flavour you would normally associate with the street food.
Heat a tawa/pan with butter, quickly saute the minced garlic and ginger. Then add finely chopped onions.
Saute well and add the spice powders. Add the chopped tomato pieces.
Next, add the tomato puree and cook on high until the puree is cooked.
Then add the cooked chana and little bit water for all the ingredients to combine well.
Adjust spice and seasoning. Add Sambar powder if you want to get the curry effect.
However, I added some chana masala gravy towards the end to make it more stew like.
Assembling the Bunnies
Heat a tawa with butter and toast the bunnies if required.
Make a small opening on the top and remove it, making it hollow to hold the chickpea stew.
Pour the gravy into it, garnish with chopped onions, tomatoes, coriander leaves. Cover with the top or serve as such.
Bunny Chow | Vegetarian Curried Chickpea in Bun
Ingredients
For the Chickpea Stew
- 1 cup Chana / Chickpea, boiled
- 2 tsp Butter
- 1 tsp Ginger minced
- 2 tsp Garlic minced
- 1 tbsp Chana Masala
- 3 /4 cup Onions finely chopped
- 3 /4 cup Tomato Puree
- 1/2 cup Tomato finely chopped
- 1 tsp Garam Masala
- 1 tsp Red Chilli powder
- Salt to taste
- Pepper Powder to Taste
To Assemble the Bunnies
- 4 Burger Buns
- 1 cup Onions finely chopped
- 1 cup Tomatoes finely chopped
- Coriander leaves for garnish.
Instructions
Making the Chickpea Stew
- Soak the Chana overnight and pressure cook till soft. Keep it aside.
- What makes this dish really different is making the chickpea masala on a tawa or an almost flat pan.
- Melting butter and cooking on high flame gets you the flavour you would normally associate with the street food.
- Heat a tawa/pan with butter, quickly saute the minced garlic and ginger. Then add finely chopped onions.
- Saute well and add the spice powders. Add the chopped tomato pieces.
- Next, add the tomato puree and cook on high until the puree is cooked.
- Then add the cooked chana and little bit water for all the ingredients to combine well.
- Adjust spice and seasoning. Add Sambar powder if you want to get the curry effect.
- However, I added some chana masala gravy towards the end to make it more stew like.
Assembling the Bunnies
- Heat a tawa with butter and toast the bunnies if required.
- Make a small opening on the top and remove it, making it hollow to hold the chickpea stew.
- Pour the gravy into it, garnish with chopped onions, tomatoes, coriander leaves. Cover with the top or serve as such.
Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM# 87
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18 comments
Bunny Chow, the name itself wants me to try it !!! Wow, such a interesting and delicious dish,Valli. You’re saying that it’s my to do list for long time, but here i’m hearing it for first time. Guess, i’m going to learn a lot from this mega BM.
Chickpeas and aloo are perfect ingredients to substitute and make any dish veg isn’t it ..the channa curry looks so very delicious in those fluffy buns valli , am drooling… What a wonderful selection for the letter B , The name is so fancy am loving it 😀 I would love to try this some day , it looks so tempting .. What an wonderful presentation 🙂
Bunny chows are a South African Indian speciality dish which was created when Indians came to work as indigenous labourers in sugar cane farms in South Africa. They had to walk for many kilometres and work in the hot sun so the only way they could keep their meals fresh until lunch times was to hollow out loaves of bread or half loaves of bread and fill them with curry. Also Indians were not allowed to eat with Whites in the demonic Apartheid era hence they had to eat in the sugar cane fields.
Even I can finish 4 of them at once, how addictive they are. The name itself is intriguing enough to try the Bunny chows ????
Ya Valli I remember that MW version and to tell the truth the name Bunny Chow got stuck in my head ! Have been waiting to make it ever since , one has to start drooling over such food right away . I have loved this version to the core … street food at its best ! .., and we are looking for more :))
I remember making this a long time back for one of the BM editions. I have wanted to make it again but I rarely repeat the dishes once they are posted on the blog! this is such a yummy street food and even I wont mind eating 4-5 of these if they look so delicious!
Wow! Those buns look so tempting. I am sure it is an addictive street food to be had at home. Love the chole masala in there! Fantastic adaptation.
Lovely presentation of Bunny Chow Valli. I love the buns you used – they seem to be the right size to stuff. Yummy chickpea filling – the whole plate looks very inviting.
This is on my to do list for long too and love the way you have adapted it to vegetarian version.
BTW your buns look right size. Haven’t noticed these kind of burger buns with this much of depth to hold the curry.
I watched a show about these bunny chow a few years back and I was so interested to try. But somehow I skipped making it. The bread bowl and the delicious chickpea filling sounds like an amazing combo. And I was wondering about the bread too. Didn’t know about this type of buns which are nice and deep and perfect for this dish.
Wow awesome .. I want some bunny chow now.. Like this idea of making a burger cup.. Kids will surely love this..
i had this on my to-do list but never came around.. I love these cute pick-me-ups 🙂
i remember your quick version valli! looks tempting ! Kids must be very excited seeing these cuties! i m sure my boys would be super excited when i make them!!!
Bunny chow rocks, i seriously want to make some for our weekend lunch, love this kind of delicious and super quick dishes especially on weekend. Beautifully done.
Bunny chow was my one of the recipe choices for alphabet B. Looks so delicious Valli. This is definitely a very filling brunch idea and would be a great choice to serve to kids. The name and the way the dish is presented will excite all the kids.
Love how you made this as a veggie dish with the familiar channa stew. Love the name bunny chow . Perfect for weekend brunch.
I made bunny chow for another BM theme, and since then its a regular on our table. Love it. A healthy and filling street food.
Wow.. lovely snack.. most of time we prepared this type snack for kitty party.. bun stuffed with chili paneer and cheese.