Bhejetebil Chop or the Bengali Vegetable Chop is a quintessential dish from the Bengals. This is a deep-fried vegetable cutlet that makes a sinful dish to be served during evening tea!
While I don’t drink tea or make elaborate dishes for tea time, during weekends it is a custom to nibble or munch on some snacks before enjoying my coffee. Hubby Dear is not very particular about a snack during evening time anyway.
So I didn’t technically serve these deep-fried Bengali Chops for the evening, rather it was for breakfast. We are on our final day of BM#104 Sweets & Snacks and we decided to make some Vegetable Chops from Bengal.
As I always say, I can’t remember how the whole month passed away so quickly! With not being ready with any dish, I somehow managed to cook 51 dishes. Only Ponk Vada was from Drafts. In many street food pairing, these chops are served with Ghuguni as well.
To prove myself wrong, I was able to make more than six to seven snacks at the same time and I managed it over the weekends somehow. However, I should plan to be better prepared next time!
Planning and cooking all the Mandatory dishes pushed me to find twists with Bhejetebil Chop!
Coming back to the theme, I enjoyed all my friends’ posts that got shared this edition and it was a good learning curve as well, reading up on new things.
I managed to cook the mandatory week dishes last weekend and since we had traveling plans, I even managed to schedule some posts. Unfortunately, rains played havoc on our plans, and the trip got canceled.
Else you wouldn’t have read so much about the Bengali Vegetable Chops we selected for today. As I had to make two versions, all the online sources had almost a similar recipe except for a handful of ingredients changed.
I still went ahead adapting two different sources for both my sites. For this site, I referred to Sandeepa’s version which calls for a Bhaja Masala, that I had previously made. I am noting it down here again as she had given a slightly different Bhaja Masala recipe here.
I made two different spice masala powder for the two versions I made. Both were equally good. Check out how I made the Veg Chops on Cooking 4 all Seasons.
Week 1 - Sweets (Indian Traditional Sweets)
Day 1 is Arcot Makkan Peda
Day 2 is Burhanpur Jalebi
Day 3 is Ghevar
Day 4 is Motichoor Ladoo
Day 5 is Ghotua Ladoo
Day 6 is Bandar Laddu
Week 2 - Snacks from the same State (Andhra)
Day 1 is Kara Sev
Day 2 is Kobbari Chegodilu
Day 3 is Karam Gavvalu
Day 4 is Garlic Kara Sev
Day 5 is Venna Murukulu
Day 6 is Palakayalu
Week 3 - Snacks of our choice (Vada Varieties)
Day 1 is Ponk Vada
Day 2 is Palak Vada
Day 3 is Cabbage Vada
Day 4 is Sabudana Vada
Day 5 is Mulai Keerai Masala Vadai
Day 6 is Instant Rava Vada
Week 4 - Mandatory Week
Day 1 is Andhra - Palli Pappu Chekkalu
Day 2 is Gujarat - Baked Handvo
Day 3 is Madhya Pradesh - Ratlami Masala Sev
Day 4 is Maharashtra -Kothimbir Vadi
Day 5 is Rajasthan - Kalmi Vada
Day 6 is Tamil Nadu - Baked Chocolate Ooty Varkey
Day 7 is Uttar Pradesh - Dahi Gujiya
PIN This Bhejetebil Chop for Later!
Step By Step Pictures to make Bengali Vegetable Chop
Bhejetebil Chop | How to make Bengali Vegetable Chop
Bhaja Masala:
Dry roast the whole spices listed under the masala.
Allow to cool down and then grind to a fine powder.
Notes from the author say that we can store this powder in an air-tight jar for months.
We can use it to sprinkle on chutneys and make more chops.
Vegetable Mash
Wash and cube the carrot and potato, pressure cook until soft.
Grate the beets and keep it aside.
Heat a little oil in a nonstick pan
Roast the peanuts for few mins, remove and keep aside
Next, add grated ginger, finely chopped green chilis saute well.
Then add the grated beets and cook well. Once done add the mashed vegetables, 3 tsp of Bhaja masala, red Chili Powder, salt to taste, and sugar if needed.
Saute until the excess water dries up and the veggies come together, leaving the sides.
Add finely chopped coriander leaves and roasted peanuts.
Adjust and add spices if needed.
Add the flour and bread crumbs for binding.
Let the mixture cool down, grease your palms and make them as croquettes or oblong or oval. I decided to make these as flattened balls as the regular cutlet shape.
A raisin is stuffed inside as well, so you can go ahead and do it. I skipped it.
For Coating & Frying
Make a batter with both the flour, salt, and pepper by adding water as required to make a thin batter.
Dip or drop the chop into the flour batter, roll well. Remove and roll it over the bread crumbs. Repeat the flour and bread crumb coating for a second time.
Refrigerate the croquettes/chops for an hour.
When ready to fry, remove, and keep on the counter.
Heat a Kadai with oil and on medium to low flame, deep fry the chops.
Let it turn golden brown on all sides and remove using a slotted ladle onto a kitchen towel to drain excess oil.
Serve hot with some ketchup and a salad of onion, cucumber.
Notes:
You could use besan batter for coating as well. The batter has to be thinner than pakodi batter. While cooking, make sure the besan scent is not there, so cook for a little longer.
If the vegetables have a lot of water, cook them before mashing, this ensures the veg mash gets cooked fast.
For the coating, use a fork and spoon to remove and transfer, which makes sure that excess breadcrumbs don’t stick.
I used fresh bread crumbs, so if you feel the coating becomes thick, you can Microwave the bread for 30 secs and then allow it to turn crispy before powdering it.
This will help in not sticking too much.
Flour batter also has to be thin.
This can be stocked for a week or so.
Recipe
Bhejetebil Chop | How to make Bengali Vegetable Chop
Ingredients
For the Bhaja Masala:
- 1/2 tsp Cumin seeds
- 1/2 tsp Fennel Seeds
- 1/2 tsp Coriander Seeds
- 6 Clove
- 3 Cardamom
- 1/2 inch Cinnamon
- 12 Peppercorn
- 2 to 3 nos Dry Red Chili
- 1 no Bay leaf
For the Vegetable Mash
- 2 medium Beetroot
- 2 medium Carrot
- 2 large Potato
- 1 tsp Cooking Oil
- 1 tsp Red Chili Powder
- Salt to taste
- A Pinch Sugar
- 1/4 cup Peanuts
- 1 inch Ginger
- 3 to 4 nos Green Chilies
- 3 tbsp All Purpose Flour
- 2 tbsp Bread Crumbs
- Handful Coriander leaves
For the Coating
- 1 cup All Purpose Flour
- 1 cup Bread Crumbs
- 1 tsp Pepper Powder
- A Pinch Salt
Instructions
Bhaja Masala:
- Dry roast the whole spices listed under the masala.
- Allow to cool down and then grind to a fine powder.
- Notes from the author say that we can store this powder in an air-tight jar for months.
- We can use it to sprinkle on chutneys and make more chops.
Vegetable Mash
- Wash and cube the carrot and potato, pressure cook until soft.
- Grate the beets and keep it aside.
- Heat a little oil in a nonstick pan
- Roast the peanuts for few mins, remove and keep aside
- Next, add grated ginger, finely chopped green chilis saute well.
- Then add the grated beets and cook well. Once done add the mashed vegetables, 3 tsp of Bhaja masala, red Chili Powder, salt to taste and sugar if needed.
- Saute until the excess water dries up and the veggies come together, leaving the sides.
- Add finely chopped coriander leaves and roasted peanuts.
- Adjust and add spices if needed.
- Add the flour and bread crumbs for binding.
- Let the mixture cool down, grease your palms and make them as croquettes or oblong or oval. I decided to make these as flattened balls as the regular cutlet shape.
- A raisin is stuffed inside as well, so you can go ahead and do it. I skipped it.
For Coating & Frying
- Make a batter with both the flour, salt, and pepper by adding water as required to make a thin batter.
- Dip or drop the chop into the flour batter, roll well. Remove and roll it over the bread crumbs. Repeat the flour and bread crumb coating for a second time.
- Refrigerate the croquettes/chops for an hour.
- When ready to fry, remove and keep on the counter.
- Heat a Kadai with oil and on medium to low flame, deep fry the chops.
- Let it turn golden brown on all sides and remove using a slotted ladle on to a kitchen towel to drain excess oil.
- Serve hot with some ketchup and a salad of onion, cucumber.
Notes
I have featured the entire list that you can prepare for Diwali on both SYL and C4AS Sweets and Snacks & Sweets & Snacks for Diwali.
Suma Gandlur says
Shaping them into patties helps them in shallow frying. These were pretty good. I did not make two versions but ended up making these twice and still have some in my refrigerator. 🙂 Valli, kudos to you for making that many dishes in one month. My local weather plays a spoilsport most of the time and it becomes hard if I didn't have at least some recipes ready for the marathon. It happens especially for the April marathon as it is winter here but this time, even September did not have many sunny days for me.
Harini Rupanagudi says
Wonderful recipe, Valli. I almost followed the same recipe but didn't deep fry 🙂 Kudos to your efforts and dedication in doing it in both the blogs.
amaracooking says
These Vegetable Chops look delicious Valli. I love your version more than mine. As Suma mentioned, hattsoff to you and your patience for making 52 dishes for this months marathon. You are an inspiration.
vaishalisabnani says
Awesome , the vegetable chops were a hit ! I think this was one of the most delicious recipes in this mandatory week .
Even I followed Sandeepa’s recipe and we all loved these chops .
This has been a great marathon , and of course kudos to you for working on two blogs ! You sure are a superwoman ????
Sushma Pinjala says
Lovely veg chops Valli, they have turned out so well, they were a bit hit in my house.
namscorner18 says
So crispy and crunchy veg shops. I also saw recipe of using bhaji Masala but just used garam masala. Hats off to you Valli. You made it and also posted everything on time. Need to learn a lot from you