What is poha?
Poha or pohe are flattened rice flakes. It is made by dehusking rice and parboiling it. It is later dried and flattened with iron rollers. There are two varieties of flattened rice - thick or medium and thin beaten rice. While thin poha is used in poha chivda which is a roasted teatime mixture, thick poha or jada pohe is used in breakfast dish. Learn to make this easy poha recipe here.
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health benefits of poha
There is a lot of nutritional value of poha. It is actually a healthy vegan gluten-free kid friendly breakfast. Great even for people with hypothyroidism. Cooking pohe is not rocket science. It is quite simple and it does get ready very fast. Hence, works great for a quick breakfast. Bachelors can cook it too if they want to eat something healthy than a takeaway. It is simple and much healthier than eating junk outside. Rice flakes also have more iron than plain rice due to the pounding effect from the Iron beater.
How to make pohe?
Ingredients
- Pohe or thick(medium) rice flakes
- Onions
- Tomatoes
- Potatoes
- Turmeric powder
- Red chilli powder
- Curry leaves
- Green chili
- Peanuts
- Peas
- Salt as per taste
Instructions
- Soak the medium thick rice flakes in little water in a bowl for not more than a minute. Alternatively, you can also add jada poha to a sieve and hold it under running water so that it becomes moist. Later put the sieve on a bowl, so that extra water drains away. This way, your rice flakes will not clump up.
- Add turmeric powder, red chilli powder, salt to the moist rice flakes.
- Heat 2 tablespoon oil in a pan, Fry some peanuts and add chopped potatoes to it.
- While potatoes cook on a side, add the mustard seeds, chopped green chilies and curry leaves to it.
- Now, add chopped onions to it and mix well.
- Once onions are pink, add chopped tomatoes to the pan.
- Once tomatoes soften, add peas and mix well.
- Now add the pohe to the pan and mix well. Sprinkle little water, around 2 spoons is enough. If water is more, it will become clumps.
- Cover with lid, so that it becomes bit moist and let it cook for 5-7 mins over low heat.
- Serve hot with dash of lemon juice, sev and chopped coriander leaves for garnish.
Serving suggestion: Add some pomegranate seeds to improve Iron.
Looking for easy breakfast recipes?
Veg Poha recipe
Equipment
- frying pan
Ingredients
- 1 cup Pohe or thick rice flakes washed in a colander
- 2 small onions diced
- 1 potato diced
- 1 medium tomato diced
- ¼ cup green peas optional
- ¼ cup roasted or fried groundnuts optional
For tempering
- 2 tablespoon oil
- Few curry leaves
- 1 teaspoon mustard seeds or rai
- 1 teaspoon turmeric
- 1-½ teaspoon red chilly powder
- Salt as per your taste
Instructions
- Soak the rice flakes in little water fir not more than a minute,drain the excess water in a sieve,Spread out the poha in a plate.
- Add turmeric powder, red chilli powder, salt to the moist rice flakes,let it aside.
- Heat 2 tablespoon oil in a pan, Fry some peanuts and add chopped potatoes to it.
- While potatoes cook on a side, add the mustard seeds, chopped green chillies and curry leaves to it.
- Now, add chopped onions to it and mix well.
- Sauté onions until they become slightly pinkish. Once onions are pink, add chopped tomatoes to the pan.
- Once tomatoes soften, add peas and mix well.
- Now add the pohe to the pan and mix slowly.Add 2-3 tablespoon of water.
- Cover with lid, so that it becomes bit moist and let it cook for 5-7 mins on low flame
- Serve hot with dash of lemon,sev and coriander for garnish.
Notes
You may also add green chopped chilli and spoonful of sugar optionally.
If you want a more healthier option, you may add grated carrots with potatoes.
Variations
Oats pohe and Indori pohe are two other ways of having a hearty breakfast. You can either make oat version with only oats or add half oats and half thick rice flakes in the above recipe. Some people also add cumin seeds in tempering, a spoonful of sugar and grated coconut to it in garnish.Ujjaini or Indori version is steamed and served with onions,aloo sev namkeen and jeeravan masala while the Mumbai/Pune one with lot of onions, potatoes and peanuts. Pair it with Jalebi for the best breakfast ever.No one can get enough of Poha jalebi!
You can also make vegetable poha with red rice poha. We also use rice flakes to make cutlets instead of using bread crumbs in tikki.We also make poha kheer, dudh poha and dahi poha for kids.
Significance of Pohe
The significance of this dish can be seen in Maharashtra. Authentic pohe recipe actually marks a beginning of a relationship. It is served as snack when the families of the to be bride and groom meet to confirm wedding relations. You may also remember the famous Marathi movie Sanai Choughade. Most college, office canteens as well as hostel mess serve it at least once a week, either as breakfast or snack. You can also gulp it down with tea or coffee. Even have it with yogurt if not eating it vegan. Here is a recipe where we have added a lot of veggies to the basic recipe.
Storage
Store it in refrigerator for 1-2 days in an air tight jar. Steam or microwave before serving.
FAQs
Rinse 2-3 cups in water and soak it for around 5 mins. It becomes soft and can be mashed by fingers.
If you leave it in open, it tends to become dry. Overstraining can also make it dry.
It is rich in Iron, Vitamins A,C and Phosphorus.
There are numerous recipes that you can make with Poha.
Vegan and gluten-free pohe is light and tasty way to start your day. It is staple across Mainly states of Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh. It was ruled by Holkar dynasty and hence has similar cuisine. You can see many versions of pohe like kanda poha recipe ( only onions), batata poha (only potato), kanda batata pohay (both onions and tomatoes) depending on the vegetables used. Indori pohay recipe or Ujjaini pohay is a steamed street food version. Pohey is also called as avalakki, atukulu or aval upma in South India and known as aloo pohey in Gujarat.
There are multiple types of Pohay available in the market. Primarily there are three types
--Thin
--Medium Thick
--Thick.
For this recipe, we prefer the Medium thick variety. The thin and thick variety is used in chivda.
Andrew Macmilan says
I will try this at home.