Banarasi Chura Matar or Chooda Matar or Matar Poha recipe – A warm, savoury breakfast made with Poha( beaten rice), green peas, coriander leaves and a few changeable ingredients to ward off all the tensions for sometimes and to light up our mood! Just LOOK at that incredible colour, the texture, the freshness of the dish, how vibrant it is!
The key is not to get depressed or fearful, but to thriving is the ability to keep my mind engaged during this pandemic. Pantry hunting and then cooking different recipes with my pantry and freezer ingredients excite me a lot and keeps my mind busy!
There is hardly an Indian household that doesn’t have Poha or Chire in the cupboard or pantry. Chirer Polao has fed Bengalis and Kanda batata Poha has fed Marasthrians for generations for Breakfast, right?
The secret to making an amazing Poha Recipe!
The key step to making an amazing Poha recipe is to use Extra Thick Poha or Extra Thick Rice flakes. No one enjoys a soggy or mushy Poha dish. Extra thick Poha, not only holds its shape but also absorbs all the flavours and gives a wonderful texture to the dish after cooking.
Banaras version of Poha
Last week a random thought came to my mind and I thought let’s check on the internet what are the other Poha recipes we can try. Then I came across this UP style Chura Matar recipe. I checked a couple of sites to get an idea. I was looking for more stories about this dish, but all I came to know is this recipe is very popular winter delicacy in Banaras. Sooner or later, I knew that I am going to make this dish for our Breakfast.
It was a cold rainy morning. I wanted to make a warm, savoury breakfast using Poha. If I don’t get a chance to do my weekly meal prep and not ready for next day’s breakfast, or If I am not sure what to make for breakfast, I make my all-time favourite Bengali Chirer polao, or sometimes I make Poha. It was that kind of week, and I couldn’t decide what to make for Breakfast. But this time I wanted to make something else but, not The regular chirer pulao or Poha. So made this Chooda Matar.
Why did I want to make this Chura Matar?
- Glutenfree Breakfast-Currently, I am following a gluten-free diet.
- Pantry staple ingredients -Like Rice, Lentils, Oil, Poha is also one of the emergency pantry staple ingredients for me, so I always keep a packet of thick Poha or rice flakes in stock.
- Tastes difference-. It tastes unlike regular Poha or Chirer polao.
- No onion No Garlic– Perfect for those days when we follow no onion no garlic sattvic diet.
As I am trying to ration our meals to avoid going out as long as we can, at the same time, I am trying to cook meals without compromising taste and health. The flavour of this dish comes from garam masala, Hing and coriander leaves. Even you can skip coriander leaves if you don’t have into your fridge.
Here is my take on UP style Chura/Chooda Matar recipe. I can’t say that this is an authentic recipe but I can vouch that it’s a delicious recipe to try! Try this recipe and please stay at home to fight against this virus and take care. If you find this recipe share with others.
Chura Matar
Ingredients
- 1 cup Thick flattened rice or Poha - ~ 100gm
- ¼ cup Frozen peas - ~ 30gm
- 10 gm Cashews - ~ 8-9 pcs
- 10 gm Raisins - ~ 20 pcs
- ½ tsp Cumin seeds
- 1 fat pinch Asafoetida - or Hing
- 2 Green chilli - chopped
- 1 tsp Ginger - grated
- ½ tsp Black pepper powder
- ¼ tsp Garam Masala
- ½ tsp Sugar - optional
- 1 tsp Lemon juice
- 1 tbsp Vegetable oil
- 1 tsp Coriander leaves - chopped
- 1½ tsp Ghee
Instructions
- Soak raisins into the water for half an hour. Then remove from water.
- Rinse the Poha and soak into water for at least 10 minutes. Then transfer the Poha on a sieve or colander, drain the water.
- Heat the oil in a heavy-duty cooking pot over medium-high heat.
- Reduce the heat to medium-low, add cashews and fry them, remove from oil.
- Next, add cumin seed, Hing, ginger, green chillies. Keep stirring for a few seconds.
- Add in frozen peas, cook further few seconds.
- Add in raisins, fried cashews, Poha, sprinkle salt, sugar, sprinkle garam masala, black pepper powder, ghee and give a quick mix, cook for a few minutes or until the raw smell of the Poha removed.
- Add chopped coriander leaves and lemon juice. Mix everything well.
- Turn off the heat, cover with a lid and give at least five minutes resting or standing time before serve.