Lentil Fritters in Eggplant, Sweet Potato Coconut Stew – Inspired Bengali Chapor Ghonto. Indian Veggie Stew with Moong Dal patties. Vegan Gluten-free Soyfree Nutfree Indian Recipe.
Indian cuisine is so amazingly vast with many many ways of using local and seasonal veggies, all the various legumes, spices and herbs in various forms, at various times in the recipes for a completely different flavor and texture profile. We haven’t even scratched that vastness on the blog yet! Lets get cooking.
This Eastern Indian Veggie stew uses Bengali paanch phoron spices to make a delicious stew of seasonal veggies (squashes, eggplant, gourd, pumpkin etc) which is served with lentil fritters/dumplings. The fritters are made with various lentils such as Moong Dal, Split peas or other and are generally fried. I make a thinner batter and panfry them as pancakes. The fritters are soaked in the stew and served as is or with sides like spiced potatoes. Try this Amazing Stew and adjust flavor to preference.
More regional Indian Recipes from the blog. Many different flavors!
- Kolhapuri Vegetables – Veggies in Sesame coconut sauce. IP option
- Lentil Veggie Dhansak – Yellow lentils and veggies with caramelized onion
- Carrot Green Beans Poriyal – Green beans and carrots stir fry with coconut.
- Chana Ghassi with tomato Rice (Chickpeas in coconut onion sauce)
- Eggplant Sambhar – Instant Pot. (Split pea stew)
Have you tried any of the not so known Indian recipes from the blog? Also, so hard to make some Indian food look good in photos :). Think delicious and dont let the eyes decide! There is often a curve to appreciating certain flavor combinations in certain dishes. If you are new to Indian cuisine, start with some of the popular dishes like Butter Tofu, Tikka Masala, Aloo Gobi etc.
I had made this dish on my Insta stories a few months back. These days with the constant pressure to keep the blog in the popularity game (videos, same popular recipes, constantly changing social media), the exploration and adventure in food suffers. The not as known recipes then get put in a back queue. I try to keep them distributed in the posts every so often. If you make any of the recipes that is new to you, do leave a comment on the post!
These fritters are delicious as is! Serve with chutneys or sauces of choice.
Lentil Fritters in Eggplant, Sweet Potato Coconut Stew - Inspired Bengali Chapor Ghonto
Ingredients
Fritters:
- 1 cup (192 g) moong dal petite (oval yellow lentils) or red lentils (masoor dal)
- 1/2 tsp (0.5 tsp) salt
- 1/4 tsp (0.25 tsp) turmeric
- 1/2 (0.5 ) green chile optional
- 1/2 inch (0.5 inch) ginger
- 1/4 cup (38.5 g) corn
Stew:
- 1/2 tsp (0.5 tsp) oil
- 1 tsp or more paach phoron or use 1/4 tsp each of fennel seeds, cumin seeds, mustard seeds, nigella seeds and 1/8 tsp fenugreek seeds
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 dried red chile or use pepper flakes to taste
- 1 medium eggplant cubed small (or use other veggies like cauliflower, zucchini, broccoli)
- 1 small sweet potato cubed small or 1 cup (I used frozen sweet potato medly with purple, orange and yellow)
- 1 large carrot chopped or other veggies
- 1/2 tsp (0.5 tsp) turmeric
- 3/4 cup (187.5 ml) water
- 1/2 tsp (0.5 tsp) salt
- 2 tbsp shredded coconut
- cayenne or black pepper to taste lemon juice to taste
- coconut for garnish minced ginger and sliced green chile for garnish
Instructions
- Fritters: Soak the dal in hot water for 15 minutes (soak for longer (30 to 45 mins) for better results). Drain and blend with the rest of the ingredients except corn to make smooth thick batter. Add a few tbsp or so water if needed. Transfer the batter to a bowl. Fold in sweet corn or other small chopped veggies into the batter. (add paprika or cayenne to taste for heat and color). See below for how to use the batter that is stuck to the blender.
- Heat a skillet over medium heat. Spray oil. When hot, add dollops of the batter and cook 3 minutes per side to make fat pancakes. Keep aside
- Stew: Heat oil in a saucepan over medium heat.
- Add the paanch phoron spices and cook until the spices star to pop. Add bay leaf and red chile and mix for a few seconds
- Add the veggies and turmeric and cook for a few minutes. (You can also add a tsp minced garlic at this point and mix in.)
- Add salt and water and partially cover and cook for 8 minutes. Taste and adjust salt and flavor. I usually rinse the blender that I used to make the lentil batter, with a 1/4 cup of water and add to the stew. This cleans up the blender and thickens the stew. You can also reserve 1 tbsp of batter from above and add that instead. Or use 1/4 cup cooked red lentils or Moong dal. * Many thickening options 🙂
- Continue to cook until veggies are tender to preference. Add more water if needed. Fold in the coconut. Add a tsp of minced ginger and minced green chile (optional but they add amazing flavor). Taste and adjust salt, flavor, heat. (This dish is different flavor profile. To make it more familiar, you can add a bit of garam masala). Add the fritters and let them soak for a minute before serving (or serve on the side). Garnish with coconut, lemon juice and cilantro.
Notes
Nutrition
I only have brown lentils, will those work for the fritters?
Cook the lentils and use them. 35 minutes cook time.
I just made this and it is delicious! I love all of the flavors of the stew. The lentil fritters are AMAZING!! I love them! I was wondering if I wanted the make the fritters as an appetizer, what would you recommend as a nice sauce to go with them? something maybe creamy based.
Thank you for another fantastic recipe!
i usually serve them with either cilantro mint chutney or coconut chutney. Both are on the blog. You can also serve them with vegan ranch.
I love the “less well known” recipes. Indian cuisine never fails to entice and amaze me. The creativity and vastness, as you said. Thank you for posting this, I will be making this soon! Keep them coming!
Thanks!
Would it be possible to use Toor Dal in place of the other lentils?
yes. soak it for 2 hours before using
Loved this! You’d never find this on an Indian restaurant menu that just has the greatest hits—there is a buffet that sometimes has more homestyle, lesser known stuff. Didn’t have much liquid in the stew, but it was delicious. And those fritters! Used Asian eggplant and didn’t find it bitter, broccoli, and zucchini.
I’ll never make it to India, but I appreciate you enabling me to go on a culinary tour in my own kitchen!
We served it with another dish—your Swiss chard and peas, which never fails to satisfy.
Awesome! So glad that you made it and love it! Adjust the liquid to preference while it is simmering. Add more water.
Dear Richa,
I love your recipes! Thank you so very much for introducing me to such wonderful flavors.
I am very excited to make this recipe, but I don’t currently have any paach phoron, and I’m not sure where to find some. Could you point me in the direction of a quality spice source?
Warmest regards and many thanks,
Ally
you can get the prepacked ones on amazon (choose an indian brand such as deep or swad) or on worldspice.com or penzeys might have it
Thank you so much!
Made this dish and it was full of flavour. The family loved it.
This looks great that there are many amazing vegan foods now open for many of us to try great stuff thank for the post
It looks amazing, I have to try this!
I used this recipe last week to use up some leftover veggies in my fridge and took the stew to work for lunch several times. I really liked the flavor profile and it got better every day! The fritters were very easy to make although I had to add 1/2 cup of water to get things going in my blender. Will try the suggestion to add baking powder the next time I make them.
Awesome! You can also soak the lentils longer(1/2 to 1 hour). That way they soak up more moisture and you might need less when blending.
This was delicious. Some kind of magic happens in the pan! All the recipes I have tried from your blog and books have been brilliant but, as you said that you have to balance out the more adventurous recipes with ones that you know will be immediately popular, I wanted to let you know that I really appreciate you taking the time to share your knowledge of food and flavours that are less widely known.
Thank you for the wonderful note Laura! So glad you loved it!!
I made this last night and we loved it. I had just bought some nigella seeds. I already had the fenugreek ,cumin & fennel seeds.
I needed to add a cup more of water to my red lentils after I soaked them to make a thick batter, otherwise it was too stiff. I used a pepper and ginger in the batter, but next time will kick it up a bit with some garlic. They were very chewy and filling with our stew.
I used the ginger, jalapeño,coconut and cilantro sprinkled on the stew. We enjoyed the new complex flavor profile. A bit different from Garam Masala and other curries, but a nice addition to my Indian cooking. However, it only served the 2 of us, not 4!
Will make again. Thank you!
Great! maybe the batter got too thin? its a pretty thick batter which can hold somewhat of its shape. With the thinner batter, they might need longer cooking time and hence get chewy. You can also add some baking powder just so the fritters are airy.
Even though there are quite a few Indian dishes I have to try (I LOVE Indian food, so I am already a huge fan of samosas, daal, eggplant bharta, aloo gobi, matar, saag, tofu tikka, roti), I’m a very adventurous person who loves to try something new, even if it may seem a little exotic! This sweet potato and eggplant coconut stew along with the lentil fritters look marvelous. I love these ingredients and I can imagine how beautifully the flavors will combine together!
Made the fritters, they were super yum!
Hi Richa,
Yum! I will be trying these. Do you use a non-stick skillet for the fritters? My husband recently bought a stainless steel one because there is some info out there about non-stick ones leaching chemicals into the food…. but some things stick to it (looking at you, tofu!).
Mia 🙂
i use cast iron for the fritters and pancakes. I also use non stick (i use ceramic PFOA free ones).
Thanks Richa, I don’t have a cast iron pan, so will see how I go with stainless steel/non-stick.
I made the fritters tonight, but not the stew. We had the fritters with a salad instead, and mango & ginger chutney. They were delicious! and so easy to make. Thank you for the recipe 🙂
awesome! Yes those fritters are like moong dal pakora and the corn works great in them.
Just made this after seeing it on your insta story. Was so excited to try it after your vegan butter tofu came out so well (even winning the non vegans over). However this recipe really did not strike a chord at all. Felt quite stodgy and flavourless, and even adjusting the spices like you suggested I couldn’t get it to appeal to mine or others taste buds.
Oh no. I am so sorry it didnt work out for you Jen. Some dishes are just very different. The flavors come from the well roasted whole spices, which may have needed more cook time depending on the pan etc. Also some regional everyday recipes dont use too too much spice or oomph, but have subtle flavors. The lentil fritters are a dense filling dumpling like texture.
Do try some of the popular Indian recipes (tikka masala, korma, butter tofu, aloo gobi, bombay potatoes etc) from the blog. These are often found in restaurants, they also have a wider appeal as you saw with Butter Tofu, and a known flavor profile. See https://www.veganricha.com/popular-vegan-indian-entrees
Also which veggies did you use. Sometimes eggplant or peppers can end up adding a bitter profile which can throw the overall flavor off.
thinking of making the fritters in batches and freezing…would these reheat well? Please advise on how you would reheat and if you think it will work.
I refrigerate for upto 4 days and the reheat on the pan or microwave. they might freeze well too
this looks incredible, I love how much effort you put into this! It really shows keep up the good work!
Isabelle xx
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