Calcutta Style Jhal Muri | Jhal Muri

Calcutta style jhal muri or jhal muri: An addictive, crunchy street food snack in Calcutta, prepared with puffed rice, tomato, onion, and a few basic ingredients. The recipe takes only 15 minutes to make and is loved by both adults and kids alike. Learn to make the best jhal muri recipe with step by step photos and tips.

Jhal Muri

Jhal muri basically means spicy puffed rice. Jhal in Bengali means spicy and muri for puffed rice. Jhal muri is very common in West Bengal, Odisha, and Bangladesh. It is also called Masala muri and masala mudhi. 

You can see many jhal muri vendors (muriwala) in the streets of Calcutta, serving jhal muri in a paper cone or newspaper bag (called thonga in Bengali) topped with a sliced coconut. It makes someone’s mouth water to watch the muriwala combining the jhal muri in a steel container. 

Calcutta style jhal muri recipe is full of flavors and textures. A delicious snack that is completely vegan. A right balance of flavor is the key to achieve a perfectly made jhal muri. It should not be soggy or too dry and no ingredient should be overpowering.

Some similar snacks

• Matar Chaat
• Ghugni (White Peas Curry)
• Boiled Potato Chaat
• Masala Roasted Potato

Serving Suggestions

Whether you want to serve your guests or feed your kid, this recipe will help you make the best jhal muri at home.

Jhal muri taste good as it is. It could be served as a light snack between meals, an accompaniment to evening tea, or a meal by itself. 

Alternatively, it could be paired with some hot crispy baingan pakora or gobi pakora or with mirchi vada.

Ingredients

Some details about the ingredients used with variations.

• Puffed rice (Muri, Mudhi, Murmura)
• Veggies: Onion, boiled potato, tomato, cucumber, green chili.
• Herbs: Fresh coriander leaves
• Spices: Roasted cumin seeds powder, red chili powder, black pepper powder, amchur (dry mango) powder, black salt. Alternatively, roasted cumin powder and chaat masala could be used
• Sprouted chickpeas: If not available, skip this. Boiled chickpeas could be used as well.
• Lime juice
• Oil: Mustard oil from pickle tastes best. But regular mustard oil could be used as well.
• Sev mix: If sev mix is not available, use any sev(bhujia) or less spicy mixture(chanachur). As a spicy mixture can be overpowering.
• Peanuts: Roasted with skin
• Garnish: Fresh thin sliced coconuts

Preparations with Step By Step

• Take puffed rice in a clean, dry large bowl. Add onion, tomato, cucumber, green chilies, coriander leaves, sprouted chickpea, peanuts, and sev mix. Toss to mix well.
• Add mustard oil, roasted cumin powder, red chili powder, black pepper powder, black salt, amchur or dry mango powder, lime juice, and toss everything to mix well. 

• Serve immediately garnished with thinly sliced coconut.

Tips

• Combine all the spice ingredients in a small bowl and use that. Alternatively, you can increase the quantities of spices, combine and store them in a small jar to use later.
• The puffed rice should be crispy. If not dry roast on a pan until crisp and once completely cools down, add other ingredients.
• The extra liquid can make the muri soggy. Hence make sure the wet ingredients don’t contain much liquid. 
• You could also add the dry ingredients first and wet ingredients later. 
• Skip oil for an oil-free version.
• Add chilies as per your tolerance. Skip adding green chili and chili powder if serving to kids.
• Jhal muri must be served immediately.

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