Poha Chivda: Make this Healthy and Delicious Recipe

Poha or Chivda/Chevda is an easy Indian tea-time snack made of roasted thin poha (flattened rice) and a mix of nuts, dried fruits, and spices. Every family has their own recipe for making poha chivda and the great thing about this recipe is that you can customize it to your taste and preference.  If you don’t like peanuts or have nut allergies in the family, it is completely fine to leave out the nuts.  Unlike a lot of recipes, this easy chivda recipe is not fried. 

I had my own recipe of Chivda and it was decent but then my mom showed me this new version that she has been making for a few years now and this one is a keeper for sure! Her new version also includes some mamra or murmura (puffed rice) along with thin poha. It provides a nice textural change to the poha mix.  Poha and mamra are dry-roasted in a large pan. Nuts are shallow fried separately in a smaller pan and then mixed along with mamra and poha and the spices. All the mix-ins have different cooking and browning times therefore they are shallow fried separately. 

A lot of Chivda or Chevda recipes start with frying the poha. Poha absorbs a lot of oil and the end product is rich and oily.  That version has its own place for celebrations and festivals but I prefer this non-fried version to eat as a snack on a daily basis.

Ingredients used to make Poha Chivda Recipe

• 6 cups Thin Poha
• 3 cups Mamra
• 1/3 cup Dalia Dal
• 1/3 raw unsalted peanuts
• 1/3 raw unsalted Cashews pieces
• 1/3 raw unsalted almonds, chopped in 4-5 long slivers
• 1 teaspoon Turmeric powder
• ½ teaspoon red chili powder
• 4 Thai green chilies finely chopped (or according to preference)
• ¼ cup Curry leaves
• 1 tablespoon Sugar
• ½ cup Cooking oil
• Salt

Thin poha (flattened rice)

This is the main ingredient of the poha/chivda mix. It is important to use thin poha here and not thick. We are dry roasting the poha to make it crunchy.

Mamra or Murmura (puffed rice)

This is a new addition to my easy poha/chivda recipe. It provides a nice textural balance. Mamra is also dry-roasted in this recipe.

Dalia dal (roasted chana dal)

This is my favorite mix-in in the chivda. You can skip all other mix-ins but do keep this one. Dalia dal is shallow fried in oil and added to the poha/mamra mix.

Nuts

In this recipe, I have used raw peanuts, raw cashews, and raw almonds. You can use nuts of your preference. If you are not trying to avoid nut allergies, definitely use peanuts in the recipe. 

Spices

Fresh green chilis, curry leaves, red chili powder and turmeric (haldi) are some of the spices used.  Turmeric is the most important spice here as it provides a nice yellow color to the chivda. You can adjust the number of green chilis as per heat tolerance. The chivda is slightly sweetened with sugar at the end but if you would like to make it sugar-free, you can leave it out. 

Additional mix-ins not in the recipe

Raisins and dry coconut pieces are some other mix-ins you could consider adding to the recipe. 

How to make Poha or Chivda/Chevda at home?

Here is a step-wise guide to making poha or Chivda/Chevda:

1. Using a fine mesh strainer, sift the thin poha. You will notice fine particles of poha sift out.
2. Heat a large pan that can hold about 10 cups of ingredients. Dry roast the sifted thin poha in the pan on medium heat for 10 minutes. 
3. Add mamra to the roasting poha. Roast both these together for another 5-7 minutes. The mamra and poha should slightly change color and crisp up. 
4. Turn off the heat.
5. Now, in a separate smaller pan heat up the oil. Using a slotted spoon (for easy removal) fry peanuts, cashews, almonds, dalia dal, and green chilies separately. 
   • All of these ingredients have different browning times so they are fried separately. Peanuts take the longest and dalia dal is the quickest to roast. Once they have a nice brown color, remove them with the slotted spoon and add them to the roasted poha and mamra pan. 
6. To the same oil in the smaller pan, add curry leaves (will splatter), salt to taste, and turmeric, and saute for 30 seconds. Add to the poha and mamra pan. 
7. Add red chili powder and sugar to the poha and mamra pan. 
8. Mix all of the ingredients to incorporate them properly.
9. You will notice that the mix will gradually start to change color and will become yellow (from the turmeric) once it is all mixed properly. 
10. Cool completely for a couple of hours before storing in an airtight container. 

Recipe tips to make Easy Poha or Chivda

• Use a large flat bottom pan to make the Chivda. The pan should hold about 10 cups of ingredients.
• Use a separate small frying pan to shallow fry the mix-ins.
• You can adjust the mix-ins to your liking. Besides the mix-ins recommended in the recipe, you can add raisins if you like a sweeter taste.

So what are you waiting for? Make this easy poha/chivda recipe for your family and also share some with your friends.  Fill up some jars of this tasty and healthy mix and they would make great gifts around the holidays for your family and friends. 

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Recipe Card: Poha/Chivda

Poha Chivda: Make this Healthy and Delicious Recipe

Easy Indian tea time snack made of roasted thin poha (flattened rice) and a mix of nuts, dried fruits, and spices.

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Recipe by Divya Jhaveri

5 from 3 votes

Course: SnacksCuisine: Indian

Servings

20

servings

Prep time

10

minutes

Cooking time

25

minutes

Ingredients

• 6 cups Thin Poha

• 3 cups Mamra/Murmura (puffed rice)

• 1/3 cup Dalia Dal

• 1/3 cup raw unsalted peanuts

• 1/3 cup raw unsalted cashews pieces

• 1/3 cup raw unsalted almonds, chopped in 4-5 pieces or slivers

• 1 teaspoon turmeric powder (haldi)

• 1/2 teaspoon Red chili powder

• 4 Thai green chilies, finely chopped

• 1/4 cup Curry leaves

• 1/2 cup Cooking oil (I use Avocado Oil)

• 1 tablespoon sugar

• Salt to taste

Method

• Using a fine mesh strainer, sift the thin poha. You will notice fine particles of poha sift out. Heat a large pan that can hold about 10 cups of ingredients. Dry roast the sifted thin poha in the pan on medium heat for 10 minutes. Add mamra to the roasting poha. Roast both these together for another 5-7 minutes. The mamra and poha should slightly change color and crisp up. Turn off the heat.
• In a separate smaller pan heat up the oil. Using a slotted spoon (for easy removal) fry peanuts, cashews, almonds, dalia dal, and green chilies separately. All of these ingredients have different browning times so they are fried separately. Peanuts take the longest and dalia dal is the quickest to roast. Once they have a nice brown color, remove them with the slotted spoon and add them to the roasted poha and mamra pan. The chilies will not brown but will have a white color when cooked.
  
• To the same oil in the smaller pan, add curry leaves (will splatter), salt to taste, and turmeric, and saute for 30 seconds. Add to the poha and mamra pan.
  
• Add red chili powder and sugar to the poha and mamra pan. Mix all of the ingredients to incorporate them properly. You will notice that the mix will gradually start to change color and will become yellow (from the turmeric) once it is all mixed properly.
  Cool completely for a couple of hours before storing in an airtight container.

Recipe Video

Tips

• Use a large flat bottom pan to make the Chivda. The pan should hold about 10 cups of ingredients.
• Use a separate small frying pan to shallow fry the mix-ins.
• You can adjust the mix-ins to your liking. Besides the mix-ins recommended in the recipe, you can add raisins if you like a sweeter taste.