Monday, August 18, 2008

Beetroot croquette

Beetroot cutlet
Croquette is basically a serving of minced meat or vegetables encased in breadcrumbs and potatoes, flattened into disks, and then deep-fried. The croquette was originally a French invention that gained a world-wide popularity as a fast-food with the advent of burgers. In India, it is known as "cutlets" or "tikkis".

Beetroots are used widely the world over by cooking them into yummy vegetable dishes, pickling them, utilizing them in salads, and even in making soup. The health benefits of including beetroots in the diet were known since the olden days.

Beetroot is packed with carotenoids and flavenoids that are known to possess antioxidant activity, folic acid, iodine, phosphorus, Vitamins A,B, and C and many substances that are benefcial for our health.
Apart from cooking, beetroot can also be used to add colour any other recipes that call for a red color. Just grate a little beetroot and squeeze the juice to add color to the recipe.

Although there are many benefits of eating beetroots, most of the people do not really like to eat them. However, there is no harm in trying to tempt people into eating beetroots by trying out simple yet tasty beetroot recipes. One such recipe is that of beetroot cutlets. A no-fuss easy and quick recipe that turns out yummy cutlets that none can refuse even though they may hate beetroots.





Ingredients:
3 small beets
1 medium boiled potato
1/2 tsp grated ginger
1 tsp red chilly powder
1 tsp dhaniyajeera powder
1/2 tsp garam masala powder (optional)
2 tbsp semolina or breadcrumbs
Salt as required

Process:
Wash beetroots. Peel skin from beets and boiled potato. Then grate beets and potato. Add all the other ingredients and salt and mix well. Now,make small lemon-sized balls. Spread semolina on a plate. Take the lemon-sized ball into your palm and flatten it like a tikki and pat with semolina on both sides. Shallow fry this on a hot tawa or deep fry and serve hot with ketchup or chutney of your choice. It tastes wonderful with date tamarind chutney.