Pani Puri Recipe, How to make Pani Puri | Easy Pani Puri Recipe

Pani Puri  or Golgappas is my most favorite chaat from childhood. I used to have pani puri often with my family on the streets of Mumbai (Bombay) and it was something I have thoroughly enjoyed.

Pani literally translates to water and here the Puris are fried puffed crisp dough balls. Generally, the water or pani is sour, tangy as well as spicy. This spicy pani is balanced with the addition of a sweet tamarind chutney.

This sweet chutney is called as meetha (which means sweet) pani. The spicy water is called as teekha (which means spicy) pani. Both are added in the puri along with the main filling which consists of boiled potatoes, chickpeas, moong sprouts or a thick dry curry made from white peas which is called as ragda.

The puri or pooris are made from flour or sooji/cream of wheat or both. They are thin, crisp, fully puffed and thus occupy the filling and the chutneys. These can be brought ready from the stores or can be made at home too. If you want to make pooris at home then check this step by step poori/puri recipe.

I don’t know who invented pani puri or how it came into existence. Its one of the popular street foods of India. Whereas in Mumbai, we call it Pani Puri. In the northern states its called as Golgappa and in Bengal, its called as Puchka.

There are differences in the fillings and the chutneys in all these regions. The filling also can be of your choice. Personally I prefer moong sprouts or ragda, but hubby prefers boiled potatoes and onions. So it depends from person to person and you can use your choice of stuffing.

This pani or spiced water recipe is my mom’s version. Here the pani is both spicy, tangy as well as sweet. So you don’t need to make the sweet chutney.  However if you want a more sweeter taste, you can make the sweet tamarind chutney and serve with the pani puri.

To make this spicy and sweet pani, you just need to make the green chutney and dissolve it in water. The spicy and sweet water is ready. Chill it in the refrigerator before you serve or you can add ice cubes too.

For this pani recipe, you can also skip the jaggery and just make a tangy, spicy pani. Then you need to make the sweet tamarind chutney. Even Jal Jeera can be used to make the spicy water.

Keep everything ready before you start assembling the pani puris – the boiled cubed potato or steamed moong sprouts filling, the pooris and the spicy water.

You can even make individual serving portions, so that people make it for themselves. In the pics below, I have made sweet tamarind dates chutney, just to show the assembling.

First crack the top pooris with the spoon. Then stuff the potato-onion filling in the pooris. Add a few teaspoons of sweet chutney or as per your choice.

 

 

Then add a few teaspoons of the green pani or as per your choice.

 

 

The pani puri is ready to serve. They have to be had immediately. Or else the puris become soggy.