Zero Oil Kebabs

What's that again you say? Zero oil kebabs!! Why, and how and why again ?? Well, I have been gorging on some amazing food lately with recent visits to Bong Su (beyond amazing dining experience!), Cascals, Menara...you get the drift!! Given that, I decided to try a zero oil recipe from Nita Mehta's book, Zero Oil Cooking. This is a fantastic book, where every recipe is extremely well thought out. Especially, given how hard it is to make traditional dishes with little or no oil, she works wonders with this theme!

The book has a large variety of dishes, ranging from oil free Chocolate Sandesh to Baked Eggplant to Paneer Makhmali. I decided to try out the minty dal kebab recipe from her book as it was simple and I had all the ingredients ready at hand. And no, in case you are wondering, when the recipe said no oil, it also meant no butter, no margarine etc etc ;). This is truly without any oil or substitutes thereof..I know, hard to believe right!

This goes straight not to the stomach (no oil remember ;)), but to Nupur for her "Z" letter event in the A-Z of Indian Vegetables series.

Zero Oil Minty Dal Kebabs (adapted from Nita Mehta's Zero Oil Cookbook)
Ingredients
1. 1 cup chana (split chickpea) dal
2. 1/4 tsp cumin seeds
3. 1/4 tsp cardammom powder
4. 1-2 cloves crushed
5. 1-2 peppercorns crushed
6. 11/2 tsp ginger-garlic paste
7. 3-4 green chilies, grated
8. 7-8 mint leaves, finely chopped
9. 1 onion, finely chopped
10. 1/2 tsp garam masala
11. 1/2 tsp chaat masala
12. Salt to taste

Method
1. Cook the dal with salt, cumin, cardamom, cloves, peppercorn and ginger-garlic till its ready to be mashed.
2. Once cooked, mash the dal with a flat spoon. Make sure all the water is cooked off before you mash the dal.
3. Add the remaining ingredients to the mashed dal.
4. Make small round flat rounds/kebabs
5. Grill at 450 degrees F for about 20 minutes.
Enjoy :)
I served this with some hot sauce and mint chutney.

Even without oil, the kebabs did not stick to the baking sheet after they were cooked. You almost didn't miss the oil in fact, given that the dal was already cooked and tasted more like a savory chaat!
However, next time if I am eating these kebabs by themselves, I think I will add some oil while grilling them. If I am making a ragda pattice or a chaat with yogurt and sweet date-tamarind chutney, I will use the recipe as is, with no oil.