Baked Vegetable cutlet or Baked Vegetable Patties

I grew up with vegetable cutlets from local bakery in my home town. My mom never made cutlets at home; she always preferred to buy it.  May it is just that she thought why bother to make it, when it is easily available in the local store.

I like to make them occasionally, and normally I would shallow fry them.  I am afraid of fried foods, but then they are damn tasty, what you would do. Sometime I sacrifice my idea of avoiding fried food.  This time I decide to make it healthier by baking them, baking also uses less oil. One negative aspect of baking according to me is the lack of appearance as original. What is in the appearance, we need good food and if the taste is not compromised then there is no problem.  Earlier, I had successfully baked sabudana vada (sago fritters) and onion fritters.  So I ventured into making baked vegetable cutlet.

In India, we serve them with our evening tea, but for a change I decide to make it as an alternative for vegetable burger, as I had some fresh bread and Sargento cheese waiting to be used. When I go out, I would order Burger King’s veggie burger. I like them, and I have tried to recreate it at home and failed miserably. So I have drop the idea of making them at home for the time being, unless I can really find a good recipe. 

For veggie cutlet you need some mashed potato, onion, peas, carrot and beans, cilantro and green chilies, along with some spice mixture. I like to use crushed whole cumin seeds, coriander seeds and fennels seeds along with some gram masala, chili powder, and turmeric and kitchen king masala.  To enhance the flavor and make little tangy I added one half of a small lemon as juice.  Once the vegetable mixture is made, then it is made into patties and dipped in all-purpose flour and water and coated with Panko (Japanese bread crumbs). I like to use panko, if you don’t have access to it, you can try with ordinary bread crumbs that is usually used in original recipe. Then it is baked to perfection in 350 °F oven for 30 minutes. You can consume them as such or as part of sandwich and makes a whole meal.  Here goes the recipe. 

What you need

Potato : 2nos / cooked potato  is approximately about 2 cups

Carrot: 1 no/ ½ cup

Onion: 1 cup

Green chili: 1 no

Green peas: ½ cup

French cut beans: ½ cup

Olive oil:  ¼ cup

Salt: 1 ½ teaspoon or to taste

Turmeric powder: ¼ teaspoon

Chili powder: ½ teaspoon

Kitchen king Masala: ½ teaspoon

Garam masala: ½ teaspoon

Cumin seeds: 1 teaspoon

Fennel seeds: ¼ teaspoon

Coriander seeds: ¼ teaspoon

Lemon juice: ½ of one lemon

Panko: ¾ cup (Substitute with bread crumbs)

All purpose flour: ¼ cup

Water:  2 ½ cup

Coriander leaves/Cilantro: 2 tablespoon

How I made

In a pressure cooker cook the potato with 2 cups of water 4 whistle or 25 minutes and set aside.

In a  medium sauce pot heat 1 tablespoon of  olive oil and add crushed cumin seeds, coriander seeds and fennel seeds and when starts popping add onion and green chilies and fry for 6 minutes or until they become  translucent or change the color.

Add carrot, French cut beans, peas and cook for 3 minutes or until carrot is done. To this add turmeric, salt, garam masala, chili powder, kitchen king masala and fry for another 2 minutes.  To this add mashed potato and mix everything so that spices get coated to potato also. Finally switch off the flame and add lemon juice and copped coriander leaves and mix once again to combine well.

Divide the veggie mixture into 6 equal parts and set aside.

In a bowl add all purpose flour and water and mix everything to form a loose batter and set aside.

Preheat oven to 375 F

Make 5 inch patties with veggie mixture and dip in the all purpose flour batter and coat with panko bread crumbs in all sides.

In a cookie sheet lined with non-stick aluminum foil sprinkle 1 tablespoon of olive oil and then place the bread crumbs coated patties and drizzle olive oil over the top and bake for about 30 minutes, around half way through baking fillip the sides so both sides get cooked evenly.

Enjoy as such or make a sandwich with veggies and if you prefer use Dijon mustard like my hubby or tomato ketchup like my little one.

Preparation time: 96 minutes

Yield: 6 patties

Verdict: Yummy

Will you make it again: Yes I will

I am linking this  Baked vegetable cutlet to Hearth and Soul hop # 65 hosted here.