I was so excited to buy a microwave oven and a OTG few years back, just for the reason to bake healthy savory snacks 😉  After  many failed attempts, resulting either uncooked or burned snack , I dropped the idea of baking snacks :'(
I can’t handle much of deep fried snacks now as I did earlier.  Also M,is on a healthy food diet as part of his ayurvedic treatment. So obvious that I had to find a healthy solution for it. so, I dusted my interest for baking snacks again and here I am with a healthy -kid friendly- vegetable cutlet-baked! If you have no oven/OTG ,you can still shallow fry these 🙂
I have heard people saying making cutlet is difficult and time consuming. I’ll give you an easy trick… Whenever you make carrot -beans  or beetroot stirfry/thoran make a bit extra ,so that you can use it for making cutlets.( Don’t forget to check the notes for more interesting tricks 😉 )Â
Also, pressure cook the potatoes well and refrigerate ,it will remain in tact for a week ,with skin on.
When you are baking, its best to saute the ingredients so that, they will not taste raw…
Vegetable Cutlets: makes 12-15 no
| Â ingredients | Â Â Â Â Qty | |
| 1 | potatoes | 2 medium , boiled and well mashed |
| 2 | carrots | 1 medium, grated |
| 3 | beetroot | 1/4 , of 1 beetroot, grated |
| 4 | Fresh green peas | 1 tbsp, soaked in hotwater for 10 minutes |
| 5 | onion | 1 small or 1/2 of a medium,finely chopped |
| 6 | ginger | 1/2 inch, crushed |
| 7 | garlic | 3-4 no, crushed |
| 8 | Red chilli powder | 1/2tsp |
| 9 | turmeric powder | 1/4 tsp |
| 10 | fennel powder | 1/2 tsp |
| 11 | garam masala | 1/2 tsp |
| 12 | coriander leaves | 1 tbsp, finely chopped |
| 13 | mint leaves | 5-6 leaves(avoid stem) Â , finely chopped |
| 14 | salt | as needed |
| 15 | vegetable oil | 2 tbsp+ 2tbsp |
| To coat | ||
| 1 | rusk powder/bread crumbs | 1 cup |
| 2 | maida /allpurpose flour | 1 tbsp |
| 3 | water | 3-4 tbsp |
Method:
Get all the ingredients ready.
In a pan, add 1 tbsp of oil and add onions . Saute until translucent and  add the well crushed ginger garlic and saute that too.wait till they start to brown.
To which , add the grated carrots, beetroot and peas and cook well in low flame.(Do not add any water). Let everything get sauteed .It will take 5+ minutes.You can add leftover stirfries/thoran at this stage. Add salt as well.
Bring down the flame to lowest possible and add spice powders. Red chilli powder. turmeric powder, fennel powder ,garam masala.Saute everyhting for 2-3 minutes . switch off the flame.
 
Meanwhile, mash the potatoes well without any lumps, add this mixture into it along with chopped coriander and mint leaves and mix everything well. To this add 1 tbsp of rusk powder/bread crumbs and mix well.
Make a paste with 1 tbsp maida/all purpose flour and 3-4 tbsp water, it should not be too thick or thin. Take bread crumbs/rusk powder in a plate. start rolling the cutlets in desired shape and dunk in the mix and roll. arrange in a plate or  greased baking tray
For deep frying: do double coating ( dip in maida mix and roll in rusk powder, again dip in maida mix and roll in rusk powder) to avoid breaking of cutlets while dropping them into oil.
For shallow frying: Add 2 tbsp oil , let it heat up, place the cutlets and cook for 5 -8 minutes in medium flame ,and flip over to the other side and cook for 5-8 minutes.( time may vary, so have an eye after 5 minutes)
For baking, pre-heat the oven/OTG to 170-180C  for 10 minutes . Use the middle rack .Arrange the cutlets in a greased and parchment lined baking tray. Brush them with oil of your choice.
For microwave oven, use convection mode, OTG use bake mode and bake them at 170C for 10 -12 one side after which take it out and gently flip it over to the other side and bake for 10 -12 minutes at 170C( time varies from oven to oven, so have an eye on that) or bake until top is lightly browned.
Notes:
- You can use the same recipe for frying cutlets.
- Baked cutlets will not be stiff as fried ones, it may be a bit cracked as well.
- Never overload your cutlet with masala/ spices. The above mentioned quantity gives  for 15 tasty cutlets .
- Cutlets should never have any moisture in them, it causes breaking of it while deep frying.
- Mint and coriander leaves are optional, but adding definitely gives a better taste.
- Always use less beetroot, 1/4 of a beetroot is well to go even for 20 cutlets ,beyond which will ruin the cutlets.
- use garam masala only if its homemade.
- Pressure cook  the potatoes  really well, to avoid lumps while mashing.
- I always add my leftover  carrot /beetroot/beans thoran/stir fry  into my cutlets 😀
- Ginger and garlic should be crushed well.You can also add finely chopped green chillies,but I avoid them as Little M can not handle it.
- Use vegetable oil  for frying cutlets and even for sauteing too.
- Use very less oil to saute , otherwise the mixture  would go oily resulting oily cutlets.
- Adding 1 tbsp of rusk powder to the potato vegetable mix helps in binding it better.