Baked paneer popcorns-Healthy cottage cheese popcorn
Baked paneer popcorns are crispy on the outside with the bread crumb coating and tangy spicy on the inside, so flavorful! These baked paneer popcorns would sure make its fried counterpart run for its money. You’ve gotta try it to believe me.
Mumbai monsoons breaking all records for the month of July. Not that it doesn’t rain heavily here but continous rain for close to 48 hours was sure a record and something that I haven’t seen in the last four and half years of my stay here. Oh my! It’s been so long it hardly feels that way. I still feel like I’m new to Mumbai ???? I can probably go and on about coming to Mumbai and then how my culinary journey started. I should probably leave that to another day. So this heavy rains leads to serious cravings for all fried savory stuffs. Since I try to avoid fried as much as possible I came up with this healthy and delicious baked paneer popcorns recipe.
Do have a look at my collection of healthy and baked snacks that you can try this monsoon
The baked paneer popcorns are so delicious that you really can’t stop munching on them! Oh by the way the bread crumbs that I used to coat the popcorns are made from the home made whole wheat bread, the recipe of which you can check here.
How to make home made bread crumbs
For the bread crumb I used my home made whole wheat bread, you can use any bread of your choice.
- Break them up into pieces, pulse it in the food processor and you have your bread crumbs.
- Spread the bread crumbs on a baking tray and bake it at 150 degree Celsius for about 10-15 minutes. Check it and if required give it a stir and bake for few more minutes until it’s dark and completely dry.
- You could even toast them in a pan at a low flame.
- Once it’s cooled you can freeze them in a zip lock bag and it stays good for 6months to 1 year or may be even longer!
Baked paneer popcorns
How to make baked paneer popcorns
Ingredients
- Cottage cheese (paneer) 3/4 cup
- Black olives (finely chopped) 1/4 cup
- Jalapenos (finely chopped) 2 tablespoon
- Garlic (crushed) 3-4 cloves
- Chilly flakes 1 teaspoon
- Mixed herbs 1/2 teaspoon
- Pepper 1/2 teaspoon
- Salt to taste
- Oil 1 teaspoon
- Breadcrumbs 1 cup
- Egg 1 (check notes)
Method
- Take cottage cheese and mash it well with your hand.
- Add black olives, jalapenos, salt, freshly ground pepper, mixed herbs, chilly flakes, garlic and mix well.
- Form small balls out of it by rolling between your palms. Keep all the cottage cheese balls ready on a plate in the same manner.
- Take bread crumbs in one plate and beaten egg in another bowl. Add salt and pepper in both and keep ready.
- With the help of a fork first dip the cottage cheese balls in the egg, then transfer to the plate of bread crumbs and roll it with your fingers to cover up the cottage cheese balls from all sides. Keep the paneer popcorns on the parchment lined baking tray. Prepare all the paneer popcorns in the same manner.
- Bake the paneer popcorns in the preheated oven at 200 degrees Celsius for 10 minutes and with the upper rod on for another 5 minutes.
- Your crispy, delicious healthy paneer popcorns are ready.
Notes
- You can refrigerate it in an air tight container and store for 2-3 days. Heat it in the oven in the toast mode for 5 minutes and it will be all crispy again.
- For the eggless version you can use cornflour slurry. Take 2 tablespoon of cornflour and make a thin batter.
I would love to hear back. If you’ve tried my recipe you can use the #ohsodelishblog tag on Instagram and Facebook. For any query or recipe request you can comment below. Happy baking!
Disclosure- The post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase using the link in the website, oh so delish recieves a very small commission at no extra cost to you.