In a grinder jar or blender add ½ cup quick cooking oats.
Blitz or pulse till you get a coarse texture like. If you do not have oats, then use 4 to 5 slices of leftover bread. Break them and add to the grinder. Grind to a semi fine mixture. Remove the ground oats in a plate or tray.
Steam or boil 5 medium potatoes and ½ cup green peas in a steamer or pan or pressure cooker.
Chop the coriander leaves and keep aside.
Roast the Gram Flour lightly till it becomes aromatic.
Preparing The Veggie Nuggets
While the potatoes are still warm, peel and then mash with a fork or potato masher.
Now add the cooked green peas, minced or grated or finely chopped carrots, finely chopped capsicum to the mashed potatoes.
Add all the spices and herbs. Season with salt too.
Then add 3 tablespoon slightly roasted Corn Starch and ¼ cup grated processed cheese. You can also add Gram Flour or rice flour or all purpose flour instead of Gram Flour.
Mix very well and then add 1 to 2 tablespoon of the ground oats.
Mix again very well. Check the taste and add more salt or spices if required.
Now make a flat log shape and slice the log into nuggets.
You can even take a small portion of the mixture and shape in to nuggets. Keep aside.
in another bowl, take 2 tablespoon Gram Flour and 2 tablespoon water.
mix very well to a smooth paste. Instead of gram flour you can take half-half of all purpose flour and corn starch. You can also take rice flour or maize flour.
Take each veggie nugget and dip in the gram flour batter.
Gently turn over so that the gram flour batter coats the nugget. Remove and let the excess batter drip off.
Now place the batter coated nugget on the ground oats.
Gently turn and coat with the oats all over including the sides. Alternatively you can even sprinkle the oats all over the nugget.
Do this for each nugget and keep them aside.
Frying Veg Nuggets
Heat oil for deep frying in a pan. When the oil becomes hot, gently slid the nuggets in the oil.
Do not overcrowd the nuggets in the pan.
Fry them till they are golden and crisp. Remove the nuggets with a slotted spoon.
Keep them on kitchen paper towels so that extra oil is absorbed. Fry the remaining veggie nuggets in batches.
Serve these veg nuggets with any chutney or sauce or dip.
Recipe Notes
Some suggestions while preparing veg nuggets:
The nuggets have to be coated with a flour paste and then breaded with a dry ingredient. So do not skip this step. The coating help in giving them a crisp texture and also does not break them while frying in oil.
The oil has to be hot while frying. Do not fry at a low temperature, as then the nuggets absorb a lot of oil.
Before frying, test a small batter coated and breaded piece. The small nugget piece should come up quickly in the oil. If it comes slowly or stays at the bottom in the oil, the oil is not hot enough.
Roast the Corn Starch and add. Otherwise you may get a faint uncooked aroma in the nuggets. Roasted gram flour can also be added.
Farmer’s Cheese(Paneer) can be used instead of cheese or you can use both cheese or paneer.
Instead of processed cheese, you can also use cheddar cheese.
Add cheese amount as mentioned in the recipe or else the nuggets can break in oil while frying.
You can add veggies of your choice. If adding cauliflower, broccoli or corn, then steam them and then add. Beetroots, cabbage or zucchini can be grated or chopped finely. Mushrooms also need to be sauteed and then added. Overall keep the entire proportion of veggies to 1.25 cups or 1.5 cups, except the mashed potatoes. If you increase than this proportion, you will have to increase the other ingredients too.
The gram flour batter is slightly thin. You can make the batter with all purpose + corn starch flour or maize flour or rice flour or arrowroot flour.
A few drops of lemon juice can also be added, for a slight tang.
These nuggets can also be pan fried, shallow fried, baked or air fried. If baking then bake at 180 degrees Celsius. Brush some oil on the breaded nuggets and bake in a preheated oven for 15 to 20 minutes or more till they are crisp and golden. Timing will vary depending on the oven type, make and size.