Chickpea Avocado Bhel Cups
Oct 24, 2024
These Chickpea Avocado Bhel Cups are jam packed with flavors from the chutneys, papdi, and spiced chickpeas! These bite-sized cups are easy to put together vegetarian appetizer for holiday gatherings.
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These bite-sized chickpea avocado bhel cups make an easy, vegetarian appetizer for the holidays. Filled with spiced chickpeas, crunchy papdi, avocado, onions, tomatoes and chutney, these are served in flaky phyllo shells making them the perfect finger food.
Finger foods are my favorite part about a holiday dinner. They are easy to eat, easy to serve and just so fun to put together. After using phyllo shells to make my coconut burfi baklava cups last year for Diwali, I wanted to use them in a savory recipe this year and that’s how I came up with these Chickpea Avocado Bhel Cups.
I take a shortcut here and use store-bought bhel mix and that makes the entire recipe very easy to put together. It’s all about mixing all the ingredients together and then filling your baked phyllo shells with them. And we can’t forget the pretty pomegranate arils on top to make them look festive!
Serving Size
- I keep 3 phyllo cups per person since these are really small and bite-sized so keeping that in mind, this recipe will serve 20 people. If you keep 2 per person (and have many other appetizers as well), this will serve 30 people.
How to Make These Chickpea Avocado Bhel Cups
- To a pan add 1 teaspoon of oil on medium heat. Once hot, add 1 & 1/2 cups of boiled chickpeas to it (you can also use a 15-oz can of chickpeas in stead) along with 1/2 teaspoon chaat masala, 1/4 teaspoon kala namak and 1/8 teaspoon Kashmiri red chili powder. Sauté the chickpeas with the spices for 1 to 2 minutes until lightly toasted. Set aside.
- Meanwhile, arrange the phyllo shells on a baking sheet and bake them at 325 F degrees for around 12 to 15 minutes (once baked you have to remove them from the oven and set aside). You would need around 60 phyllo shells (4 boxes of 15 shells – Athens brand is what I used). While they are baking work on the bhel mix. To a large pot, add 3 & 1/2 to 4 cups of your favorite bhel mix (I have used Deep and Halidrams in the past).
- Now to that add, the sauteed chickpeas along with 3/4 cup chopped onions, 1/2 cup chopped & de-seeded tomatoes, 2 small avocados (cubed). Mix everything using a spoon until combined.
- Then add 1 teaspoon chaat masala, 1/2 teaspoon kala namak and 1/2 teaspoon dry garlic chutney (this is optional, I used store bought). Also add 2 tablespoons of cilantro-mint chutney and 1 & 1/2 tablespoons of sweet tamarind chutney. To spice things up, add 1-2 chopped green chilies here or you can also add some more chili powder.
- Mix to combine everything and your chickpea avocado bhel is ready. Fill the baked phyllo cups with the bhel mix. Top with sev, chopped cilantro and pomegranate arils if you like. Serve immediately.
Does It Get Soggy?
The bhel mix does get soggy as it sits. I would bake the shells, sauté the chickpeas and keep everything ready and make the bhel mix as the last dish before my party starts. The good part about these shells though is that the phyllo shells remain crispy even if the bhel mix gets soggy after a while. So you still get all those flavors with the crispy and flaky phyllo shells to enjoy!
Important Tips
- I have used raw chickpeas in this recipe that I soaked overnight and then boiled them in my pressure cooker the next morning. I used 1 & 1/2 cups of boiled chickpeas in this recipe. To make things simpler, you can straight away use a 15-oz can of chickpeas. Rinse the liquid from the can and wash the chickpeas. Let them dry and then use in the recipe.
- It is a good idea to make the cilantro chutney and the tamarind chutney at home. Although if you are short on time, store bought options would work just fine.
Chickpea Avocado Bhel Cups
Ingredients
For the chickpeas
- 1 teaspoon oil
- 1 & ½ cups chickpeas boiled or use a 15-oz can of chickpeas
- ½ teaspoon chaat masala
- ¼ teaspoon kala namak
- ⅛ teaspoon Kashmiri red chili powder
For the bhel
- 60 phyllo shells I used Athens brand
- 3 & ½- 4 cups bhel mix use your favorite store-bought bhel mix, I have used Deep brand here
- ¾ cup onions chopped
- ½ cup tomatoes chopped & de-seeded
- 2 small avocados cubed
- 1 teaspoon chaat masala
- ½ teaspoon kala namak
- ½ teaspoon dry garlic chutney optional, I used store-bought
- 2 tablespoons cilantro chutney
- 1 & ½ tablespoons sweet tamarind chutney
- 1-2 green chili chopped, only if you like spicy food, I did not add it
sev, chopped cilantro, pomegranate to sprinkle at top
Instructions
- Add 1 teaspoon of oil to a pan on medium heat. Then add the boiled chickpeas to it along with chaat masala, kala namak and Kashmiri red chili powder. Sauté the chickpeas with spices for couple of minutes and them remove pan from heat and set aside.
- Arrange phyllo shells on a large baking sheet and bake at 325 F degrees for 12 to 15 minutes. Since we will need 60 shells for this recipe, you will need to do this in batches. Once baked, remove the shells from oven and let them cool down.
- While the shells are baking, make the bhel. To a large pot, add your favorite Bhel mix. I like Deep brand bhel mix but use any you like. To that add the sauteed chickpeas, chopped onions, tomatoes, and the cubed avocados. Mix with a spatula to combine everything.
- Add the chaat masala, kala namak, garlic chutney, cilantro chutney and tamarind chutney. Mix everything until combined. You can also add chopped green chilies if you like spicy bhel.
- Fill the baked phyllo cups with the prepared bhel mix. Top with sev, cilantro and pomegranate. Serve immediately and enjoy!
Notes
- The recipe will serve 20 if you set aside 3 shells per person. If you have lot more finger foods on your menu, you can set aside 2 per person and then this recipe will serve 30 people.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
