Stocking up for quarantine with a ton of food is a good idea—except when you decide you move countries and then find yourself with way too much food you have no idea what to do with.

But it’s also a good thing as it allows me to express my creativity in different ways and experiment with new dishes.

So, I am in this situation where I have to eat all my already-opened ingredients before moving. I had some poha and frozen papad left in the fridge but wasn’t sure what I could do with it, so I googled up some recipes and came across this Gujarati-style snack called papad poha chivda.

Of course, I didn’t have all the required ingredients, and because I want to use up all my food (and not put new food on the shelf), I decided to make it my own and turned the snack into a filling breakfast.

Ingredients:

2 frozen papad
1 cup poha
1 tsp coconut oil
¼ tsp black mustard seeds
1 tbsp dry coconut flakes
1 tsp turmeric powder
½  tsp chili flakes
½ tsp ground coriander
1 tsp dried curry leaves
salt to taste
3 small baby potatoes, sliced
2-3 sundried tomatoes, chopped
1 tbsp sunflower seeds
mustard—optional
1 small yellow onion, finely chopped
juice of ½ lemon
¼ tsp cumin seeds

Method:

1. Start by preparing the papads as per package instructions, then set aside.

2. Rinse your poha (flattened rice) in water until they soften. Use a colander to rinse the light rice flakes. Be careful not to rinse them too much or else they will break and become mushy.

During rinsing, they will absorb water and soften. Drain all of the water. Poha should lose its crunchiness and crispiness. When you break them between your finger, they should easily get crushed or mashed. Set aside. Season with salt as per taste, add turmeric powder, and gently mix with a spoon or with clean hands.

3. Heat the coconut oil in a pan. Add the mustard seeds first and heat them until they start to pop.

4. Add potatoes and onions and sauté them until onions become translucent. Mix in cumin seeds, coriander, chili, and curry leaves. Sauté until potatoes start to soften and mix in the poha and sundried tomatoes. Cover and steam for about two minutes under low heat.

5. Once potatoes are cooked through (the smaller their size the faster they cook), switch off the heat and let the pan remain covered for one to two minutes.

6. Squeeze in some lemon juice, mix in coconut flakes, and give it a good stir.

7. Break the papads into smaller pieces and stir in the poha.

8. You can keep it like this but I love a bit of extra creaminess so I also topped it with a small amount of mustard and mixed it in before eating.