Murmura Spicy Puffed Rice (Borugulu) (Vegan, GF)

Murmura Spicy Puffed Rice (borugulu) is a great mid-morning snack. It has just enough spice to make it interesting, and packed with nuts to give you energy. 

Murmura Spicy Puffed Rice (borugulu) never struck me as a breakfast food until I made it and loved starting my day eating it. Once I gave it some thought, I’ve decided that it’s actually just a variation on eating cereal for breakfast.

A simple and delicious puffed rice recipe — lightly pan fried with a lot of spices and nuts

No milk added, but puffed rice lightly pan fried with a lot of spices and nuts. And though I do love a sweet breakfast, here’s a healthy no sugar recipe to start the day (to even out with the pancake ice cream sandwiches posted yesterday).

This recipe for Murmura Spicy Puffed Rice is inspired by Indian street food. Murmura (borugulu) simply means puffed rice, and there are a million ways to cook and eat puffed rice.

Inspired by street food, you can enjoy this puffed rice snack any time of the day

You can find similar Indian recipes by searching murmura, masala borugulu, karam borugulu or borugul upma. Sometimes murmura (borugulu) is spicy, and other times murmura (borugulu) is prepared as a sweet snack.

Puffed rice is also common in many other different cuisine and cultures. In Taiwan, there’s a popular street food puffed rice snack called bao mi xiang. You can see it being made in this video – Making Mi Xiang. It’s a 10 minute long video and the quality is not great, but at 2:30, you can watch the “bang” as the pressure that causes the rice to “pop” gets released.

You can find puffed rice in many international grocery stores

I’ve also seen puffed rice snacks in Korean and Japanese grocery stores, and Filipinos also have something similar called ampao. But the most popular puffed rice might be Kellogg’s Rice Krispies.

The puffed rice you need for this recipe should be easy to get a hold of. Amazon carries Arrowhead and Nature’s Path, though they come in pretty large packets. I always look for the brown whole grain variety, and one that is not sweetened (so that rules out Rice Krispies).

This Murmura Spicy Puffed Rice is made by frying spices, garlic, peanuts, cashews and shredded (desiccated) coconut in a pan with puffed rice cereal.

Because you start with a puffed rice cereal that’s ready to be eaten, you don’t need to “pop” the rice grains (like in the video), or soak it in water, like in some of the other recipes for Indian murmura (borugulu).

As such, this is a very easy and quick recipe. You can be snacking on this in no time.

Puffed rice can be enjoyed as a sweet or savory snack

Because I wanted this for breakfast, I didn’t make this too spicy. It was perfect for my 11 AM snack attacks, but I could also sit down and have it as a savory breakfast.

Do you have any puffed rice recipes to share? Do you prefer to eat puffed rice as a sweet or savory snack?

If you find yourself with leftover puffed rice, you can make these healthy puffed cereal bars with it. This recipe is written to be made with puffed oats, but you can substitute it for puffed rice.

Healthy Puffed Cereal Bars

4.25 from 4 votes

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Murmura Spicy Puffed Rice (Borugulu) (Vegan, GF)

Prep Time 2 minutes

Cook Time 10 minutes

Total Time 12 minutes

Servings 4 cups

Calories 340 kcal

Author The Worktop

Ingredients

• 3 whole garlic cloves - skin on
• 3 tablespoons cooking oil (45 milliliters)
• 1 teaspoon mustard seeds
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon red chili powder (I used cayenne)
• 1/8 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/8 teaspoon turmeric
• 4-5 dried chilies
• 3 curry leaves
• 1/4 cup dried shredded coconut (15 grams) (desiccated coconut)
• 1/4 cup cashews (25 grams) - roughly chopped
• 1/4 cup peanuts (25 grams) - roughly chopped
• 4 cups puffed brown rice (100 grams)
• few mint leaves - chopped, for serving
• 1 whole lime - for serving

Instructions

1. Slightly crush the garlic cloves.
2. Heat the oil in a large wok or skillet over medium to medium-hight heat.
3. Add in the garlic, mustard seeds, cumin, chili powder, salt, tumeric, dried chilies and curry leaves. Cook for about 1 minute, stirring frequently to make sure the spices are well mixed and evenly coated in the oil, and to prevent the spices from burning.
4. Add in the peanuts and cook for 1 minute, stirring frequently.
5. Add in the cashews and cook for 2 minutes, stirring frequently. The nuts should be lightly toasted by this point.
6. Add in the coconut and cook for 1 minute, stirring frequently.
7. Turn the heat to low, and add in the puffed rice. Cook for about 3-5 minutes, stirring frequently to coat the puffed rice with the oil and spices.
8. Allow to cool. At this point, this spicy puffed rice can be saved in an airtight container at room temperature for several days.
9. When serving, garnish with mint leaves and grate some lime zest over it. Serve with a slice of lime, to be squeezed right before eating (so it does not make it soggy).

Recipe Notes

You may want to remove the garlic cloves before serving.