Air Fried Cheesy Semolina Pops | The Mad Scientists Kitchen

These vegetarian and rava pops are delicious and are made from Bombay rava upit, veggies and cheese and air air-fried.

Easy-to-make snacks ready in 40 minutes are great as kids' evening snacks or even in their tiffin boxes. These air-fried cheesy sooji pops are great party appetizers, potluck too. These will be an excellent initiative for my children to wake up for weekend breakfast! The only problem is you hardly make them, and they disappear.

These savoury semolina bites are made with pantry ingredients. Add veggies like carrots, cabbage, peas, cauliflower, corn, or any other you wish. I used my air fryer, but you can deep fry them or use the appe pan. Next time I make them I will try baking them in the oven.

My girls did not know what went in these delicious cheesy pops and were not interested in learning, either. Apeksha, my elder daughter, was thrilled that she had these pops, tomato soup and apple pie for dinner! It has been ages since I have hoodwinked both of them, so I am ecstatic!!

Today is Monday. Instead of Monday blues, I look forward to it as it is Foodie Bloghop Monday!

This week, it was Aruna’s turn to suggest themes, and the majority voted for Sooji, Rava, and Semolina. Aruna blogs at Vasusvegkitchen. Aruna’s recipes are simple and delicious. I have bookmarked some recipes like Udupi Saaru, Cold Coffee with Coffee Jelly to try sometime soon.

Coming to today's theme, I was like OMG, just what do I make? The usual suspects from edadda to rava idli are all done. Rava is something I use on an everyday basis. I happened to be talking to Swati, who blogs at Foodtrails25 (check out Swati's site; it is a fantastic collection of beautiful pictures and recipes), and she suggested I make Cheesy Semolina Bites. Since the girls called then pops I decided to stick to that name.

Cheesy sooji pops — Cheesy Semolina Pops

Jump to:

What is Semolina?
What can I make with semolina?
So let us make Rava Pops
Air-Fried Cheesy Semolina Pops
Healthy Variations with Semolina

What is Semolina?

Semolina is a coarse pale-yellow flour made from durum wheat. Semolina is called rava in southern India and sooji in the north.

A bowl of Semolina — Rava/Sooji/Semolina

What can I make with semolina?

In most Indian home cooking, sooji/rava, as we call it, is everyday food. We have all grown up with rava upit,rava kheer, rava dosa, and rava idli.

Then, sooji is also added to flatbreads like poori or paratha, thalipeeth to make them crisp. Have you tried Rava thalipeeth, a Goan breakfast savoury flatbread served with green coconut chutney? It is a loved breakfast food in my place.

It is only recently that I have learnt that semolina is used to make pasta, pizza, bread and biscuit doughs, and gnocchi. What we refer to as rava kheer is the British milk pudding called semolina. The semolina is cooked slowly in milk and sweetened with sugar.

What are the benefits of consuming semolina?

Semolina is rich in fibre, protein and vitamin B, a good source of iron and magnesium. Since it is rich in fibre and protein aids slow digestion and, hence the feeling of fullness lasts longer. Rava is healthier than maida or all-purpose flour. If you want to adopt a healthier lifestyle, consider shifting to rava.

So if I start eating Semolina I will lose weight?

Unlike refined all-purpose flour, semolina is made by grinding the endosperm of durum wheat, and the carbs are higher. Semolina will help you lose weight as it leaves you feeling full for longer. If you make healthy snacks, you can lose weight. But remember, weight loss depends on a healthy diet and exercise!

However, check out some of the healthier food you can make with Sooji that I am linking at the end of this post.

Now, these cheesy sooji pops are healthy, but still use them as an occasional treat.

Ingredients for Air-Fried Cheesy Semolina Pops

Semolina: Rava or Sooji I used the fine one; however, you can use the coarser, thicker one too.
Onion: I used but using onions is optional.
Vegetables: I used grated carrots, cabbage, peas, and cauliflower. You can use any vegetable you have at hand like corn, broccoli, beans, capsicum.
Cheese: I used mozzarella; try using cheddar or any other you prefer.
Potatoes: Boiled potatoes to give the binding.
Bread: I used crusts soaked in water and all the water squeezed out. This is again for binding and the crunch it will give after frying.
Bread crumbs: I air-fried the crusts and crushed them—these I used for coating the pops.
Spices: I have used ginger, green chillies, chilli flakes(you may skip especially for small children), cumin powder, mustard seeds,hing/asafoetida, coriander leaves, pudina or mint leaves.
Salt: To taste
Oil: To fry the pops or balls.

So let us make Rava Pops

I made extra rava upit for breakfast; you can check the recipe here. In short, I roasted the rava this time in oil. Make a tempering of oil, mustard, and hing and fry the onions, green chillies, and veggies. Add water and salt to the boiling water and add the roasted rava. Cooked.
To this cooked and cooled upma, I added boiled and grated potatoes, 1 chopped onion, mozzarella cheese, soaked bread crumbs, coriander and mint, jeera powder, chilli flakes and salt.
Knead to a soft dough, make small balls with the dough.
Then deep fry, air fry, bake or fry in the appe pan. Serve hot with tomato sauce or green chutney and ginger tea.