Singhare ki Kachri is a traditional recipe using water chestnut or singhara. The boiled singhara is mashed and tempered with homemade ghee.
I was craving the kachri. Ours is served with loads of butter/ ghee, chaat masala, lemon juice and instant ginger pickle.

Since this is meant as winter food, use of ghee is important both for digestion and absorption. Being in Pune, means that I need to let of go of many traditional food items which we enjoyed but now are rarely or very occasionally available in these parts.

It was a pleasant surprise when I saw singhara in a farmers market some weeks ago and immediately decided to make the kachri which I was missing terribly.
It is rich and tastes best when warm – moist and full of flavours from ginger, lemon, butter and chaat masala.

Singhare ki Kachri
Ingredients
- 250 gram raw water chestnut singhara
- 1 tbsp ghee clarified butter
- ½ tsp cumin seeds jeera
- ½-1 tbsp butter
- 2-3 dry red chilies
- ½ tsp chaat masala for sprinkling
- 1 tsp ginger pickle for serving
- a pinch asafetida hing
- to taste salt
- juice of 1 lemon
Instructions
- Thoroughly wash the singhara and pressure cook till tender. Gently peel off the skin leaving behind the pulp. Chop them roughly into bite size pieces.
- Heat ghee in a small pan or wok, add dry red chilies and allow them to sputter and leave a gorgeous aroma. You can split the red chilies using a kitchen scissors as well. Splitting the red chillies brings out the strong flavour of chili. Using a slotted spoon remove the chillies and keep aside.
- Now add asafetida and cumin seeds in the ghee. Once they sputter, add the chopped singhara pieces and lightly roast them. Mash them further into a paste while roasting. It will be very easy to mash as they are already very soft from pressure cooking. Add salt to taste. Keep aside.
- When you are ready to serve, place the singhara kachri in a bowl, top it with roasted red chillies, butter, lemon juice, chaat masala and instant ginger pickle.

This sounds so good! Singhara is such a forgotten ingredient in most kitchens! Thanks for sharing this.
Yes. And not just in kitchen, I think it is forgotten in most vegetable markets. It is rare to find it in West of India.