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The most amazing street food from the shores / beaches in Chennai is the Spicy Masala Peanuts loaded with vegetables and perfectly boiled peanuts. This Beach style masala sundal makes for a great protein filled snack which is so addictive that you will keep coming back for more.

After writing about street foods from Banaras and Pune, I am back to my hometown, Chennai. Chennai, the first place I want to go when I go back home is to the beach.

Getting my feet wet in the mild waters, running back along with the waves, taking a ride on the mini merry-go-rounds and most importantly eating the street food are some of the reasons I love the Chennai seashores.

I still pick lots of seashells on the shores and thanks to my boys now that we come back home with a good load of seashells. You could see our picks in our aquarium which gets a new batch of sea shells after our every visit to India.

The fun of spending the evening at Beach

The smell of all the food on the beach makes you want to eat right after we get there. I actually enter with handful of food before laying down my blankets to settle in.

Some of the food that I would definitely buy is the milagai bajji and the masala peanuts. I am used to eating avicha Kadalai (boiled peanuts) at home. My grandmother loves the boiled peanuts over any other kind.

She boils peanuts on the shell and we really enjoy peeling them. The fun of eating the salty peanuts along with the salt water that gets trapped in the peanut shell is a different story.

The peanuts that we buy from the stalls taste very different from the ones we make at home. It is maybe the air, water and the paper they wrap it in.

Whenever I boil the whole peanuts here in US, I end up making it very mushy and they just don’t taste the same. My friend, who makes amazing boiled peanuts, told me to use the raw peanuts that we get in the Indian stores.

Thanks to Suji, I was finally able to make a batch of perfectly boiled peanuts for this Beach style masala sundal recipe. Once the peanuts are boiled, it is just a matter of adding a handful of rest of the ingredients. Mix them all to make this delicious masala peanut sundal.

Make sure you have raw mangoes when making this Beach side masala sundal as it takes the peanuts to a different level. This is my recipe for day 3 of street food!



Preparation time – 15 minutes

Cooking time – 20 minutes (to boil the peanuts)

Difficulty level – easy

Ingredients to make Masala Peanuts – Serves 4

Raw peanuts (with skin) – 1 ½ cup

Red onion – ¼ cup (chopped finely)

Raw mango – ¼ cup (chopped finely)

Tomato (deseeded) – 1 (finely chopped)

Green chilies – 2 (optional, finely chopped)

Cilantro – a good handful (finely chopped)

Salt – to taste

Red chili powder – ½ tsp

Chaat masala – ½ tsp (optional)

Procedure to make Masala Peanuts

I used pressure cooker to boil my peanuts. Wash the peanuts and then add enough water and salt to cook the peanuts. Place the container in the cooker and cook for about 4-5 whistles. Let the steam release and then drain the peanuts on to a colander.

Once the peanuts cool down a bit, add it to a large bowl (big enough to toss around) and add the rest of the ingredients. When adding salt, remember that we added salt when cooking the peanuts.

Toss around a few times to mix the ingredients and serve.