Saheena is a delicious fried Indian street food we love in Trinidad. The main ingredients include dasheen bush (taro) leaves, split peas powder, flour, geera and other ingredients. There are 2 ways to go about making this.

Check out this way: https://youtu.be/iFmkTFJusmo which involves combining dasheen bush leaves, split peas powder and other ingredients, forming a ball shape then frying them.

This recipe involves pasting the split peas mixture onto the dasheen bush leaves and then rolling it, slicing and frying.

YIELD: 12-15 (can vary depending on the size of the logs)

INGREDIENTS:

• 14-15 dasheen bush leaves or taro leaves
• 1 1/2 cups split peas powder
• 1/2 cup all purpose flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 1/2 tsp salt (can be adjusted)
• 1/4 cup green seasoning
• Lime juice
• Approx 2 cups water (or as needed)
• 1 tsp JGM Products roasted geera
• 1/2 tsp JGM Products saffron
• Oil for frying

DIRECTIONS:

1. Combine all ingredients listed above except the leaves to form a paste. Mix well. Be sure to add the water a little at a time. The paste should not be too thick neither too runny. You can refer to the video below for reference.
2. Place a layer of leaves face down onto a surface. This step involves pasting the mixture made in step 1 onto the leaves and then stacking the leaves on top one another. Don’t lay out too many leaves as your base as it will result in a fairly small saheena.You can use as much paste as you like. This step will determine the thickness of your saheena. The most layers of leaves the wider or larger the saheena will be.
3. Once the layer of leaves have been pasted, fold once along each side to form a proper square. See video for reference. This will make it easier to roll.
4. Carefully but tightly roll the stack of leaves to form a ‘log’.
5. Place the log in a plastic bag and put it in the freezer for a few hours to firm up.
6. Once it has firmed up, slice the log into your desired thickness for the saheenas. I prefer them more on the thin side.
7. Fry on each side until golden brown.
8. Enjoy your saheena with some nice chutney.

POINTS TO NOTE:

• Another way to go about make the saheenas would be to steam them instead of freezing. You can place the log in a steamer for 10-15 minutes. Then slice and fry.
• I personally prefer not to add additional paste onto the slices before frying. However you can if you want to. After slicing the log, paste some of the split peas mixture on each side of each slice then fry them. You may need to make more paste if you are doing this step.

I hope you guys try this saheena recipe. I absolutely love it!