Chaat is north Indian street food at its very best.
It can be found on the street corner carts where the food is wrapped in newspaper cones. Never two street vendors have the exact same ingredient and every part of India has its own local unique version of this tasty street dish.
It’s a cross between a salad and a snack with an explosion of colour and taste. It has spice, sweet, savoury as well as crunch then sauce, spicy pops and cooling yoghurt, you never know what you’ll find from one mouthful to the next.
The great thing about chaat is there are no rules, so add in whatever you think works. It’s
a great way of using all the leftovers from the fridge from roast potatoes or sweetcorn. Pop in the leftover chickpea curry from last night’s dinner or even a samosa or two, anything goes but this recipe below will get you started.
Servers 4
For the roasted chickpeas
2 tins of chickpeas
1 tbsp of rapeseed oil or coconut oil
1 tsp masala powder
1 tsp chilli powder
1 tsp cumin seeds
salt & black pepper (garlic salt is good here too)
For the Mint sauce
Small tub of Natural yoghurt
A good handful of mint leaves
clove of garlic or 1 tsp of garlic pure
For the salad
1 red onion
1 red pepper
6 medium tomato
½ cucumber
bunch of coriander leaves
2 chillies for mild, 4 chillies for medium or 8 chillies for super hot
8 tbsp pomegranate seeds
Juice and zest from a whole lemon
Toppings
Tamarind or mango chutney
4 tbsp Bombay mix
Start by putting the oven on gas mark 6/ 225C/ 440F to heat up.
Drain your chickpeas if you are using tins of chickpeas and place into a mixing bowl. (you can use dried chickpeas, but they will need to be soaked the night before and boiled for 45 minutes first).
Add the rapeseed oil, masala powder, chilli powder, cumin seeds, salt and pepper to a bowl give the ingredients a good mix and then pour to a baking tray, pop into the heated oven for 25 minutes or until the chickpeas are crisp.
or the mint sauce, put the yoghurt, fresh mint, garlic and half a lemon juice into a blender and blitz until smooth. Add a little salt and pepper to taste.
For the salad chop the onion, pepper, tomatoes, and cucumber to approximately the same size as a chickpea and the chillies chop a little smaller.
This is the point where I have to admit that I like things spicy so I include all the seeds from the chillies too. But if your taste buds are not up to the heat then remove the seeds and just slice the flesh only or omit the chill altogether if you prefer.
Now put all the salad ingredients in a bowl and mix with the coriander leaves, pomegranate seeds, and the juice from half a lemon. Also, grate a little of the zest for some extra zing if your lemon is un-waxed
Add your crunchy cooked chickpeas to the bowl, mix the ingredients and portion into four bowls.
Now for the fun part, add a spoonful of your mint sauce, a spoonful of your favourite Indian chutney and lastly a sprinkle of Bombay mix to the top of each bowl and enjoy with a lovely glass of authentic
chai tea.
Alternatively, pop a couple of samosas on the bottom of your bowls before adding your chaat mix to make yourself a Samosa chaat.
