Kala Chana Chaat - Black ChickPea Salad
Kala Chana Chaat or Sundal is a wholesome, delicious and healthy snack or Chick Pea salad! Kala Chana are Black Chick Peas or Bengals gram/ lentils, in its whole unshelled and un-split form, which are made into many snacks, curries, or ground into cutlets. Kala chana chaat has good protein, vitamins and minerals like potassium, sodium, iron, calcium, and folate. It has good dietary fiber while being a low-carb, cholesterol -free, gluten-free, vegan snack!
Author: Birjis Adeni Rashed
Cuisine: Indian, Vegan, Vegetarian, Gluten free,
Recipe type: Snacks
Serves: 5
Cook time:
Total time:
Ingredients
- 2 cup Kala Chana or Black Chickpeas
- 1 onion chopped
- 2 green chilies , chopped
- 1 tsp black mustard seeds
- 2 dry red chili, kept whole or halved & deseeded
- a pinch of asafoetida/hing (optional)
- 10 curry leaves
- ½ tsp lemon juice
- 1 tbsp oil
- ½ tsp Chat Masala
- ¼ Kala-Namak/ black rock salt (optional)
- ¼ cup- Cilantro, chopped
- Salt- 1 tsp or to taste
Instructions
- This Chaat is best made by soaking kala chana/ black chickpeas overnight or at least a few hours in more than twice amount of water .
- Follow the soaking by pressure cooking this chickpeas or boiling them in a closed lid pot till cooked and lightly soft. Make sure the chickpeas though soft have to be firm and definitely not mushy.
- Add the salt while boiling or pressure cooking for the flavor to get absorbed in the chickpea. After the chickpeas are cooked separate out the chickpeas and set aside.
- The water in which the peas were cooked is a good lentil stock which can be used with a spoon of chick peas for making another recipe called chickpea Rasam/Chaar/soup( I ‘ll share that recipe separately). This water can be used in other recipes too as stock.
- Chop the onions and green chilies and keep ready for the next step
- To season this chaat, set a pan on stove, add oil and when warm, add the mustard seeds, dry red chilli peppers, asafetida, and curry leaves. When they sputter and crackle, add the chopped onion and chopped green chilies and cook for few minutes.
- Next add the Kala Chana/ black chickpeas, Chaat Masala , black rock salt to the onions and stir and cook for a few minutes with a lid on the pan.
- Garnish with cilantro and lemon juice and serve
Notes
• Chaat Masala- its a spice powder available in Indian grocery stores. This powdered spice is made with dry mango, black rock salt, cumin, pomegranate seeds, musk melon, coriander, mint leaves, dry ginger, nutmeg, chili powder, caraway, bishops weeds, cloves and asafetida
