A bursting with flavours Indian chickpeas salad tossed with some boiled potatoes in sweet, spicy and tangy chutneys and topped off with some pom pearls and sev
While I have already shared a chickpeas salad earlier, this one is special. This chole chaat or Indian chickpea salad is a total burst of flavours. Chaat refers to a quick fix, snack in the Indian cuisine and are most people’s favorite. Just like it is mine! Additionally, you will find, chaat served as appetizers as well. They are often even served chilled or at room temperature. And that is why summers are a great time to enjoy them even more. In fact my appe pan dahi vadas too fall under the chaat category. Additionally, since there is chilled yoghurt in the dahi vadas, they are just so perfect for the warm weather right now.
Coming back to my chole chaat, this is a super quick and easy recipe. There is no cooking here to begin with and only assembling of all ingredients. Doesn’t that sound perfect when you want to spend lesser time in the kitchen? You could use cooked from raw chickpeas or the canned ones, either of them are fine. Besides these, you will need chutneys – one sweet tamarind and the other a spicy mint coriander one. And I have detailed both their recipes in my dahi vada recipe post. They are the same ones I have used. In fact, you can bookmark these chutney recipes and use it whenever you want to make any chaats. And it is these, that give the chole chaat it’s sweet, savory, spicy and tangy flavors. That is what I meant when I said this salad is a burst of flavors!
Also see,
Easy chicken tikka chaat in edible baskets
Chole chaat
The best thing about this chole chaat (Indian chickpea salad) is that, you can customize it as you like it. For example, I have added boiled potatoes and cucumbers too, in mine. You could also add boiled or roasted sweet potatoes, finely chopped beets and/or carrots too. Basically, you can choose to make it as wholesome as you want. You can also make it as sweet or as spicy as you want your chaat to be. The boiled potatoes also add body to the chaat, besides it’s creamy taste. Additionally, I love topping my protein packed chaat with some sev and pomegranate pearls, too. The pom pearls add a slight sweetness and crunch and also makes it look so pretty!
Sev, for those of you who may not know, are very fine, fried gram flour ribbons. This is something you will find on most Indian chaats. While they don’t really add any flavour, they do add a lovely crunch to your snack. But, if you can’t find it or don’t have it, don’t wait for it to make this delicious chickpea salad. You can very well replace it with some roasted peanuts too.
Serving suggestions
Serve your lip smacking chole chaat at room temperature or even slightly chilled. I, personally like it chilled, especially in the summer. For that, I refrigerate my cooked and drained chickpeas for about 15-20 minutes. And then I go ahead with making it. Also, make sure that your boiled potatoes are at room temperature when you add it to the chaat. Serve this as an appetizer or an evening snack. It works really great as both options.
If you are planning to make this, I’d love to know how you liked it. Drop me line with your feedback in the comments section below. I’d love to hear from you. You can share your chaat picture with me on Instagram, too.
Eat hearty!
Chole chaat (Indian chickpea salad)
Equipment
- Mixing bowl
Ingredients
- 1 cup boiled/canned chickpeas drained
- ¼ cup boiled and peeled potatoes roughly chopped
- ½ cup cucumbers finely chopped
- ¼ cup tomatoes finely chopped
- ¼ cup onions finely chopped
- ¼ cup coriander leaves finely chopped
- 2 fresh chilis finely chopped
- 2 tbsp raw mangoes* finely chopped
- ¼ cup pomegranate pearls
- 2 tbsp tamarind & dates chutney
- 2 tbsp mint coriander chutney
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 2 tsp pink salt or to taste
- 2 tsp chaat masala
- 2-3 tbsp sev
Instructions
- You can find the recipes of both the chutneys in the recipe box here
- In a mixing bowl add all your ingredients and toss everything well. Make sure the chickpeas are coated well with the chutneys
- Give your salad a taste and adjust, if needed
- Transfer to a serving dish and top up you delicious chole chaat (Indian chickpea salad) with some more pom pearls, coriander and sev. Enjoy!
Notes
- *This is an optional and also a seasonal ingredient. If you like the tangy taste of raw mangoes, like I do, you could add some when in season
- Sev is an Indian savoury snack made of fried gram flour ribbons. If you do not have these you can replace it with roasted peanuts
- You can also add finely chopped carrots, beets, radishes etc to this chaat
- 1 cup = 250 millilitres
- tbsp - tablespoon
- tsp - teaspoon
