Chana Chaat

Ingredients

The chickpeas

• 300 gdried chickpeas
• soaked overnight
• or 2 tins chickpeas
• drained and rinsed
• 1 teaspoonsalt, for boiling
• 1 teaspoonbicarbonate of soda
• optional, for the soak

Sometimes added

• 1potato, boiled and diced
• 150 gboiled white peas
• or black chickpeas, kala chana

The fresh part

• 1red onion, finely chopped
• 2tomatoes, deseeded and diced
• 2green chillies, finely chopped
• a large handful of coriander
• chopped
• a few mint leaves, optional

The chaat masala

• 1 tablespoonchaat masala
• shop bought is fine
• 1 teaspoonground cumin
• toasted and ground
• half a teaspoon chilli powder
• half a teaspoon black salt
• kala namak
• salt, to taste

The chutneys

• 4 tablespoonstamarind chutney
• imli, sweet and sour
• 2 tablespoonsgreen chutney
• coriander and mint
• juice of 1 lemon

To finish

• a handful of sev
• the crisp gram flour noodles
• or crushed papri
• yoghurt, whisked, optional
• pomegranate seeds, optional

Directions

1. Cover them with plenty of cold water. Leave them overnight, at least eight hours. Soak them in the refrigerator in warm weather. Chickpeas left soaking warm begin to ferment. Rinse them well before cooking. Drain and rinse the soaked chickpeas.
2. Cover them with fresh water in a large pot. Add salt and bring them to a boil. Skim off the foam that rises. Simmer them for about forty-five minutes. Old chickpeas can take twice that. Squeeze one between finger and thumb. It should give completely with no hard core.
3. Spread them out to cool quickly. Warm chickpeas wilt the raw onion. Cook and cool it the same way. It is sold ready blended everywhere.
4. Soak tamarind pulp in hot water. Strain it and simmer it with jaggery or sugar. Add roasted cumin, ginger and chilli. Simmer until it coats a spoon. It keeps a month refrigerated.
5. Blend coriander, mint, green chilli and lemon juice. Add a little salt and water. It keeps three days only. Put the cooled chickpeas in a large bowl. Add the potato if you are using it. Add the chopped onion and tomato. Deseed the tomatoes before dicing them. Add the chaat masala and the other spices.
6. Add the black salt. Toss everything together gently. Add the tamarind and green chutneys. Add the lemon juice. Toss again and taste it. It should be sharply sour first. Add sev just before serving. It softens within minutes of being added.
7. Add it as a drizzle rather than mixing it in. That keeps the contrast visible. Serve it at room temperature or cool. Serve it in bowls or on small plates. Scatter pomegranate seeds over if you have them. Serve it as part of an iftar spread. Serve it as a snack at any time. Undressed it keeps well.

Technique

• Dress it shortly before serving and add the sev last of all. The onion weeps, the tomato makes it watery and the sev softens within minutes — prepare every part ahead and combine at the last moment, which is how it is actually done.
• Buy black salt, kala namak. Its sulphurous smell is exactly the characteristic tang of chaat and ordinary salt does not replace it. South Asian grocers sell it cheaply and it is worth buying for this dish alone.
• Push the seasoning. It should be sharply sour first, then hot, then salty, then faintly sweet from the tamarind, with nothing dominating. If it tastes flat, more lemon and more black salt before anything else — a timid chaat has failed.
• Cool the chickpeas completely before dressing. Warm chickpeas wilt the raw onion and make the chutneys run.
• Deseed the tomatoes before dicing. The seeds and jelly are what make chaat watery.
• Cook dried chickpeas to firm-but-tender: squeezed between finger and thumb one should give completely with no hard core, without collapsing to paste. Old chickpeas can take twice as long as fresh-dried ones.
• A teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda in the soaking water raises the pH, breaks down the skins and shortens cooking noticeably. Too much gives a soapy taste and mushy peas, so keep to about a teaspoon per 300 g and rinse well.
• Soak chickpeas in the refrigerator in warm weather. Left warm for hours they begin to ferment.
• The crunch is not optional. Sev or crushed papri against soft chickpeas is half the point of a chaat.
• Drizzle yoghurt over rather than mixing it through, if you use it. Mixed in it flattens the contrast the dish is built on.
• Shop-bought chaat masala and chutneys are entirely normal and what most households use. Chaat masala is built around amchur, dried mango powder, with black salt, cumin and asafoetida.
• Chana chaat is a fixture of the Pakistani iftar table because it is cold, sour, filling and can be made ahead. Many people break a long fast gently — dates and water first — before the fuller meal; the atlas notes the practice and makes no medical claim.

Substitutions

• Tinned chickpeas replace dried entirely and are what most households use on a weekday.
• Kala chana, the small dark chickpeas, or boiled white peas replace or join the chickpeas.
• Boiled diced potato adds bulk and is very common.
• Lime replaces lemon; both are used.
• Shop-bought tamarind and green chutneys replace homemade with no real loss.
• Crushed papri, crisp puri or plain crushed crisps replace sev for the crunch.

Variations

• Aloo chana chaat leads with potato alongside the chickpeas.
• Dahi chana chaat is built on whisked yoghurt and is cooler and heavier.
• Fruit chaat, made with banana, apple and pomegranate in the same masala, is the other great iftar plate.
• Papri chaat uses crisp fried wafers as the base under the same dressing.
• Chana masala is the hot cooked chickpea curry and a quite different dish.
• Ragda pattice in Mumbai serves white peas over a potato patty with the same chutneys.

Frequently asked questions

What is Chana Chaat?

Chana Chaat is a snack from Pakistan: boiled chickpeas with onion, chilli and tamarind, a standard Ramadan iftar plate.

How long does Chana Chaat take to make?

Chana Chaat takes 20 minutes plus soaking of preparation and 45 minutes, or none with tins of cooking. The recipe makes serves 6. It is rated easy to make.

What can I substitute in Chana Chaat?

Yes, within limits. Tinned chickpeas replace dried entirely and are what most households use on a weekday. Kala chana, the small dark chickpeas, or boiled white peas replace or join the chickpeas. Boiled diced potato adds bulk and is very common. Lime replaces lemon; both are used. Shop-bought tamarind and green chutneys replace homemade with no real loss. Crushed papri, crisp puri or plain crushed crisps replace sev for the crunch.

What is the most important thing to get right in Chana Chaat?

Add it as a drizzle rather than mixing it in. That keeps the contrast visible. Serve it at room temperature or cool. Serve it in bowls or on small plates. Scatter pomegranate seeds over if you have them. Serve it as part of an iftar spread. Serve it as a snack at any time. Undressed it keeps well.