Easy, healthy, extremely versatile Pakistani street style chickpea salad, the aloo chana chaat. One snack that is filling and you can never get bored off.
Aloo chana chaat salad is a Pakistani street food that is a complete meal in itself. It is a variation of chana chaat with the addition of potatoes.
If you are still wondering what is Aloo Chana chaat exactly is then chana means chickpea and aloo mean potato. The salad is further drizzled with sweetened yogurt, sour and spicy chutney, onions, and herbs. In other words, it tastes like a mouth full of flavor and textures in every bite. YUM!
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Ingredients
Have a look at the ingredient and accompaniments of chana chaat. There are many, I know, and might look like too much work.
- Chickpea: Most people begin making chaat with pre-boiled chickpea from a can or freezer as soaking and boiling chickpea is time-consuming. Alternatively, I prefer to boil a large batch of chickpeas and freeze in smaller portions for easy excess to homemade preservative-free chana. Find more information about how cook dried chickpea here at Inspired Taste.
- Veggies and herbs: Potato, onion, tomato, and cilantro are pantry salads that are almost always available and need little effort to assemble.
- Tamarind chutney: I prefer making a large batch of tamarind chutney. As you can store it for months in the fridge. I've shared a quick small recipe here but any imli chutney should be good.
- More accompaniments: Chips like kurkure are innovative additions while papri and sev are always added to chaat for extra crunch in every bite. All these are readily available in Indian stores in the snack section.
How to make?
Having very tender chickpea gravy that is slurpy is a basic requirement of a good aloo chana chaat. Chaat should be juicy, not dry. So make sure the chickpea has little water or gravy after boiling with potato.
Begin by making the basic chana gravy. Just add the spices, and potato to a pot with little water. Let it cook until the potatoes are soft. (Protip: If making chickpea from scratch, the chickpea develops a starchy gravy naturally. I sometimes add a little onion too for gravy. If using canned chickpea adding a little (1 tablespoon) gram flour will help you attain the look of the second image which is necessary for a homogenized delicious chaat.)
This is an easy and simple imli chutney that can be made in no time, but making a larger batch like in this post tamarind and date chutney makes more sense for those snack-time cravings.
This is simply sweet yogurt with chaat masala. If using thick greek yogurt, you can dilute it with water for a pouring consistency.
Once the chana aloo are cooked and you have all accompaniment ready, just set your chaat stall, and call out loudly "chaat wala" "chaat khalo".
To assemble the chaat bowl, begin with aloo chana at the bottom, imli chutney, and yogurt on the top. Then finish with onion, tomato, cilantro, chilies, lemon, and chaat masala. Some people add spicy green herb chutney and red-colored sweet chutney but I felt that'll make the recipe a bit complicated and it tastes great just without it. Trust me!
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📖 Recipe
Aloo Chana Chaat
Ingredients
Chickpea Potato gravy
- 3 cup cooked chickpea , see notes
- 1 cup cubbed potato , or as needed
- 1 teaspoon cumin powder
- ½ teaspoon red chili powder
- ½ teaspoon turmeric
- ½ teaspoon salt , or as needed
- ½ cup water , or more as needed
Yogurt sauce
- 1 cup yogurt
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- ½ teaspoon chat masala
other
- ¼ cup tamarind chutney, recipe in notes
- 1 onion , chopped
- 1 tomato, chopped
- ¼ cup corriander leaves , chopped
- 2 green chillies, sliced, optional
- Lemon juice
- Papri
- Chat masala
- Red chilli flakes
Instructions
- Put all ingredients of chickpea potato gravy in a pot and cook for 5-7 minutes on medium heat until potatoes are soft. Remove from heat and set aside.
- Mix all the ingredient of yogurt sauce in the bowl. Set aside.
To assemble:
- In the serving bowl layer warm chana and aloo gravy. Cover with 3-4 table spoon sweet yogurt and 1 table spoon imli chutney. Finish with onions, tomato, cilantro, lemon juice, and chilies (if using). Garnish with chaat masala, red chilli flakes and crunchy papri. Serve immediately.
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