Chaat – a beginner’s guide
Chaat are Indian snacks and light meals which are one of my greatest food obsessions. Highly addictive, these snacks are the quintessential Indian street food.
Mamta Gupta, joint founder of Mamta’s Kitchen (a website full of family recipes) provides this explanation of what chaat is:
“Chaat is a Hindi word which means 'lick' or 'to lick'. Dishes that come under this heading are so delicious, tangy, hot, spicy, street snacks that they make you want to lick your plate/fingers/lips, making a 'ctt' type of sound between tongue and palate.
These are mostly vegetarian dishes, a speciality of northern India, traditionally sold by locally well recognised street hawkers called Chaat Vallahs/Wallahs.
Chaats are especially popular when people go out with their friends and family, in the cool of the evenings to do their shopping or for walks. You can see them gathering all around a Chaat Wallah's cart, eating from their disposable plates, licking their fingers and plates, smacking their lips!”
As Mamta says, the majority of chaat dishes are vegetarian, and often vegan. The inclusion of veggies, herbs, and pulses make these snacks healthy and filling.
Sejal Sukhadwala, the Indian food writer and author of “The Philosophy of Curry” said this about the subject, some years ago on Twitter: "With all this talk automatically equating 'snack food' to 'unhealthy junk food' here's my tuppence worth. Chaat is (or can be) inexpensive health food. Eat more chaat! Chickpeas, sprouted beans & lentils, onions, tomatoes, cucumber, green mangoes, yoghurt, tamarind, green chutney... are all 'good for you'. The hot, sweet, sour, pungent, deeply savoury flavours prove healthy eating doesn't have to be austere. A friend even calls bhel 'salad'."
What you’re looking for…
A mix of textures and flavours in each bite, put simply.
I asked Kavita Favelle, founder of Kavey Eats, and joint founder of Mamta's Kitchen about her feelings about chaat. She said, putting it perfectly:
“What I love most about chaat is the contrasting textures and flavours. There always a crunchy element, solidity from chickpeas and potatoes, creamy tangy natural yoghurt, and the sweet sharp flavours of tamarind chutney. I like to add a herb-laden green chutney too, for added freshness. Such a great set of dishes for not too much cost or effort.”
Chaat dishes should have:
Something crispy – sev, moori (bhel), pomegranate seeds, roasted pink peanuts, round semolina puris (gol gappas/pani puri/phuchka), poppadom.
Something veggie – chopped tomatoes, red onion/shallot, cucumber, boiled cubes of potato.
Something “pulse” like – chick peas, sprouted beans/lentils.
Something herby – fresh coriander leaf, fresh mint leaf, freshly fried curry leaves for a south Indian twist.
Something saucy – date and tamarind chutney, coriander chutney, garlic and chilli chutney, yoghurt (plain live yoghurt), jeera jol.
Something spicy – chaat masala, garam masala, amchoor, kala namak, ground coriander, ground cumin.
What is all of this stuff?
The above list might seem full of unfamiliar ingredients, but don’t worry, here’s your guide to what they are…
Chaat masala – spice mix which you can buy in Indian grocers typically with amchoor, cumin, coriander, dried ginger, salt, black pepper, asafoetida, and chilli powder. Some people make their own chaat masala, but personally, I would not bother. If you also like spicy fruit salads, there is also a fruit chaat masala.
Garam masala – classic spice blend used in Indian cuisine, cumin, coriander, cinnamon, cardamom (with regional variations and fam.ily variations).
Amchoor – ground green mango, it delivers a sour flavour, if you want more tang than just the chaat masala provides.
Kala namak – black salt which is salty with a slightly funky (sulphurous) smell. It adds a certain je ne sais quoi, but you can use normal salt if you are sceptical.
Moori/bhel – Indian puffed rice (not the same as rice crispies) available from Indian grocery shops.
Sev – fried noodles made of gram flour (besan/chick pea flour), available from Indian grocery shops, in either plain or spicy flavour. Nylon sev is particularly thin, but different thicknesses are available.
Date and tamarind chutney – a classic sweet and sour chutney, you can make your own, but available in supermarkets as “date and tamarind chutney” or Indian grocery shops as “bhel puri chutney”.
Coriander chutney – zingy green hot sauce with coriander leaf, chilli, lime juice, garlic, ginger, salt and potentially cumin, coriander, or chaat masala.
Garlic and chilli chutney – hot red sauce with regional variations.
Jeera jol – jeera water (sour and spicy water served with gol gappas/pani puri/phuchka).
What are the classic dishes?
Here is where things get fun!
Gol gappas/pani puri/pani poori/phuchka – fun flavour bombs! Crispy, crunchy semolina ball shaped puris, filled with boiled potato, chick peas, and jeera jol.
Pani puri
If you are still sceptical about Gol gappas, Mamta had this to say about them:
“Out of all the street foods of India, my favourite has to be Gole-gappa or Pani poori. The joy of standing in a circle around the mobile cart of your favourite chaat-wallah and him passing you these crisp poories of delicious ‘fire-water’ one by one, is very hard to describe. It just pops in your mouth, filling it with deliciousness!"
Bhel puri – puffed rice, hard puris, sev, date and tamarind chutney, chopped vegetables.
Bhel puri
Jhal
Muri/Moori - Moori (puffed rice), Sev, peanuts, cucumber, tomato, shallot,
green chilli, coriander, chaat masala, amchoor, salt. A spicy and crunchy yet fresh tasting chaat snack.
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| Jhal muri |
Dahi vada/doi bara – fried lentil flour dumplings in plain live yoghurt, with freshly ground cumin and date and tamarind chutney.
Doi bara
Papdi/papri chaat – papdis are small round crispy fried wheat dough flatbreads, which are then served with chickpeas, potato, plain live yoghurt, chutney, chaat masala, coriander leaf and sev.
Chana chaat - Chick peas, potato, cucumber, tomato, coriander leaf, red onion, yoghurt, spicy sev, bhelpuri chutney, chaat masala, kala namak.
Darjeeling Express' Chana chaat
Snigdha's homemade Chana chaat
Samosa chaat – a traditional potato and pea samosa, cut into pieces, and slathered with plain live yoghurt, chutneys, and topped with sev.
Samosa chaat from Masala Zone
However, if you’re going to make chaat at home, you don’t need to feel constrained. You can combine different elements however you like! Or you can prepare the ingredients and let your family and friends invent their own chaat plates.
Have a lip smacking time making and eating chaat!
Snigdha would like to thank Kavita Favelle and Mamta Gupta for their invaluable contributions to this blog post. If you have not already visited Kavey Eats or Mamta’s Kitchen, you really should. You will find Kavey Eats here: https://www.kaveyeats.com/, and Mamta’s Kitchen here: https://www.mamtaskitchen.com/
