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Chana Chat. Indian Spicy Salad.
First ever guest posting on Kayotic Kitchen! I really want to introduce a friend of mine, Simone. Simone is a fellow Dutchie and is the author and photographer of Junglefrog Cooking—one of my favorite food blogs. I love her recipes and photography. Here’s why!
When Kay asked me if I wanted to do a guest post on her blog I was honored, especially since that doesn’t happen very often. I’ve followed Kay’s blog for quite a while now and love it for many different reasons; her photography is brilliant, the recipes mouthwatering and her step-by-step photos are great if you’re unsure of certain cooking or chopping methods. Especially in the beginning of my blogging career this has been a big help for me.
But yes, those step by step photos; when we talked about my post Kay mentioned – almost matter of fact – that she always includes step by step photos so would it be ok for me to do too?
Sure I thought, how hard can it be?
Let me tell you; as of today I have a whole new level of respect for Kay! You know those moments when people ask you how you manage to cook, shoot your food and then eat it? That is nothing compared to also shooting every single process in between. My kitchen is not really big and as I was moving around in the kitchen to prevent the direct sunlight hitting the board I was working (and shooting on) I had to move between the stove, roasting my spices, setting them up, shooting, going to the next step. And that was for a salad…
So let me tell you; this is my first and most likely my last time doing step by step photos of a dish! By the time the dish was ready it was like a bomb had exploded in the kitchen; food everywhere, herbs, chopped up cucumbers… I had no time to also clean up in between!
But now on to the dish I prepared for you. A vegetarian Indian spicy salad with pomegranate and yogurt to cool of the spicy elements of the dish. I love Indian food as it tends to be fragrant and warming and brings me back to places I’ve been to before. I couldn’t find any garam masala spice mix that was needed for the dish but I had very recently bought all the separate (whole spices) at the black market in Beverwijk so I knew I should have the right ingredients to make my own.
Making a spice mix like this is really not that hard. The only thing you have to do in this particular case is remove the seeds from the cardamom, toast all the spices except the nutmeg and once roasted ground them all either in a mortar and pestle or in a magimix or similar machine.
I put mine in the machine and ended up doing the big bits that were left over in the pestle and mortar. It’s not supposed to be all ground, but I don’t like whole cloves in my meal.
It’s worth the extra effort as the flavor is much stronger than any pre bought package and spicier too! This is a salad with a mighty kick (you’re warned!). If you do not have to take any photographs in between, this is a pretty quick salad to put together. There is some chopping involved and some measuring.
You cut up one small onion, grate 2 cm of ginger, deseed and chop one green (or red) chili. The you remove and deseed the cucumber and dice it. I used a couple of cherry tomatoes but you can use any type of tomato you prefer. Just chop them into cubes or manageable size to incorporate in your salad.
Have a little bowl ready with 1 tsp of ground chill and one tbsp of your garam masala mixture you just prepared.
Put 2 tbsp of nut oil in a frying pan and add your ginger, onion and chili to the pan. Fry for about 5 minutes or until your onions are soft.
Add the chickpeas and cook for a further 5 minutes until golden. Add the chili powder and garam masala you measured and then cook until golden and fragrant. (about 2 minutes) Remove from the heat, taste if you need any extra seasoning (I didn’t) and set aside to cool.
In a bowl mix the cucumber, tomatoes and chopped coriander together.
Add a good squeeze of lemon juice.
Divide among 4 plates and top with the chickpea mixture, yogurt, pomegranate seeds and crushed papadums.
Sprinkle with the coriander leaves and serve immediately before the papadums start to soften. Enjoy!
*recipe adapted from Delicious uk.
Thanks a million, Simone! Recipe looks fantastic and photos are stunning.
| Chana Chat. Indian Spicy Salad. | |
| Ingredients |
2 tbsp of cumin seeds 1 tsp of black pepper corns 1 cinnamon stick 1 tsp freshly ground nutmeg 10 green cardamom pods, seeds removed, pods thrown away 2 tsp of cloves I added as extra; 1 tsp of fennel seeds and 1 tsp of coriander seeds Chana chat 1 small onion, halved and sliced 2 cm fresh ginger, finely grated 1 red chili, deseeded and chopped 2 tbsp hazelnut oil 300 gr chickpeas, I used canned, rinsed and drained 1/2 tsp mild chili powder 1 tsp garam masala 1/2 cucumber, peeled deseeded and diced bunch of cherry tomatoes, quartered squeeze of lemon bunch of fresh coriander, roughly chopped, plus extra to serve 4 heaped tbsp of greek yogurt 1 cup of pomegranate seeds 2 large poppadoms, roughly crushed |
| Directions |
Ground everything together in a pestle and mortar or in a kitchen machine. Make sure any big bits are ground. Fry the onion, ginger and chili in the oil for 5 minutes or until the onion begins to soften. Add the chickpeas and cook for another 5 minutes until golden. Add the chili powder and the garam masala and continue cooking for an additional 2 minutes. Remove from the heat, season if needed and set aside to cool. Combine the cucumber, tomatoes, lemon juice and chopped coriander in a mixing bowl. Divide among 4 plates and top with the chickpea mixture, yogurt, pomegranate seeds and crushed poppadums. Sprinkle with the coriander leaves and serve before the poppadoms start to soften. |
| Meal type: | vegetarian, side dish, Indian |
| Servings: | 4 |
| Copyright: | © junglefrog.com |
27 Comments »
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What a beautiful recipe and ditto pictures.
Thanks so much for having me over Kay!
Ohhh Indian food is my favorite and that looks deadly delicious!!!!
Simone,
I cannot stand looking at your photos. I get so hungry looking at the images. We mix up a lot of our own spices to make things like BBQ sauce etc. but now I am going to try this one. Amazing shots!
Same applies to me. I posted this around 9am and one of the first things I did was check the pantry for chickpeas :)
O haha Mona… yes it is really very tasty… Tom is not a big fan of vegetarian mals ut even he loved it!
Lekker!
Oh what a lovely salad – we make something similar very often at home. Simone is the best and great to see my fave two Dutchies on one space!
It looks gorgeous Simone! And I agree with you, lots of respect to Kay for doing all those step by step pictures. I have my ‘in-house-photographer’ taking my pictures while I’m cooking, but even then. There’s no way he’ll do every step as that’d probably mean we’d never eat, or I’d miss half the steps because I forgot they were a step ;)
Toen ik die foto van die gebakken kikkererwten zag kreeg ik opeens heel veel honger!
Ziet er heerlijk uit met al die kruiden!
Mijn favorite eten is absuluut NIET Indian, maar dit ziet er toch wel heel lekker uit.
Lovely pictures and great salad, never tried it this way, very interesting add of pomegranates and yoghurt !!
This looks wonderful–bright, light, and tasty!
This salad looks delicious! I kept scrolling up and dow trying to find an ingredient list?
In the printable recipe is an ingredient list!
You did a great job with the pictures and I’m sure the dish tastes ad good as it looks. Can’t wait to try it!
For someone who doesn’t normally do step by step, I’d never be able to tell. Really lovely post. The photos are marvelous and the sounds wonderful.
I seriously just fell over. This is my favorite!
Great recipe; great pics! Thanks Simone! I just wish my family loved the same foods I do ::sigh::
Cheers for guest posters! That’s how I met you, Kay, if you recall, over on Ree’s ranch. I’ve followed you ever since!
Love it! Being an indian myself, I love to experiment with various recipes. I have been following Kay since long. Im going to try this soon!
This recipe sounds awesome, as does the vegetable quiche…however I would like too be able to just print out the ingredients along with the directions, without having to do a whole bunch of cut and pasting…can you add a box for ‘print recipe’. I don’t have the luxury of having a laptop to set up in my kitchen while I’m making a meal. Althought the pictures are gorgeous.
Thanks
April
See that little printer icon at the bottom of each recipe that says ‘Printable Recipe‘? Take a wild guess what it does :)
Thanks Kay…didn’t see that before…and thanks for the early morning sarcasm…
It’s a bad habit, I know. I tend to get a wee bit sarcastic when I get the feeling people talk to me in a rather condescending way.
No worries, I did not mean to come across as condescending.
I understand, but really a ‘Is there a way to print your recipes?” would have been sufficient.
Amazing photo and salad, too :) I love it!