Chaat – The Perfect Sweet and Spicy Combo

Indian Chaat – is there a better example of Sweet and Spicy in the culinary world? As an ardent fan of chaat, I would say no.. absolutely not! The beauty of chaat is that  there are so many variations of it, different forms, incorporating regional flavours and yet, the essence of it remains the same. It almost assaults the tongue with the sharp contrasting sweet and spicy flavours. Ironically chaat is catergorised as a savoury snack. What a bland way of labelling a dish that incorporates the savoury bases, the sweet date or jaggery chutney blended with the theekha mint chutney, the slight sourness added by dahi and a myraid of textures. The Indian Chaat has to be experienced, not eaten! The best places to experience chaat are the street vendors. I have loved the golgappe in Delhi as much as the paanipuri in Mumbai. I have enjoyed the aloo chaat, the tikki, the dahi batata puri or the papadi chaat in equal measure. These traditional chaat recipes have been tickling taste buds for ages…

Not only do I love to eat chaat, I also love to serve it. Whether I have guests over for tea or dinner, chaat would definitely be a snack on the menu. The beauty of Chaat is that I am able to adapt it to the guest in question. I realised that while people enjoyed the sweet and spicy combination of chaat, they did not want the fried elements like puri, papadi and dahi vada into it. That has prompted me to come up with my very own version of chaat – the salad chaat!

Salad Chaat Recipe

This is a sweet and spicy take on the regular green salad. So here are the ingredients –

1. Cucumber
2. Tomato
3. Carrot
4. Paneer
5. Pomegranate
6. Mint Leaves
7. Date / Jaggery Chutney
8. Curd
9. Chaat Masala
10. Rock Salt
11. Honey

Since this is a salad, the ingredients are versatile. You can add onions, radish, beet roots, corn or even apples! The steps are very simple!

1. Dice the cucumber, paneer, carrot and tomatoes to roughly the same size. I prefer to extract the tomato pulp and use just the flesh for this salad.
2. In a blender, add two spoonfuls of curd, lots of mint leaves, a pinch of rock salt, a spoonful of honey and a spoonful of chutney. Blend together till you get a nice even consistency. This will be your dressing.
3. Add the dressing to the salad and mix well.
4. Top it up with pomegranate seeds and fresh mint leaves and serve.

What about you guys? Do you adapt recipes to add your favourite flavours to more healthy food? If you do, then do check out Vir Sanghvi and Vikas Khanna’s food adventures. In fact, you could share some of your own #Foodventures and stand a chance to meet these two fantastic food loving gentlemen!

In the meantime, here is Vikas Khanna sharing a Sweet and Spicy #Foodventure with you…