A tangy and healthy salad recipe based on Indian “chaat”, or street food, flavours.
Ingredients:
- 1 cup moong bean sprouts (about 125 g)
- 1 tomato, finely chopped
- 1 small onion, finely chopped
- ½ a small cucumber, finely chopped
- 1 small potato, boiled, peeled and finely chopped
- 1 small raw mango, peeled and finely chopped
- 3 tablespoons coriander leaves, chopped (cilantro)
- 3 tablespoons mint leaves, chopped
- ¼ cup water
- 1” ball of fresh tamarind
- ½ teaspoon cumin toasted, crushed
- ½ teaspoon rock salt (or regular salt)
- ¼ teaspoon red chili, ground
- 3 tablespoons brown sugar or jaggery Click here to buy
- 1 black pepper urad papad, roasted (pappadom)
Instructions:
- Combine moong sprouts, tomato, onion, cucumber, potato, raw mango, coriander leaves, and mint in a large mixing bowl.
- Soak tamarind in 1/4th cup water for about 15 minutes. Squeeze water out of tamarind pulp, and remove pulp. Heat cumin on small pan for 1 minute until brown. Crush with a mortar and pestle. Heat tamarind liquid in a small saucepan on medium heat and add cumin, salt, ground red chili, and brown sugar. Bring to a boil, stirring and cook for 2 minutes and switch heat off. Allow to cool, and mix into vegetables.
- Put salad into serving bowl. Heat pappad on a skillet or directly on a gas stove. Cook on both sides until it changes color. Remove from heat.
- Crush pappad onto salad and mix. Serve immediately.
Critical Ingredients:
Moong bean sprouts can be substituted with any bean sprouts, but their crunchiness is critical to the salad. This tastes great even without the tomatoes and potatoes. If the tamarind dressing seems daunting, a simple dressing of 2 tablespoons lime with salt, the same spices, and sugar will also work (there is no need to heat this). You can substitute the whole cumin with ground cumin. Spicy nacho chips make a nice replacement for the pappad, and also give the salad a nice crunch. Just mint or just coriander also works – one herb is sufficient, just double the quantity.
