Chickpea and Cucumber Salad (Chana Chaat)

Ingredientes

Two 15½-ounce cans chickpeas, drained, rinsed and patted dry

1 small red onion, finely chopped

2 teaspoons curry powder, toasted (see note)

Kosher salt and ground black pepper

⅓ cup tamarind chutney

1½ tablespoons hot sauce, plus more as needed

3 tablespoons lime juice, plus lime wedges, to serve

2 tablespoons packed light brown sugar

3 cups (4 ounces) fried wonton strips

1 English cucumber, quartered lengthwise and cut crosswise into ¼-inch pieces

1 cup lightly packed fresh cilantro, finely chopped

Instruções

In a large bowl, toss the chickpeas, onion, curry powder, 2 teaspoons salt and 1 teaspoon pepper. Set aside.

In a small bowl, whisk together the chutney, hot sauce, lime juice and sugar. Taste and season with more hot sauce, if desired. Pour ¼ cup of this mixture over the chickpeas and toss. Cover and let stand for 15 minutes.

To the chickpea mixture, mix in the wonton strips, cucumber and half the cilantro. Taste and season with salt and pepper. Drizzle with half the remaining chutney mixture and sprinkle with the remaining cilantro. Serve with the extra chutney mixture and lime wedges.

Notas

Don’t use the curry powder without toasting it in a dry a skillet over medium for 1 minute, stirring constantly. This deepens its flavors and cooks out any raw notes.

Chaat is a style of savory South Asian street snack with dozens of variations. All feature a mix of contrasting flavors and textures—sweet, tart and spicy, as well as creamy and crunchy. This is our version of chickpea (chana) chaat; it’s a good appetizer or side to grilled meats or seafood. To mimic the crunch of fried samosa wrappers that are sometimes added, we used the fried wonton strips sold near the croutons at the supermarket. For convenience, we used store-bought tamarind chutney (look in the international aisle) and spiked it with brown sugar, lime juice and hot sauce. For the latter, we preferred the acidic heat of Tabasco or Frank’s Red Hot sauce. Feel free to substitute chopped tomato and/or mango for all or some of the cucumber. And if you like, drizzle with whole-milk plain yogurt.