This week is National Vegetarian Week 2021 (10th May - 16th May 2021), in honour of this our resident veggie Dr Kirti Viswanathan will be sharing some of her favourite recipes to cook at home!

Day 1- Indian chickpea salad ( Chana Chaat)

Chana Chaat is a popular Indian street food and makes a great starter. It is high in protein and easy to prepare.

Prep time: 10mins      Cook time:15mins      Servings:6

Ingredients-

• 2 cans of chickpeas

• 1 small red onion chopped

• 1 small cucumber thinly sliced

• Handful of coriander leaves

• 3 small green chillies chopped

• 2 tbsp- mild olive oil/rapeseed oil

• 1 tsp cumin seeds

• 1tsp chaat masala

• ½ tsp chilli powder

• 2tbsp tamarind sauce

• ½ tsp cooking salt

Method-

1. Preheat a nonstick frying pan or skillet pan and add oil. When it starts to shimmer, add cumin seeds and chillies and fry for 30 sec

2.   Then add chaat masala, chilli powder, salt and cook for 30sec

3. Now add chickpeas and tamarind sauce, cook for few mins until the chickpeas are warm

4. Transfer to salad bowl and add the cucumber, red onion and coriander leaves.

5. Mix well and add salt for taste.

Tips-

• Chaat masala can be bought readymade from shops or it can be substituted with ½ tsp coriander seed powder, ½ tsp black pepper, ½ tsp black salt and ½ tsp dried mango powder (amchoor powder)

• It can be served warm or cold.

• Squeeze some lemon juice or add chopped cherry tomatoes to make it tangier.

• Replacing cucumber with avocado makes it more nutritious.

• Chickpeas can be substituted with haricot beans, red kidney beans or blackeye beans.

• It can be used as fillings on lettuce/tortilla wraps or add boiled potatoes to make it extra filling as a meal.

Recipe by Dr K Viswanathan