Chick Pea Salad- Chana Chat

Serves 4

Ingredients:

1 cup dry chickpeas

1 medium tomato finely cut

1 medium red onion finely chopped

1 small cucumber finely cut

1 small de-seeded green chilly finely chopped

1 tsp. lime juice

1/2 tsp. chaat masala (available in Indian grocery)

Or

1 tsp. roasted cumin powder

Salt to taste

Cilantro or coriander leaves for garnishing

Method:

Rinse the chick peas and soak them overnight or for about 6 hr. in water.

Next day boil the chickpeas with 1 cup of water in a pressure cooker until done (will take about 15-20 minutes). Strain and cool to room temperature.

Transfer the chick peas in a bowl and add the chopped onion, chilli, tomatoes and coriander. Mix well. Add the lime juice, salt, cumin powder or chat masala.

Toss to mix nicely.

Garnish with a lime slice, coriander leaves.

Serve hot as a side dish or eat cold just like a salad.

Note:

You can use can of chick pea but I prefer to use boiled chick pea from home. I don’t like can food specially the liquid one from health point of view because they have sodium, presevatives and Bisphenol A or BPA .

Don’t throw away the water from the boiled chickpeas. It is very healthy as well. Just add a little salt and lime juice to it and drink it. The water  Contains a lot of iron.

But some people get flatuence from chick pea, in that case don’t drink the water. I use the water to make dough of bread.

During soaking make sure you keep the water level 2-3 inches high above the dry chick peas and the container should have half empty room because the chick peas drink lot of  water and become double in size. So you will get 2 cups of soaked chick pea from 1 cup dry one.

Nutrition information:

Half cup of boiled chickpeas contain 140 calories, 5 grams of fiber, 6 grams of protein, slightly more than 1 gram of fat, Iron and Potassium.