Samosa Chat: An absolute treat for tastebuds

Samosa Chat: An absolute treat for tastebuds

A spicy, tangy, and flavourful dish that represents Indian street food the best. Samosa chat is soul food as this snack is a blend of yoghurt, chickpea curry, spices, chole, and chutneys. This perfect snack will fulfil your desire of eating something spicy and yummy. 

Origin

Samosa is popular in every part of the nation. Restaurants are incomplete without samosa. The earliest mention of samosa was found in the 9th century. Over the centuries, the dish’s name was different in different regions.

Oil, butter, dough, and salt have been the prime ingredients of samosa for centuries. The dish was known as Samsa as it had a pyramid shape back in the day. The stuffing was mainly of meat, onions, and ghee, which changed. In several regions of the world, Samsa still exists, which is crispy and contains meat on the inside.

The potato filling is the most popular type of samosa in India. The story is different when it comes to samosa chaat. The word chaat means ‘to lick,’ and the dish became popular in the 16th century. During the cholera outbreak, the chefs added plenty of spices to the food to make it free of bacteria.

Moreover, several other stories also state how adding tamarind, curd, mint, spices, chilies, and coriander made the bacteria kill. However, no specific story dates back to the origin of samosa chat.

How to make samosa chat

Samosa chat recipe varies for everyone as it depends on your ingredients. Some of you may already have samosas or chickpea curry at home, and you just need to prepare the chat.

On the other hand, some may be preparing the recipe from scratch. Therefore, chole or chickpea curry is the first thing you will need. It comprises tomato puree, spices, onions, and chickpeas.

This curry needs slow cooking in a pressure cooker to make it flavourful. Chickpea curry is the base for chat, so its consistency needs to be medium to thick.

Indian yoghurt, that is, dahi, is the next thing that goes in this chat, and it balances the flavour overall. Curd can be made at home by boiling the milk and frothing it.

Samosa traditionally contains a filling of potatoes and peas, but it can also have meat, chicken, or any other filling. You can make samosa at home, get from an outlet or get frozen samosas from the store.

Mint chutney and tamarind chutney are the main ingredients that add spiciness and tanginess to the dish.

Cumin powder, red chili powder, and chat masala are the toppings that make samosa chat more flavorful. Pomegranate and sev are some optional ingredients that add crunchiness and color to chat.

Ingredients for chole

1 cup Dried chickpeas

Neutral Oil

Ghee

1/2 tsp Cumin seeds

1/4 tsp Fenugreek seeds

1/4 tsp Mustard seeds

2 Chopped Onions

1 tsp Ginger

2 tsp Garlic

1/2 tsp Turmeric

Coriander Powder

1/4 tsp Garam masala

1/4 tsp Chili powder

1 tsp Chana masala

Salt

2 Red chili

Tomato paste

1 cup Water

Ingredients for samosa chat

Chole

Curd

Samosas

Mint chutney

Tamarind chutney

Chat masala

Roasted cumin seed powder

Red chili powder

Pomegranate seeds

Red onions chopped

Sev

Cilantro

Instructions

To make an Indian samosa chaat, first prepare chole first. Soak chickpeas overnight in water, rinse them well and add them to the pressure cooker. Add green cardamom, bay leaves, cinnamon stick salt, and four cups of water to the cooker.

Cook the chickpeas on high flame for two whistles and turn the flame to medium. Cook for ten more minutes and check if the chickpeas are soft. Take oil in a pan, heat it and add grated onions to it. Let the onions cook till the color is golden brown, and then add ginger garlic paste to it.

Make one cup tomato puree, add it to the pan, and cook for 15 minutes. After this step, add chole masala, red chili powder, cumin powder, salt, and paprika powder to this pan. Blend everything well and cook for around one minute till you notice the aromatic smell of the spices.

Add cooked chickpeas to this masala, cover the curry and let it simmer for half an hour. Do not rush this step and cook till you achieve the desired consistency.

Heat ghee in another pan, add ginger julienne and garam masala to it, stir fry and transfer it in the chole. Top the dish with Kasuri methi, and the chickpea curry is ready.

Next in this chat samosa, you need to prepare the chutneys. First, let’s make the mint cilantro chutney. Take cilantro, remove the stems and add them to a blender. Add ginger, green chili, black pepper, chat masala, cumin powder, lemon juice, sugar, yoghurt, and salt to the blender. Blend the ingredients well to create a smooth consistency.

To make the sweet tamarind chutney, add tamarind to a bowl and two cups of water. Heat this mixture till it comes to a boil. Cover the pan and let it rest for half an hour as soon as it comes to a boil. Transfer this mixture to a blender, blend it and sieve the mixture. Add half a cup of water to the mix while straining to remove the fibre.

In a pan, heat some oil, add cumin seeds, hing, and let them come to a boil. Add the tamarind paste to this pan, half cup water, and mix everything nicely. After a minute, add sugar and jaggery and let them dissolve completely.

To this, add cumin powder, red chilli powder, black salt, salt, ginger powder, and Kashmiri chilli powder. Let the chutney simmer for a couple of minutes and turn off the heat after the desired consistency. Then, set it aside, let it cool down and put it in a refrigerator.

For the Punjabi samosa chaat, you need to prepare the samosas. You can either get samosas from a restaurant or frozen ones from the store. This recipe is for those who are willing to make samosa from scratch. Take boiled potatoes, add toasted spices like cloves, green cardamom, black peppercorns, cumin seeds, fennel seeds and coriander seeds, heat them in a pan and grind them.

Heat one tbsp oil in a pan, let it come to a boil and add cumin seeds to it. Add chopped ginger and green chillies, fry until the raw smell vanishes.

To this, add cooked green peas, red chilli powder and hing. Then, take cumin powder, coriander powder, fennel powder, and garam masala powder in another bowl. Add this mixture to the pan and blend everything.

The next step in this samosa chat recipeis to put the mashed potatoes in this mixture. Saute the mix and keep it aside.

Combine all purpose flour, carom seeds, salt and ghee in a bowl to prepare a dough. Make small balls of the dough, flatten it and cut it between to create triangular shapes. Put some water using a brush or your fingers on the edge of the triangle.

Make a cone carefully and fill it with the potato stuffing. Ensure that the filling is in the correct quantity to not burst in the pan. Press the edges gently and close the samosa. There should be no cracks in the samosas. Deep fry the samosas till they are crispy golden brown.

Finally, it is time to assemble the samosas chat. Take a serving plate to add chole to it. Ensure that the chole is hot before serving. Take one samosa, break it into medium-sized pieces and layer it on top of chole. Add curd, tamarind chutney, cilantro chutney and chopped onions. Sprinkle some chat masala powder on the top and serve it hot.

Tips

Assemble the chat only when you are going to serve it instantly. Otherwise, the dish will turn soggy and there will be no crispiness left.

This dish is a blend of hot and cold ingredients. Before serving, ensure that the dahi and chutneys are cold, whereas the chole and samosas are hot.

Dahi is a game-changer in this recipe, so do not cut back on its quantity. After the dish is ready, drizzle with some dahi to make it look colourful and yummy at the same time.

It is delicious but also has a great appearance. Layering the ingredients is significant. See the correct order in the recipe above.

Whether you are using homemade dahi or market made, whisk it nicely before adding it to the dish. Its consistency should be perfect.

You can make the chutneys according to your taste and preference. If you like spicy cilantro chutney, add more chillies to it.

Smash the samosas into small pieces, preferably bite-sized, to make the dish more eatable.

Notes

You can use canned chickpeas if you want to reduce the cooking time. However, soaking dried chickpeas overnight requires more cooking time.

If you are cooking the chickpea curry on a stovetop, follow the same steps of the recipe.

If you are using frozen samosas, deep fry them only when about to serve the dish. Do not reheat the frozen samosas as they can become hard.

The consistency of the chickpea curry should not be too thin as it makes the base of the chat. However, make the curry medium too thick so the samosa can sit on it easily.

Chopped onions and sev as a topping will make the dish crisp and colourful. Do not skip this step.

If making a vegan recipe, use oil instead of ghee for tempering and vegan yoghurt instead of curd.

You can store the chutneys and curd in the fridge for a week. Storing chickpea curry for up to three days in the refrigerator is harmless. Reheat the chole before preparing the dish, and you are good to go.

For those who like the chat spicy, you can add more red chili powder as a topping at the end. Or else, you can use red chili chutney and cilantro and tamarind chutney.

The filling of the samosa depends entirely on your preference. You can either use a potato filling or meat if you want to.

Nutrition Fact

This recipe offers:

Calories: 510kcal

Protein: 10g

Carbohydrates: 39g

Frequently Asked Questions