Chana Chaat Recipe (Chickpea Chaat)
Updated: March 5, 2023, By Swasthi
Chana Chaat is a popular Indian snack where cooked chickpeas are tossed with fresh cut onions, tomatoes, tamarind chutney, ground aromatic spices and herbs. This easy to make Chana Chaat is spicy, slightly sour and sweet with a punch of so many flavors and textures. More over it is healthy, protein packed, filling and is super delicious. Serve it for a snack any time of the day. It also makes a great party snack too.
About Chana Chaat
Chana Chaat is so much popular across India and you will find it being made everywhere. Right from the households, push carts selling street foods to the restaurants specialized in chaat foods, you will find various versions being served.
So there is no one way to make this. You will almost never find chana chaat tasting same in any 2 places. Some use yogurt, some places serve it with potatoes and some are made with all different kinds of chutneys – green, tamarind and red chutney.
In this post I share a simple and easy to make chana chaat with pantry staples. Whipping up this chaat is super easy and can be done under 10 mins, if you have pre-boiled or canned chickpeas. Just chop the veggies and mix all the ingredients together.
You can make this chaat with white chickpeas (kabuli chana) or black chickpeas (kala chana), whatever you like. I make it with whatever I have. It can also be made with any kind of soft cooked legumes or beans or even sprouts.
We are also not very particular about using sev for the topping. On occasions I end up topping with boondi or even with Chivda, cornflakes, baked chips or tortilla chips. I know this sounds funny but don’t stop yourself from making this just because you don’t have sev.
For more Chaat recipes & street foods, check
Papdi chaat
Sev puri
Corn chaat
Dahi vada
Churumuri
Photo Guide
How to Make Chana Chaat (Stepwise Photos)
Preparation
1. To make chana chaat, first rinse and soak half cup chickpeas overnight or for at least 6 to 8 hours. Later drain the water and rinse them very well. Pour fresh water just enough to cover them about 1 cup.
2. Cover and Pressure cook for 3 to 4 whistles on a medium heat or in the instant pot for 16 minutes, until chana turns tender.
3. When the pressure drops, drain the water and reserve it. You can add it to soups, rasam, curry, sambar or to knead roti dough. Cool chana completely.
Make Chana Chaat
4. Add chaat masala, salt and cumin powder . Also add tamarind chutney or tamarind paste mixed with honey or dates syrup. Add chopped green chilies, onions, tomatoes & coriander leaves. Toss everything well. You can also skip tamarind chutney and use just lemon juice. Add more salt, spice and chaat masala if needed.
Serve chana chaat immediately. Top this with your favorite crunchies like sev, farsan/ mixture or boondi.
Photo Guide
How to make Kala Chana Chaat (Stepwise Photos)
This was another time I made with onions, tomatoes, grated carrots, crispy air fried potatoes and sev.
To make crispy potatoes dice the potatoes and fry them in 2 tablespoons of oil until crispy or air fry in the air fryer until crisp. I air fried for 4 to 5 minutes at 360F /180 C. Cool them first before adding here.
Add the cumin powder, chaat masala and tamarind chutney.
Taste test and adjust salt and spice powders.
Garnish chana chaat with sev. Serve immediately.
Related Recipes
Recipe Card
Chana Chaat Recipe (Chickpea Chaat)
For best results follow the step-by-step photos above the recipe card
Ingredients (US cup = 240ml )
- ½ cup dried chickpeas (or 1½ to 2 cups cooked or canned chickpeas)
- 1 onion (small, chopped finely)
- 1 tomato (small, deseeded & chopped finely)
- ¼ cup cucumber (chopped, optional)
- 2 sprigs coriander leaves (chopped finely)
- 1 to 2 green chili chopped
- 1 to 2 tablespoon tamarind chutney or lemon juice (refer notes)
- ½ teaspoon chaat masala (adjust to taste)
- ½ teaspoon roasted cumin powder (optional)
- ¼ to ⅓ teaspoon salt (adjust to taste)
Optional
- 2 tablespoons sev / boondi/ farsan/ mixture or corn flakes
- 2 tablespoons curd / dahi
- 1 teaspoon green chutney
- 1 small potato diced and boiled or air fried
Instructions
- Rinse chickpeas well under running water at least thrice. Soak them in lot of water for at least 6 to 8 hrs or overnight.
- Later drain the water and add them to the cooker.
- Pour water just enough to cover them or about 1 cup. Cover the pressure cooker.
- Pressure cook for 3 to 4 whistles on a medium flame or in the instant pot for 16 minutes. You can even cook in a pot with enough water to cover them. Chana should be soft and cooked well but not mushy.
- When the pressure drops, open the cooker and drain off the water. Add it soups, curries, rasam, sambar or make dough.
How to make Chana Chaat
- Cool the chana completely. Add salt, chaat masala and cumin powder
- Add tamarind chutney if using. If you do not have tamarind chutney simply squeeze in some lemon juice or make your own following my notes below.
- Add chopped onions, chilies, tomatoes and cucumber.
- Toss all of these and taste test. Add more spices or chaat masala if required. Optionally you may add green chutney, potatoes (boiled or fried) or even whisked thick curd.
- Transfer to serving bowls. Garnish with some sev or mixture or crushed cornflakes. Sprinkle coriander leaves.
- Serve chana chaat immediately.
Notes
- Make your own tamarind chutney by mixing 1 tablespoon tamarind paste with 1 tablespoon honey or date syrup, pinch of salt, little chilli powder and cumin powder.
- You can replace kabuli chana with any cooked beans or legumes like pinto beans, rajma, cooked green peas, white peas or even with sprouts etc.
- Zucchini, carrots, boiled sweet corn also go well in this chaat.
- To make the chana chaat healthier, skip fried sev and use corn flakes or baked tortilla chips etc. Crush them and garnish.
- I cube the potato to tiny cubes, about half inch and air fry them until crispy. Cool and use it in the chana chaat.
Video
NUTRITION INFO (estimation only)
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About Swasthi
I’m Swasthi Shreekanth, the recipe developer, food photographer & food writer behind Swasthi’s Recipes. My aim is to help you cook great Indian food with my time-tested recipes. After 2 decades of experience in practical Indian cooking I started this blog to help people cook better & more often at home. Whether you are a novice or an experienced cook I am sure Swasthi’s Recipes will assist you to enhance your cooking skills. More about me
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Comments
Hi, I love your recipes , a quick question Can I store this chana chat in fridge for couple of days.
Thank you Radha,
No you can’t store the chaat. It is best to make it and serve immediately. You can store the boiled chana for 2 to 3 days and make the chaat whenever you want to eat. But in my opinion the chaat tastes best with warm chana and aloo. Hope this helps
Thank you for your reply
This chana chaat is amazing, so fast and delicious. I have been on a weight loss journey for sometime now. So I make this almost daily and love your idea of air fried potatoes. I can’t eat potatoes so replace with sweet potatoes. Boil the chickpeas for a week and make the chutney too. I love how you give easy and healthy ideas like the cornflakes here. Thank you. Keep posting.
So good to hear Vidya. Thank you so much for sharing back.
Used canned chana & whipped up coriander chutney in minutes. Chana chaat turned out very delicious.
Thanks Jenny. Glad you like.
Just like all your other recipes, this was a huge hit! I only had desi chana on hand, so I used that instead of kabuli and it was still delicious! I will be making this regularly. Thanks for sharing!
Glad to know Andrew.
Thank you so much!