Aloo Chaat – Colorful Potato Chaat
Delicious and flavorful, colorful potato chaat for festivities
I had to make a chaat recipe to celebrate nature’s produce. Moreover, when I picked up some different varieties of potatoes and purple sweet potato from farmers market.
I have three varieties of potatoes, one being the cutest purple and the deep little darker coins is sweet potato. Alu Chaat is very famous dish from Delhi!
Furthermore, this recipe contains boiled potatoes, shallow fried and then they are layered with chickpeas, onions, pomegranate arils, chaat masala, a spicy cilantro chutney and a sweet tangy tamarind chutney, yogurt, and all the crispy things like boondi and sev!
The meaning of Chaat is literally ‘to lick’ and every element of chaat contains all the flavor profiles – sweet, sour, spicy, crispy, crunchy, and tangy.
Chaat is something that I can eat any time of the day. Irresptive of the time of the day, I can eat chaat for breakfast but ideally it is something we serve for appetizers, or a side dish or starters. If you are looking for light lunch or light dinner, you can have it as meal too.
Particularly, India is famous for its street food and chaat is something we exclusively eat from the street vendors because no one make it like the way they do it.
Talking about this, makes me nostalgic about my life in India and having chaat with friend. Nothing beats that combination.
Besides, it is a gluten free street food dish. Once you dig into it you won’t stop eating this delicious chaat. It gets super addictive bite after bite that you cannot resist. India is known for its chaats. The papdi chaat, aloo chaat, fruit chaat, dahi puri, bhel, palak patta chaat etc.
Without a doubt my mouth is watering right now even while I am writing about this post. Chaat has all these fun tasting components to it. It’s slightly spicy from green chutney, tamarind chutney gives that sweetness, and sev or boondi gives crispy texture and chaat masala gives that ‘umami’ flavor.
I can shamelessly eat chaat every day. Moreover, aloo chaat is not only visually beautiful, but taste wise also, it’s delicious.
What Is Aloo Chaat?
It’s a quick variety of chaat made with aloo. It is very famous on the streets of UP and Delhi. Ofcourse its prepared in different styles. This is my interpretation of aloo chaat. Equally important, most of the ingredients are ready made. In addition, it’s topped with sweet and spicy chutneys, yogurt and tomatoes, onions, cilantro, and pomegranate arils.
Furthermore, I have used colorful different varieties of potatoes I picked up from Farmers Market few days ago. It is finally topped with sev and boondi. A flavor and texture explosion in the mouth for sure.
Furthermore, another important element of chaat is Sev (fried chickpea noodles) and a garnish of generous amounts of cilantro and a sprinkle of chaat masala completes the dish.
Lastly, did I tell you; this could be a dish you can whip up in minutes and easily if you go camping or be traveling on campervan. Most of the components are store bought to make it easy or if you are making chutneys at home, they can be prepared a few days in advance.
Therefore, leaving you with less fuss in the kitchen and more time spent with friends and families. The potatoes are the only component that needs to be cooked. They can also be boiled and kept ready. You can either shallow fry them, air fry them or oven bake them once they are par boiled.
TIPS
- You can prepare everything and keep it ready. Add chutneys and yogurt just before serving and keep some extra on the side for people to individually add more. You can make a chaat bar – lay out everything in small containers and let people go wild. Haha. Make their own chaat bowls.
- Chutneys can be prepared a day or a week in advance, they keep well in the fridge. Store-bought chutneys are big time saver. Do not hesitate.
- You can skip yogurt or use vegan yogurt.
- I also like to flavor yogurt a little bit, so you get flavors in every layer.
Aloo Chaat
Ingredients
- 4 – 5 medium sized potatoes I have used 3 types of potatoes and purple sweet potato
- 1 cup boiled chickpeas/ Chana
- 1/4 cup Tamarind Chutney store bought
- 1/4 cup Green Cilantro Chutney store bought
- 1/3 cup plain Yogurt whisked
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1 cup each Sev & Boondi
- 1 small finely chopped Onion
- 1 Green Chili finely chopped
- 1/3 cup Pomegranate
- ¼ cup Cilantro
- Pinch Chaat Masala
Instructions
- Boil potatoes in hot water for about 8-10 mins. We want to boil potatoes at almost al dente stage, where they are still firm but can be sliced or chopped easily. They will be fried to make them tender. You can do this step-in advance too.
- Take some oil in pan, and shallow fry sliced potatoes. I sliced them, you can cube them too. Same way, you can oven roast them at 350 for 15-20 minutes in a preheated oven until they are cooked slightly golden in color. If you have an air -frier you can air fry them too. Remove them and let it cool down for a bit.
- In a small bowl, whisk plain yogurt with sugar and salt. Leave it aside.
- If you are ready to serve it, then assemble it in a serving platter or dish. You can also assemble it in separate/individual serving ware. I like to leave everything out and let people assemble it on their own and add toppings of their choice.
- In the same baking dish or serving dish, spread some yogurt and add potato slices, add boiled chana, onions, green chili, sprinkle chaat masala at this stage so potatoes and chana also have some seasoning. Followed by drizzle of both chutney’s cilantro and tamarind. Drizzle yogurt too.
- Add sev and boondi, and pomegranate and cilantro. Finally sprinkle some chaat masala on top at the very end. Serve it.
Notes
- You can keep potatoes ready in advance. Add or assemble close to serving. Only add chutneys and yogurt just before serving and keep some extra on the side for people to individually add more. That way it will stay fresh.
• Chutneys can be prepared a day or a week in advance, they keep well in the fridge. Store-bought chutneys are big time saver. Do not hesitate to take a short cut.
• You can skip yogurt or use vegan yogurt.
• I also like to season yogurt a little bit, so you get flavors in every layer.
• Additionally, to two chutneys, I add red chili garlic chutney too. To mimic the flavors, you can use sriracha. It adds nice spicy element.