Palak Patta Chaat is an utterly stunning and delicious appetizer. It is a gluten free street food dish. Palak (Spinach) Patta (Leaf) is one of the most delicious chaat that you can make. Leafy spinach and Kale is dipped in a chickpea flour batter and deep fried. Then its topped with sweet and spicy chutneys, yogurt and tomatoes, onions, cilantro and pomegranate arils. It finally topped with sev. A flavor explosion in the mouth.
1/4cup Cilantro green chutney homemade or store-bought
1/4cup Red garlic chutney, optionalhomemade or store-bought
Other ingredients for chaat
1small onionchopped
1medium tomatochopped
1green chili, optional chopped
½tspred chili powder, optional
1tspchaat masala
1cupSev or Boondi
¼cupPomegranate arils
¼cupCilantrochopped
Yogurt
Instructions
Spinach and Kale Pakoras
Take all the dry ingredients for the batter in a medium bowl – chickpea and rice flour, baking powder, salt, turmeric, red chili powder, finely grated ginger and finely chopped chilies. Stir the dry ingredients and add water little but little. Don’t add all the water all together. Sometimes, it really depends on the besan. I used just a little more than ¾ cup. Whisk and mix everything and make batter.
Batter should not be too thin. You should be able to coat the leaves and batter should stay on it. If your batter is too thin, you can add more chickpea flour and make it thick. But remember to season it little bit extra too. Leave the batter aside.
Heat up oil on medium flame in a deep pot or pan. Once the oil is hot enough about 300 F, dip each spinach leaf and kale leaf individually on both sides and deep fry it on both sides until it is lightly golden and crispy. Make sure the oil is hot but not too hot.
Finish frying rest of the leaves and remove them on absorbent paper.
Yogurt
In a small bowl – mix yogurt with salt, roasted cumin powder and sugar and whisk it until sugar is mixed.
Layer the Chaat
Place all the spinach and kale pakoras in a huge platter or bake tray. Spread it out a little bit. Sprinkle chopped tomatoes, onions and green chili if you are using it. Drizzle all the chutneys one by one followed by yogurt. Reserve some for extra. (Red garlic chutney is optional but I do use it if I have some on hand, sometimes I use sriracha instead of red garlic chutney. It works well). Sprinkle some sev and boondi.
Sprinkle some red chili powder (totally optional) and chaat masala. Garnish with pomegranate arils and cilantro.
Serve extra chutneys and yogurt on the side.
Notes
You can prepare everything and keep it ready. 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 crunchy and not get soggy.
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 short cut.
You can skip yogurt or use vegan yogurt.
I also like to flavor yogurt a little bit, so you get flavors in every layer.