Kala Chana / Bengal Gram Salad

Kala chana belongs to the family of chick peas. A very delicious, versatile and nutritious pea. I love peas in general and they are a very very good source of proteins. My mom used to make a very good kala channa gravy. Eating this channa in any form evokes those memories. I used to love the gravy so much that I could hardly get through the day and it was very difficult to wait for dinner.

This kala chana salad is a very simple recipe and can be eaten as a midtime snack too. I usually prepare this whenever i make some "boring" food or sandwiches. My duckie loves kala chana and the veggies in it. He sits in his chair and picks up the chana with his little fingers and pops them into his mouth. There are many ways to make this particular dish. This is the simplest one. I will write about the other recipes later.

Recipe:

1 cup bengal gram Soaked over night

1 tomato

1 small onion

1/2 seedless cucumber

1 small boiled potato

fistful of chopped cilantro

1 tsp chaat masal or plain lime juice and salt

pinch of asafoetida

Preparation:

Soak the channa overnight. Next day pressure cook it in as little water as possible along with some asafoetida. Let the cooker cool down completely and then handle the channa. Make sure that the channa is cooked completely. Drain away whatever little water is left. Dice the tomato, mince the onion and cube the potato. cut the cucumber into dices. mix in the channa. Add chaat masala for flavor. If chaat masala is not there then just add plain salt or both salt and dash of lime. Garnish with cilantro and serve cold. This is perfect to take on a picnic.

I love this dish because it is the perfect combination of fibre, proteins and carbs. It can be served as a salad or just something you want to munch on.

Like I said before there are many ways to prepare this dish. You could grill the above veggies and add to this dish, it would taste wonderful. Or heat up some oil, add mustard seeds, cumin seeds, turmeric, red chilli powder, corriander powder, cumin powder , salt and the channa and serve it hot - with or without the veggies.