Corn chaat

One of my biggest problems is feeding my family's 4 o'clock hunger pangs. So one day, I just quickly improvised on some chaat options we normally explore to make this healthy version.
For those of you who don't know what Chaat is; Chaat is an Indian snack variety. The most important ingredients are the sweet and spicy sauces that are used. Among others, some of the most popular chaat items are Bhel (made out of puffed rice, sweet and spicy sauce, vermicelli made out of chickpea flour - popularly known as sev, onion and tomatoes), Pani Puri (Made out of puffed balls - almost like a ping pong, filled with spice water and legumes or boiled potato), Sev Puri (where you made a chip out of deep fried chick pea flour and top it with boiled potatoes, onions, sauces and sev). Some varieties use sweetened yogurt as well. Chaat is very popular snack type and in India; you can find small vendors at many street corners selling different kinds of chaat.

I made a chaat out of corn kernel. For the base, instead of using deep fried chips, I used baked corn tortilla chips. To make the sauces, you would need -

Spicy Sauce:
1/2 cup mint leaves
1 cup coriander leaves
3-4 green chillies (depending on your spice need)
1 tsp lemon juice
salt

- To make this sauce, grind all the ingredients above adding little water to make the consistency of a runny paste. Spicy sauce is ready!

Sweet Sauce:
2 cups seedless dates
1.5 cup water
3 tbsp tamarind concentrate
1 tsp coriander powder
1 tsp cumin seeds
A pinch of salt

- To make the sweet sauce, take water in the pot, add tamarind, dates and keep to boil till the dates are soft. While the water is boiling, add the coriander powder and salt. On the side, roast cumin seeds. Once fragrant, add the seeds to the boiling water. Once the dates are soft, set aside the pot to cool. Grind into fine paste. The sweet sauce is ready.

Note -You could make these sauces and store in your refrigerator for about a week to 10 days.

Now comes the fun part - putting together the corn chaat.

You will need:
1/2 cup boiled potatoes (mashed)
1 cup corn kernel
3-4 tbsp chickpeas (soaked overnight and cooked till soft) - You could also use other kind of beans in lieu of chickpeas
1/2 cup onions (finely chopped)
1/4 cup tomatoes
1/2 cup sev
1 tsp red chilly powder
salt
coriander to garnish

Recipe:

• Mix potatoes, corn, chick peas, onions chilly powder and salt well.
• Lay corn chips next to each other in a plate. Fill them with potato, corn mixture.
  
• Add little spicy and little sweet sauce on it. Cover with sev. Add coriander to garnish
• The chaat is ready to be served!

You could add other vegetables like finely chopped beet root or bell peppers if you like. The sauces add to the whole experience with the sweet and savory flavors.

I made this for my blog event - A Healthy Bite.


I believe this would also be a good dish for picnics. So this goes to Trupti for her Picnic Eats events, started by Ramki