Healthy Chickpea Garbanzo Salad/ Aloo Chaat Recipe

Chickpeas make an exceptional tasty, smooth and easy hummus to be gel up with any of your favorites wraps, sushi or simply with mashed potatoes, they go really well with anything due to its classic and yummy taste. Moreover, these garbanzo beans tastes pretty delicious when blended with any rice or meat dishes, I love to gobble down chole bhatura’s and chole paneer with steam rice with gusto, they taste splendid when concocted with paneer or cottage cheese, mama makes the best spicy chole paneer every single time.

Who said chickpeas can’t taste better when served without too much effort! Well, this protein packed beans can save your day with interesting binds of taste in just 10 minutes. Take it as an evening snack or side dish or even as a salad it is a complete hit salad recipe for you! After the binge on eating chips, it's time to serve a healthy bowl of fresh chole chana chaat, chickpeas chaat or garbanzo salad! This chickpea salad is tangy, spicy, sweet and a flavorsome plate of healthy bites that fulfills my light meal cravings. I love the heat of green chilies with the crunch of sliced onions and tomatoes, the fresh aroma of cilantro and a zest of flavors truly takes the recipe to an another level. Chilled greek yogurt and tamarind sauce are later mixed with salad for a little creamy texture and lovely deep colors turning the whole dish into a special dish.

Chickpeas are high in fiber and yogurt soothes the stomach, it’s a complete all star food so what else we want? Try out not so difficult chickpea salad or chole chaat recipe at home and relish every bites of wonderful flavors, I’m sure you too will be fond of this salad soon!

Chickpeas Salad/ Aloo Chaat Recipe

Preparation Time: 10 minutes

Cooking Time: 60 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour, 10 minutes

Serve: 2-3 persons

Ingredients:

1 cup boiled chickpeas/ white chole/ garbanzo beans

1 large size boiled, peeled and diced potatoes

1 medium size onion, thinly sliced

1 medium size tomato, roughly chopped

½ cup whisk greek yogurt

½ cup tamarind sauce/ chutney

1 tablespoon chaat masala powder or black salt as per the taste

1 teaspoon roasted cumin seeds or zeera

1 teaspoon roasted coriander seeds

1 tablespoon red chili flakes or chopped green chilies, as per your convenience

1-2 teaspoon sugar

1 tablespoon of chopped cilantro

Salt to taste

Method:

• In a bowl, add boiled chickpeas and diced potatoes, chopped onions, chopped tomatoes, 1 tablespoon of chaat masala powder or black salt as its substitute and mix well. 
• Always soak chickpeas or white chana overnight and later boil or pressure cook it for quick results. You can also use the leftover boiled chickpeas or boiled potatoes to get this chickpeas recipe done in 10 minutes.
• Lets get back to our recipe, add 1 teaspoon roasted cumin seeds or zeera, 1 teaspoon of roasted coriander seeds, 1 tablespoon red chili flakes or green chilies, 1 teaspoon sugar. Gently toss everything together and add 2-3 tablespoons of greek yogurt and 1-2 tablespoons of tamarind dip, adjust all the seasonings and add salt as needed. You can balance yogurt and tamarind dip as per your preference. 
• I have already shared tamarind dip recipe on my blog, you can refrigerate this dip for a week or two! Check out our tangy and sweet tamarind recipe here!
• Finally, add 1 tablespoon of chopped cilantro and refrigerate, before serving add crushed nachos and serve chilled! Enjoy.

Make Chicken Mince With Potatoes In Just 30 Minutes!!

This is one of the much needed quick and simple keema recipe that is tummy filling and satisfying meal requiring at best minimal portion of ingredients. All, I love to do is, possibly exploring out food recipes with handy ingredients as I feel that simple yet appetizing food not only helps us cook effortlessly but it adds fun, diversion and variation in our recipe! 

Keema aloo or mince chicken is the traditional chicken recipe that is cooked by continuously bhunoing or frying the minced chicken and spices, letting all the water to dry up developing into a tender and juicy bites. As it is said “a balanced diet is a cookie in each hand” hence I have always opt for chicken keema option over meat keema due to its lower fat content!

The leftover makes a great kebabs, keema paratha’s, toppings and puff pastry fillings too! He prefers to eat keema aloo with a combination of zeera rice and salad where I like to stuff it in a soft bread roll giving a touch of burger. Go with any of the delicious bewildering fusion with the divine and exquisite mince chicken and you’ll simply love it! 

You can also try our Keema and Peas Curry recipe.

Make Chicken Mince With Potatoes In Just 30 Minutes!!

Preparation Time: 10 minutes

Cooking Time: 30 Minutes

Total Time: 40 minutes

Serves: 3-4 persons

Ingredients:

½ Kg Minced Chicken

½ cup cooking oil

2 large potatoes, peeled and cubed

1 large onion, finely chopped

2 large tomatoes, sliced

1 tablespoon ginger paste

1 tablespoon garlic paste

1 teaspoon fresh ginger julliene 

2 tablespoons crushed red chillies 

1 tablespoon zeera or cumin seeds

½ teaspoon turmeric powder or haldi

1 tablespoon coriander powder or dhania powder

½ teaspoon all spice powder or garam masala powder

3-4 green chilies, sliced

½ cup chopped cilantro 

Salt to taste

1 cup water

Method:

• In a non-stick wok, heat cooking oil and fry sliced onions with ginger and garlic paste, fry on a medium flame until they turn golden brown in color. At once, add chicken mince and keep stirring it on a high flame until the mince changes its color. Use a wooden spatula to stir fry the mince and break it up before adding any flavorings to it.
• As soon as the water vapor and the oil seeps out, add sliced tomatoes and ginger julienne on a medium flame.
• Add 1 tablespoon red chili flakes, ½ teaspoon turmeric powder, 1 tablespoon coriander powder, 1 tablespoon cumin seeds and salt to taste. Mix everything on a high flame and adjust the seasoning, Allow it to cook on a high flame until the tomatoes are evenly reduced to form a smooth paste or masala. Whenever you have turned the heat to high flame always bhuno or fry the mixture continuously.
• Add diced potatoes and mix it well, add 1-2 cups of water and let it cook on a medium flame until the potato cubes are cooked.
• When water entirely dries away, switch the flame to high and mix in chopped coriander leaves and add slit green chilies with ½ teaspoon of all spice powder. Cook for a minute or two and serve hot with Indian flat bread or roti, zeera rice or bun.

Fresh Cocktail Fruit Trifle

Desserts featured with chilled custards, deep creamy and heavy with vine fruits or soft sweet ones with delicate arrangements, we both love a little cream or custard to mellow the heat and sweet. In India, my quondam home, December is always a wedding season, so alongside the delicious meal are trays of my favorite desserts and kulfi-falooda’s. Gulab jamun is made by merging Khoya and grated paneer, these are particular to the sub-continent, we always prefer to eat the generous bowlful from the status restaurant but I think mama makes the best! 

I always like succulent gulab jamun to be with a perfect balance of sugar, so mama wins this sweet recipe by frying the round shaped balls until they are crisp and darker in color, It gets better and better once it is dipped into an ambrosial sugary syrup or chasni. Believe me its the easy to go in one shot juicy, sweet that will just melt in your mouth like never before. Mama sometimes makes them in a round or cylindrical shapes and as it is time consuming it makes sense to make a larger batch, neatly packed in a jar and later kept refrigerated to keep through the winter. It takes several hours to make it, but it is truly worth it!

Dada would bring fresh sweets or desserts every day to satisfy our sugar craving after supper! As Gujarati and sweets are inseparable, it's a habit to end our day with yummy desserts or sweet goodies, work has almost occupied my time and hence I am not able to make any sort of Indian sweets frequently due to its lengthy cooking procedures, but how do I manage to replace my sweet cravings and satisfy my husbands needs! Well the answer to this is quick and easy to make fruit trifle. We all have a fruit tin pack lying in our refrigerator so all I need to do is make custard and jellies and layer them together for a delicious fruit trifle recipe that fulfills my uninvited sweet cravings. Eating so much sugar every time of day is bad, but eating a little of what you fancy won’t hurt you. This tempting colorful dessert is healthy, tasty and amazing blend of different layers. Try this and comment if you loved digging your spoons again and again. But don't forget to share your big bowl of dessert with your loved ones!

Fruit Trifle

Preparation Time: 30-40 minutes

Serves: 2 persons

Ingredients

1 pack of any vanilla flavored cake, I have used swiss roll

1 pack of mixed fruit tin or 1 bowl of mix chopped fruits

1 cup of any colored jelly, I have used mango flavored jelly

1 bowl of strawberry custard, any flavor of your choice

1 cup of whipped cream, I have used ready made one’s

1/2 cup sugar syrup

2 tablespoons of toasted almond slices

Method:

• Let's start with jelly preparation - In a saucepan, boil 400 ml water and mix 80g of mango jelly powder, stir the mixture continuously until jelly crystals are dissolved. Pour the complete mixture on a plate or mould and allow it to cool for 30 minutes. Later refrigerate the jelly for about 1 hour until set properly.
• With the help of a knife, loosen the sides of the jelly and slice it into cube shape.
• For Custard recipe, click here, you can use any flavor of custard powder as per your choice. Follow the step till 4th bullet.
• Let's start arranging! – In a serving dish, spread swiss roll all over its base, drizzle gentle amount of sugar syrup all over the swiss roll so that it absorbs its sweetness easily, add a layer of cubed jelly, whipped cream, almond flakes, custard and mixed fruits. You can also add walnuts if you want.
• Add another layer of custard, cubed jellies and garnish with fruits, refrigerate and serve chilled.

Another easy dessert recipe fruit trifle is ready to serve, Enjoy digging!