Share
Chaat is a favourite street food in India. This snack has become an important part of Indian cuisine, with its tangy, spicy and sweet flavours that excite the palate. From crowded street corners to roadside food stalls, you can find people gathered around chaat vendors, eager to get their fix of these mouthwatering treats.
With so many delicious types of chaat found in India, it's hard to proclaim just one as the tastiest. Perhaps the magic of this snack lies in how it brings together flavours and ingredients from across India, creating something uniquely satisfying and unforgettable.
Bhel Puri
From the streets of Mumbai, here is the most loved snack, bhel puri. An easy-to-make snack with puff rice. Start by frying some puffed rice in oil to give it extra crunch. Mix together finely chopped raw onions, tomatoes, boiled potatoes, and sev. Add tamarind and green chutney, along with chaat masala and cilantro. Finally, toss the puffed rice and chopped veggies together. Adjust spices to taste and serve up the bhel puri while it's still crispy and full of contrasting flavours and textures.
Image Credit: Freepik
Chole Chaat
Roll in Punjabi style with the delightful chole chaat. Tempting and easy to make, this chaat is a mix of spicy chickpea curry served with crispy papdis and various toppings. The curry is made by cooking chickpeas in a tomato-based sauce flavoured with ginger, garlic, onions, and aromatic spices like coriander, cumin, garam masala, and chilli powder. Once the chickpeas are tender, they are smashed slightly to thicken the sauce. The papdis, fried discs of flour dough, provide a crunchy contrast to the rich, saucy curry. Chole chaat is finished with a variety of toppings like chopped onions, cilantro, chaat masala spice blend, sev noodles, sliced green chilies, yoghurt, and tamarind or mint chutney.
Image Credit: Freepik
Sev Puri
From the Indian state of Maharashtra, here is Sev Puri. A perfect mix of crispy papdi, diced potatoes, chickpeas, onions and various types of chutneys. To make this savoury treat, small, round puri puffs are fried until crispy, then topped with a medley of contrasting flavours and textures. Diced boiled potatoes, sliced onions, and bright green coriander chutney provide a delicious base. Tangy tamarind chutney and spicy green chutney add delightful pops of flavour. The real star ingredient is the sev, or thin, crispy chickpea noodles.
Image Credit: Freepik
Dabeli
Dabeli is a beloved street food snack hailing from the vibrant state of Gujarat in western India. It features a hearty potato filling seasoned with a mélange of spices like cumin, coriander, chilli powder, and garam masala, all fried together in oil to release their warm, aromatic flavours. This spicy potato mixture gets nestled inside a soft, pillowy pav bread roll like a bun. Before serving, the dabeli is finished with sweet and tangy chutneys like tamarind, date, or cilantro, as well as a showering of crunchy sev, noodle-like fried chickpea flour strands.
Image Credit: Freepik
Masala Puri
Masala puri is a beloved South Indian dish that combines the crunchy texture of puris with a complex, spicy masala gravy. To make it, puris are fried until puffed and crispy, then broken into bite-size pieces. Meanwhile, the masala gravy is prepared by sautéing onions, tomatoes, garlic, ginger, and an array of Indian spices like coriander, cumin, chili powder, and garam masala. Once the gravy is thick and aromatic, the crispy puri pieces are stirred in so they soak up the flavours. The dish is typically garnished with chopped onions, sev, and cilantro before serving.
Kalaadi Chaat
Kalaadi Chaat is a delicious and unique street food snack that hails from the Jammu and Kashmir region of India. Kalaadi refers to a firm, salty cheese that is deep-fried into crisp golden cubes. These fried cheese cubes form the base of the chaat and provide a delightful contrast of textures. The crisp kalaadi is then topped with cool, creamy dahi (yoghurt) that has been whisked with fresh mint, cilantro, green chilies, roasted cumin, and other spices. A sweet and tangy mint chutney made from coriander, mint, tamarind and jaggery is drizzled over the top, along with some crunchy sev.
Banarasi Tamatar Chaat
Banarasi Tamatar Chaat is a quintessential street food that captures the rich culinary heritage of Varanasi, an ancient city in Uttar Pradesh renowned for its ghats along the Ganges river. This refreshing chaat starts with ripe, juicy tomatoes that are diced into chunks and seasoned with a melange of spices like cumin, chaat masala, black salt, and red chili powder. The spiced tomatoes are then topped with minced onions, coriander chutney, sweet tamarind chutney, sev, and curd or hung yoghurt.
Image Credit: Freepik
Raj Kachori
Raj Kachori is a beloved street food originating from the colourful state of Rajasthan in India. It starts with a thin dough that is rolled out and deep-fried into a large, crispy, hollow shell known as kachori. This pastry shell is then stuffed with an array of savoury and tangy ingredients like spiced mashed potatoes, chickpeas, chutneys, and yoghurt before being garnished with pomegranate seeds, chopped onions, and cilantro.
Image Credit: Freepik
When you bite into a Raj Kachori, you get an explosion of textures and flavours - the crispy, flaky exterior gives way to the soft, fluffy interior filled with the cool and spicy stuffing.
