Growing up, Sunday was our favorite day of the week! Why? Because it meant we got a special lunch and a special dinner, not the usual routine food that we would get from mom, throughout the week, which involved the mundane vegetables, along with roti, rice and daal.
Sunday meals especially dinners were yearned for, the entire week. We would start asking mom, what she was going to make on the coming Sunday, on Monday 🙂 .She made special meals like a delicious baked pasta with crusty garlic bread, or delicious Indian street food(that would make our mouths water) like Chaat, Bateta Vada, or homemade Pizzas, or Pav Bhaji and the list goes on. Our family favorite was ofcourse Chaat – Indian street food that is absolutely mouthwatering, and even more delicious when made at home, cause you know what ingredients you are putting in the food.
Chaat can comprise of dishes like Bhel Puri, Pani Puri, Sev Puri, Aloo Tikki Chole Chaat and many more! Dessert afterwards would be a trip to the ice cream shop and a drive around our neighborhood, and some fun times with our family…. Mom and dad having a conversation in the front, and me, teasing my brother and making fun of him!
I am so excited to partner with Lagostina to be part of the campaign to “Bring back Sunday Dinner”, and invite the community to gather around the table to explore different cultures, traditional recipes, and the true happiness you feel when you gather around the table with the people you love. I have carried forward the Sunday Dinner tradition at my home, with my beautiful family and we make special meals on Sunday that are from my Indian heritage. It makes me so happy that my kids have a wide palate, and love to explore different cuisines and tastes, and they devour everything I make!
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So I am sharing with you a recipe of one of my favorite chaats – Aloo Tikki Chole Chaat which is essentially Potato patties, covered with a stew made with garbanzo beans in indian spices, drizzled with a date tamarind chutney, and a cilantro mint chutney, some fried chickpea noodles called sev, and cilantro, red onion slices to garnish. This dish has all the flavors of sweet, salty, spicy, tangy, and finally mouthwatering delicious ;).
I made the tikkis and the chole(or garbanzo stew) in my Opera skillet and the 2.4Q covered stewpot. They were devoured by my family and my husband and I actually paired it with some white wine to wash it down!
I hope you get to try this recipe, or make your own Sunday traditions with your family, with recipes from your heritage, to enjoy a meal with the family with great conversation and memories to make for a lifetime, just like my mom and dad did with our family.
XO
Amisha
This blog post is sponsored by Lagostina. All opinions expressed are entirely my own.
Ingredients
- Chole:
- 2 cups dried garbanzo beans
- ÂĽ cup vegetable oil
- 2 tsp cumin seeds
- A pinch of asafoetida
- Âľ cup red onion finely chopped
- 2 medium sized tomatoes finely chopped
- 1 tbsp tomato paste
- 3-4 cardamom pods crushed in a mortar pestle
- 3-4 bay leaves
- 3 cloves of garlic
- 2 tsp grated ginger
- 1 tsp red chilli powder
- 1 tsp coriander powder
- 1 tbsp + 1 tsp chole masala
- 1 black tea teabag
- Salt to taste
- ÂĽ cup chopped cilantro
- ½ medium Red onion slices
- Aloo Tikki:
- (Makes about 10 aloo tikkis)
- 1 ½ pounds potatoes, boiled, and skin removed
- 1 tsp cumin powder
- 1 tsp coriander powder
- 1 tsp red chilli powder
- 1 tsp chaat masala
- ½ tsp salt
- 2 tbsp chopped cilantro
- ÂĽ cup vegetable oil
- Condiments:
- ½ cup date tamarind chutney(recipe on my blog)
- ½ cup cilantro mint chutney(recipe on my blog)
- 1 cup thin sev(fried chickpea noodles)
- Cilantro to garnish
- Lemon wedges
Instructions
- Chole:
- Soak the garbanzo beans in a medium bowl, with double the quantity of water, for 6-8 hours, covered. The garbanzo beans will double in size.
- In a pressure cooker, at medium to high heat, boil the garbanzo beans, for 5-6 whistles. Or you can boil the garbanzo beans at high heat in double the quantity of water, in a large saucepan, covered. Boil it for 30 minutes, or until the beans are soft to the touch.
- In a medium saucepan, add the vegetable oil, on medium to high heat. Add in the asafoetida, cumin seeds and let it splatter for 20 seconds. Add the onions and saute for 5 minutes, until slightly brown and translucent. Add the crushed cardamom pods, garlic, ginger and saute again for a minute. Add in the tomatoes, and paste, and saute for 2-3 minutes, until it all becomes a paste. Add in the dry spices like red chilli powder, coriander powder, chole masala, salt and mix well for 2-3 minutes. Now add in the boiled garbanzo beans, along with the remaining water from the beans.
- In the meanwhile, add in the black tea bag in a cup of water, and microwave for 1 minute. Let it steep, covered for another 2 minutes. Add this black tea to the chole as well. Remove one cup of the garbanzo beans, and crush it in a small bowl using a potato masher, to mash it up coarsely. Add this mixture to the chole and mix well. Let it boil for 20 minutes, or until you see a thickened gravy in the chole mixture. Switch off the gas. Garnish with the chopped cilantro and the red onion slices.
- Aloo Tikki:
- In a large bowl, add in the potatoes, all the spices and cilantro, and mix with a potato masher to blend really well. The potatoes should be completely mashed, and the mixture should be smooth.
- Now with a little oil in your hands, divide the mixture into 10 equal portions. Make small balls with each portion and a disc of about 2 ½ inches, by gently smashing it between the palm of your hands to form a disc. Dab oil as necessary to prevent the potato mixture from sticking to your hands. Make 10 discs and place them on a plate.
- In a large saucepan, on medium heat, add 2 tbsp of the oil. Add in 5 tikkis at a time and let it brown for about 4-5 minutes per side. Flip to the other side after 5 minutes. Once browned, remove it on a plate with a paper towel to drain the excess oil. Repeat the same for the remaining 5 tikkis.
- To Serve:
- Add 2 tikkis on a plate or a shallow bowl. Add in about 1 cup of the chole. Drizzle 1-2 tbsp of the date-tamarind chutney, along with 1-2 tsp of the cilantro-mint chutney. Garnish with sev, cilantro and lemon wedge!
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