This recipe of Matra Chaat reminds me of my time in Cape Town. I lived here for 2.5 years and one of my friends, who was from Pakistan, used to make Kachumbar as a side dish with her Indian feast. Although I had been to India, I never had come across raw salads. This Matra chaat or also known as Matar Chaat is a popular street food dish in Delhi.
I am a big fan of chaat. The recipes vary quite a bit. One of her favourite chaats is deep-fried chickpeas and kale from the Tiffin Truck in Cambridge. You can have this Matra Chaat as a side dish, starter or for lunch or serve it with naan and it’s a light dinner. I have used the delicate Flamingo peas for this recipe, but you can use regular chickpeas instead.

What are Flamingo peas?
The award-winning company Hodmedod’s are growing a new pea, a pink one! This lovely small, slightly pink pea has been aptly called the Flamingo Pea. They were offering everyone 400 packs to anyone who wanted a 500g pack of the Flamingo Peas to trial. They were completely free, but in return, they wanted feedback. That was an offer hard to resist and a nice challenge to create some tasty recipes.
More recipes with the Flamingo pea
Head over to this page for more recipes with this delicious pink pea. Don’t have the Flamingo pea? You can use chickpeas or white beans instead.
Bon appetite!
Gerla
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Matra Chaat
- Prep Time: 10
- Cook Time: 20
- Total Time: 30
- Yield: 1 1x
- Diet: Vegan
Description
I love chaat in every form and shape. One of my favourite ones is deep-fried chickpeas and kale from the Tiffin Truck in Cambridge. This recipe is a variation on the famous Dehli chaat, also known as Matar chaat.
Ingredients
- 75 gram cooked Flamingo peas
- prepare the Flamingo peas 7 hours before you start this recipe
- how to prepare Flamingo peas – instructions
- small potato ( approx. 60 gr.)
- 3 cherry tomatoes cut in quarters
- a handful of rocket salad
- 1/2 ts Chat masala
- 1/4 ts Kasmihiri chilli powder
- a pinch of salt
- 1 popadom ( optional)
Sweet yoghurt
- 1.5 tbs Greek or coconut yoghurt
- 1/2 ts honey
- pinch of salt
Green chutney
- this recipe serves at least 4, it is difficult to make just one portion. ( delicious as a dressing on any salad or as a dip)
- handful coriander – leaves only
- a handful of mint leaves – leaves only
- 1/2 green chilli
- juice of 1 lemon
- 3 tbs of Greek or coconut yoghurt
- pinch of salt
Decoration
- liquid tamarind
- pomegranate seeds
- black salt
Instructions
- peel the potato and cut into slices, you might want to cut the slices in half if the potato is too big
- boil the potato in salty water briefly, the potatoes still should have a crunch ( approx. 5 minutes)
- to make the sweet yoghurt by mixing all the ingredients
- to make the green chutney – chop the mint and coriander and put all the ingredients in a blender. It works better using a hand blender rather than a kitchen machine. A Nutribullit would work too.
- fry the potatoes in a bit of olive oil
- once the potatoes are slightly browned, add the Flamingo peas, a pinch of salt, the Chat masala and the Kashmiri chilli powder
- turn off the heat
- put the tomatoes for approx. 2 to 3 minutes under a grill
- time to dress the plate – put the rocket on the plate, then the potatoes and the Flamingo peas followed by the tomatoes.
- dress the plate with the sweet yoghurt, green chutney, pomegranate seeds and black salt
- pop the popadom into the microwave for 4 minutes or fry it in oil in a frying pan in oil
Notes
You can use chickpeas if you don’t have Flamingo peas. Bengal gram (black chickpeas) would be my preferred choice.
Keywords: matra chaat, matra chaat recipe, chaat recipe, flamingo pea