Indian Style Chickpea Salad | Chickpea Salad With Yogurt Dressing | Chickpea Salad

Any recipe twisted and modified into Indian style is always a great hit. Salads are not a part of Indian cuisine but still lately Indians have gotten into a craze for salads especially healthy ones, it might be due to the awareness about health or it might be the "today's trend" that might cause this salad mania. Being wholesome and beneficial salads are best suited for a healthy diet, but most of them taste bland. We Indians prefer to have some added flavors to whatever we devour and so creating or converting any recipe into Indian style will always be rewarding. Here is a simple chickpea salad that has been flavored with a simple Indian styled yogurt dressing. There are so many flavors in this uncomplicated salad that will excite your tastebuds all ways. If you are very much concerned about your diet, you can replace sugar with a dash of honey. Just eat this salad sparingly and you will feel full, thus saving your diet programme and at the same time there is no compromise in taste. 

For a traditional South Indian Chickpea Salad (Kondakadalai Sundal) click here

Indian Style Chickpea Salad With Spiced Yogurt Dressing

INGREDIENTS

Serves 1
Total Preparation Time - 25 minutes

1. Chickpeas / Kondakadalai - 100 grams 
2. Thick curd / Yogurt - 1 tablespoon
3. Sugar - 1/2 teaspoon 
4. Salt - 2 pinches for dressing + some for cooking chickpeas
5. Chopped onion - 2 tablespoons 
6. Chopped tomatoes - 1 tablespoons 
7. Chopped coriander leaves - 1/2 tablespoon 
8. Cumin powder - 1/4 teaspoon 
9. Red chilli powder / Black pepper powder - 1/4 teaspoon (Optional)

PREPARATION METHOD

Soak & Cook Chickpeas (for beginners) 

• Soaking Chickpeas - Rinse and take chickpeas in a bowl, pour water until it gets immersed well and there is water 2 inches above the chickpeas. Leave undisturbed overnight or for 6 hours. You can also pour some warm water and leave it soaked for 4 hours, keep replacing the warm water in-between so that the chickpeas gets soft soon. Never soak for longer than 12 hours, the chickpeas will start to smell foul and turn bad. 
• Cooking Chickpeas - Now drain water and discard it. Add the soaked chickpeas alone into a cooker pot. Pour fresh water and check that there is 1 inch water above chickpeas. Add salt (app. 1/2 teaspoon) and stir well. Close the cooker with its lid and place on flame, place the weight/regulator after the steam oozes out of the nozzle. Then pressure cook for 15-20 minutes on low flame. Remove from flame and set aside until pressure drops. Open the cooker only then. Now check if the chickpeas have got cooked, they must be tender but not overcooked. If there is excess water after cooking discard it as there will be not be much nutrients in it. 

Prepare Yogurt/Curd Dressing

• Take a cup add curd, cumin powder, red chilli powder / pepper powder, sugar, 2 small pinches of salt and mix well. (Using roasted cumin powder gives a nice aroma, instead of cumin powder you can use chaat masala too)

Salad For One Person 

• Now take 2 handfuls of cooked chickpeas and add chopped onions, chopped tomatoes, chopped coriander leaves and toss well. 
• Then add the yogurt/curd dressing and give a nice stir so that the mix spreads well. Taste and adjust salt and flavors if you wish.
• Serve. 

TIP: You can add finely chopped cucumber to the salad if you like. Increase or reduce the quantity of spice powders, amount of chopped onions and tomatoes according to your taste.  

For few of my other chickpea recipes click here