Watermelon Chaat Salad combines ripe juicy and fruity melon with crispy chickpeas, spicy sev, radishes and chaat masala  spices.

Watermelon Chaat Salad

By Sue Lau | Palatable Pastime

Watermelon Chaat Salad is my recipe of the day for the Improv Cooking Challenge of July, which  has us  combine both watermelon and  olive oil  in a recipe.

What is Chaat?

Chaat is a type of masala spice that  includes the salty, savory and  sour flavors of cumin and  amchur (dried mango powder). It is the perfect combination to bring  out the flavors of the crunchy chickpeas and complement  the fruitiness of the melon.

So if chaat masala is a new flavor for you, you may be familiar with salting watermelon.

Often you might see  chaat  at Indian restaurants where it is served with a chickpea curry. That  will  also have a little yogurt although I did not  use  yogurt here.

It is also used with pani puris, a little puffed cup filled with chickpeas and topped with a coriander chutney. Those are quite popular as snacks, and chaat is used with a lot of snacky  things in general.

Savory Melon

While  melon is  generally sweet when  perfectly ripe, it does match well with  savory and  salty flavors as well as  spicy hot ones. I  posted a recipe for a Thai  watermelon  last year and included a link  below.  I’d first tried something  like that at a local BBQ hut- although  theirs was slightly  different. I was enormously  in love with it, especially with the added crunch  of peanuts.

Crunchy Sev and Chickpeas

So in this the crunch  of  chickpeas and sev is great. You can use just a plain crunchy sev, but shops were out of that so I opted for one of the sev mixes I love (Hyderabad or kerala are my favs). When  you shop  you will see lots of  different ones and  they are all pretty good- like the differences among different kinds of potato chips. Sev is sort  of  like chow mein noodles but made with a different flour.

You could use chow mein  noodles in this if you  like.  Sev mix will usually also have some peanuts and other things.

Perfect Light Lunch

We actually ate this as a light  lunch- it was very hot out  so neither of us wanted anything heavy. Later we had tacos for dinner so the crunch thing carried on  all day. What is it about  hot weather and crunchy foods? Yum.

Improv Cooking Challenge

Watermelon & Olive Oil

• Watermelon Salad with Feta and Cucumber by Making Miracles
• Andalusian Watermelon Gazpacho by Pandemonium Noshery
• Summery Grilled Halloumi Salad by Culinary Adventures with Camilla
• Kalingana Saali Polo / Watermelon Rind Dosa by Sneha’s Recipe
• Sweet Heat Watermelon Gazpacho by Cookaholic Wife
• Watermelon, Blueberry, and Mint Salad by A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Watermelon Chaat Salad By Palatable Pastime (You are Here!)

Watermelon Chaat Salad

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Watermelon Chaat Salad

Watermelon Chaat Salad

Sue Lau

5 from 1 vote

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Prep Time 10 minutes mins

Cook Time 10 minutes mins

Course Salad

Cuisine Indian

Ingredients

  

• 15 ounce can chickpeas rinsed and drained
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon chaat masala
• 24 ounces diced seedless watermelon
• 2 tablespoons minced red onion
• 2 thinly sliced radishes
• 1 tablespoon sliced hot green chillies
• 2 tablespoons chopped cilantro
• 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
• pinch salt
• 1/3 cup sev or sev mix
• 3 teaspoons tamarind chutney

Instructions

 

• Rinse and drain chickpeas and pat dry.
• Saute in olive oil until browned and crisp.
• Season with chat masala.
• Combine with remaining ingredients and serve immediately.

Notes

From the kitchen of palatablepastime.com

Keyword fruit salad

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