Lal saag patta chaat | Amaranth leaves chaat
Lal saag patta chaat | Amaranth leaves chaat (crispy red Amaranth leaves chaat) is an Indian street food. It can be served as a snack/appetizer that is gluten free and vegan.
Servings 2
Ingredients
For lal saag patta pakoda/ Fritters:
- 1 cup Besan Gram flour
- 2 tbsp Rice flour
- ½ tsp red chili powder
- Salt to taste
- ¼ tsp Baking soda
- Water as required use water little by little till you have a batter that just coats the leaves
- 20 leaves lal saag patta /Amarnath leaves preferably large sized
- Oil for frying
To serve
- To serve:
- Tamarind jaggery chutney - as required
- Green Chutney - as required
- Yogurt whipped - 1/2 cup
- Roasted Cumin powder - 1/2 tsp
- Chaat masala - 1 tsp
- Salt to taste
- Onion chopped - 2 tbsp
- Nylon sev - 2 tbsp
- Pomegranate arils - 1/4 cup
- Coriander leaves to garnish
Instructions
- To begin with keep ready the tamarind jaggery chutney and the Green chutney. Both chutneys can be prepared a day in advance.
- Now season the whipped curd/yogurt. Mix in cumin powder, chaat masala, (sometimes I also add a dash of kala namak / black salt). Stir and keep in the fridge to chill.
- Meanwhile, remove the thick stalks from the lal saag/Amaranth leaves and keep aside.
- Wash them well and pat dry with a kitchen towel ensuring that the leaves do not get break or bruised.
Make pakoda batter
- For the pakoda batter, mix together besan, rice flour, salt to taste, baking soda and red chili powder.
- Add water little by little and make a smooth, semi thick paste. Keep it aside.
- Heat oil in a kadai/deep wok. Once it's hot, reduce the flame. Take one leaf and dip it in the prepared besan batter.
- Make sure that lal saag leaf gets nice coating of batter all over. Shake off the excess if any.
- Gently slide one leaf at a time in the oil and fry on medium heat till both sides are golden brown and crisp.
- Remove on a absorbent paper. Fry all the leaves in the similar manner.
To serve
- Once done with all leaves, to serve, arrange pakoda/ fritters (depending on the size of the lal saag leaves) on individual serving plates.
- Place chopped onions. Sprinkle salt, chaat masala. Drizzle with sweetened yogurt, green chutney, tamarind chutney and garnish with namkeen sev, coriander leaves and pomegranate arils.
- Serve immediately.
Notes
1. Make this chaat interesting by keeping the fried lal saag leaves, yogurt, chutneys, namkeen sev and condiments at the serving table and let your family/ guests make their own plate.
2. Adding rice flour ensures that the lal saag patta/Amaranth leaves pakoda (fritters) remain crisp.
3. To make this chaat vegan, replace normal yogurt with vegan version of yogurt/curd.