Recipe : Kala Channa Chaat - Black Chickpea Salad - Vegan

Ever since last Wednesday when the husband sent me photos of pani puri and other chaat that he had at Southampton at the match, I’ve been craving those flavours. Today’s salad was an attempt to capture the balance of sour, spicy, salty, crunchy without the sweetness.

I used kala channa - legumes like channa are not allowed on the keto diet because they do contain carbs - but we are on a slightly more flexible diet - for us no carb means avoiding grains, flour and high starch veggies.

Kala channa / Black chickpeas have a low glycemic index, and high fibre and protein so I will occasionally slip it in.

If you are following strict keto, avoid the black chickpeas. If you avoid the black chickpeas, this dish works for the raw food diet too.

The black chickpeas are more nutritious, but white chickpeas will also work in this recipe.

So, the salad is

1 bowl drained black chickpeas (you can use canned or soak overnight and cook the next day)

1 bowl chopped cucumber

1/2 bowl chopped tomato

1/2 bowl chopped onion,

2-3 sprigs coriander chopped

1-5 chopped green chillies (as per spice tolerance)

The dressing is

2 tbsp lemon juice,

1 tbsp chaat masala

1 tsp black salt (use regular salt if you don't have black salt)

Feel free to adjust the quantities to suit your taste.

I let the salad and dressing sit for awhile.

Just before serving, I tossed in a handful of groundnuts.

Kim's Tip : If the taste of raw onion is not a flavour you like, drop the onion completely or let the onion sit in the lemon juice / vinegar for 10-15 minutes which helps take the edge off.

The lamb kebabs were from @meatn16 that I picked up after a session of the @stokenewingtonliteraryfestival at their location.

The meat was fantastic. I just seared it on all sides and served it medium rare.

Recipe : Masala Fried Chicken

Back to no-carb, no-sugar since yesterday. Home made masala fried chicken - shallow fried in less than a teaspoon of oil.

The batter is a mix of spices, a pinch of gram flour and eggs.

Lots of chopped fresh coriander, fresh curry leaves and green chillies went into the batter too with ginger and garlic paste

This is a very light batter, gently caressing the chicken, so it doesn’t need flour, nor does it give you a very thick batter coating.

The batter is to flavour the chicken, not to encase it.

The egg makes it nice and crispy.

I used 3 eggs for 1 kg chicken.

Marinated for at least an hour.

Marinated chicken can be left in the fridge and fried the next day too, but in this case, add the egg just before frying. not before.

Shallow frying takes a lot more patience than deep frying, but the benefits make up for the effort.

This chicken works well as a snack and with drinks.

The more complex the spices, the more sated I feel. I don’t crave carbs, the way the husband does. I did give him a large glass of masala lassi to cool down the heat of the chicken and today he didn’t go searching for nuts or cheese to munch on immediately after dinner. So I think lassi is going to be a part of his daily dinners henceforth.

Salad was a mix of loads of juicy stuff in season - lettuce leaves, grated carrot, a little sweet corn, cherry tomatoes.

Dressing was the fantastic avocado oil that I bought from @hunterandgatheruk @freefromevents last weekend, a hint of cider vinegar and some dried chipotle chilli flakes.

Fridge Cleanout : Bread & Butter Pudding

Homemade bread and butter pudding.

I made it to finish a whole lot of leftovers.

Husband messaged me this morning to say that when he returned tomorrow, he wanted to do one carb dinner @gopalscorner before going back on no carb, no sugar.

When I’d ordered home delivery from @romulocafelondon last Friday, I’d got some of their fantastic pandesan, but barely touched it.

It had dried out over the weekend and I was ready to get rid of it, but when he said another 48 hours of eat anything before going back on diet, I decided to make this pudding.

Greased a baking dish.

Sliced the pandesan buns in half to thin them out.

Slathered some pandan kaya (a coconut milk, egg and pandan/kewra flavoured spread) This was a bottle of really yummy stuff a friend got me from South East Asia, but I’m not a bread and jam or toast and marmalade eater and it was languishing at the back of a cupboard.

You can use butter or marmalade or any jam you like.

I had some dried cranberries and let them soak in water as I prepped the other components.

I didn’t have milk, but when @anu.hasan.uk was here last month, she had got some coffee mate which was also in the cupboard.

When @spiceupthekari visited Venice for her friends wedding last year, one of the takeaway gifts was a small jar of apple chutney / jam made by his nonna.

So I made the custard of this apple chutney, coffeemate, water, 4 eggs and cinnamon to taste. I didn’t add any sugar, because there was enough sweetness from the pandan kaya, apple chutney and coffee mate.

Layer the bread slices, sprinkle some dried fruit and nut, pour the custard to soak the bread. Repeat till all the bread has been arranged and soaked in the custard.

The recipe has to use slightly stale and hard bread, otherwise you will end up with a soggy mess. Let the bread soak in the custard for at least 20-30 minutes. I left it for an hour.

Just before popping it into the oven, I put the top layer of nuts and a few slivers of dehydrated coconut.

Bake at 180C for 30 minutes. Serve hot or cold.