Have leftover samosas? Turn them into this tangy and spicy Samosa Chaat! This chaat has spicy chole (chickpeas) served with crispy samosa, cooling yogurt, spicy chutney, and sweet chutney for the perfect balance of flavors.
Indian chaat never disappoints whether it’s the crispy papdi chaat, yogurt filled dahi puri and this samosa chaat is no exception either. It’s the perfect party appetizer, where the spicy chole meets the crunchy samosa, and with all the different layers of flavors, this chaat packs a punch!
Layers of crunch, spice and chutney!
In my opinion, there’s nothing better than Indian street food. Whether it’s aloo tikki, pav bhaji, samosa, the mere thought of it makes me happy and makes my mouth water! I often say that chaat would be the last meal/dish I would like to eat before I die.
If you have never had samosa chaat, it is a fun way to enjoy samosa. Think crispy samosa with spicy chole, topped with yogurt, chutneys and finished with onions, cilantro and sev.
This chaat has several components to it so if I am making this for a party, I like to do some prep in advance.
- You can make the chole, the chutney in advance.
- Samosa can be homemade or store-bought.
- Keep everything ready but assemble the chaat once it’s time to eat.
This chaat is best enjoyed immediately because if you assemble it and keep it for long, the samosa gets super soggy and personally I am not a fan of soggy samosa in my samosa chaat.
I like to assemble the chaat in small cups for a party. Layer the chole, yogurt and chutney in your individual cups and keep them ready to go. Once it’s time for the party, top each cup with your crispy samosa, sev, cilantro, pomegranate and serve. You can place extra chutneys on the side so people can add them to their cups as per their liking.
Components of Samosa Chaat
This Samosa chaat has several components to it. Let’s see what these are.
- Samosa: of course, the main ingredient and star of the recipe here. You can either make homemade samosa or get samosa from stores. I have used my homemade samosa in this recipe, but it is totally okay to get them from store, especially if you are serving them at a party and running short on time, the short cuts are more than welcome
- Chole: aka the chickpea curry! For this samosa chaat recipe, I used my favorite chole recipe. It’s literally the best chole and one of my most popular recipes for a good reason.
- Yogurt: thick creamy yogurt is an essential ingredient here. I use plain whole milk yogurt but you can use any yogurt of choice.
- Chutneys: you need chutneys for a good chaat, this recipe calls for cilantro chutney and sweet tamarind chutney.
How to Make Samosa Chaat
- Cook the chickpeas with whole spices and tea bags!
You can cook the chickpeas using a stove-top pressure cooker, or an open pan or an Instant Pot. Cooking with whole spices infuses them with flavor and using tea bags gives them a nice deep dark color (and no, tea has no effect on the final taste of chole). The chickpeas must be really soft for a good chole.
Cooking chickpeas using different methods
Instant Pot: add 4 to 5 cups water and cook the chickpeas on high pressure for 25 minutes will natural pressure release.
Stove-top pressure cooker: cook on high heat for 2 whistles (with 4-5 cups water), then lower the heat to medium and cook for another 10-12 minutes, Let the pressure release naturally.
Open pot: Add 5 cups of water to a pot and let it heat up, add the soaked and drained chickpeas and let the water come to boil on high heat. Then lower the heat to medium and let the chickpeas cook until they are tender, this will take 30-40 minutes, and you will need to add more water as water evaporates quickly in an open pot.
- The onions need to be caramelized!
Once you add the onions, cook them well until they are nicely caramelized and there’s no raw smell. Then add the ginger-garlic paste and cook until there’s no raw smell.
- The juicy tomatoes go in next!
The tomato puree needs to be cooked for 10 to 12 minutes, it might seem like a lot of time, but it is important for the tomatoes to cook completely. Add the dry spices only after the tomatoes are cooked through.
- The flavor deepens as the chole simmer
Once you add the cooked chickpeas into the pot with the masala, mix and let everything simmer for around 20-30 minutes. This step helps in deepening the chole flavor, do not rush it.
- Finish with final tadka of ghee
I like to add some ginger juliennes sauteed in ghee and add it to chole at the end. The aroma and flavor of ghee take the chole a notch up.
- Assemble your samosa chaat
Once your chole are ready, assemble the chart with layers of chole, samosa, yogurt, chutneys and finish with sev, cilantro and pomegranate!
Make this vegan!
To make this samosa chaat vegan, use oil in place of ghee for the final tempering in the chole. Replace dairy yogurt with any non-dairy yogurt of your choice while layering the chaat. Also make sure to use non-dairy yogurt in your chutney (if the recipe calls for one).
Samosa Chaat (That You’ll Crave Again)!
Ingredients
For the Chole
- 2 cups dried chickpeas, soaked overnight
- 5-6 whole green cardamom
- 4-5 black peppercorn
- 2 bay leaves
- 2 1-inch cinnamon stick
- 2 black tea bags
- 4-5 cups water
- salt, to taste
- 1 & ½ tablespoon oil, I used avocado oil
- ¾ cup pureed onion, or finely grated, from 2 small onions
- 2 teaspoons ginger garlic paste
- 2 & ½ cups pureed tomatoes, from 4 medium tomatoes
- 3 teaspoons chole masala
- ½ teaspoon red chili powder, or to taste
- ½ teaspoon paprika powder
- ¾ teaspoon cumin powder
For tempering of Chole
- 1 tablespoon ghee
- 1 inch ginger, cut into juliennes
- ¼ teaspoon garam masala
- ½ tablespoon crushed kasuri methi
- 2 tablespoons chopped cilantro
For the Chaat
- 14 medium samosa, homemade or store bought
- plain yogurt, for serving, should be well beaten and thick
- cilantro chutney, for serving
- sweet tamarind chutney, for serving
- chopped onion, for serving
- chopped cilantro, for serving
- sev, for serving
- pomegranate arils, for garnishing (optional)
- chaat masala, to sprinkle
Instructions
To Make Chole
- Soak 2 cups dried chickpeas overnight in 4 cups water. In the morning drain the water and then rinse the chickpeas.Transfer the chickpeas to a pressure cooker (or instant pot or an open pot) and then add the whole spices- 5-6 green cardamom, 4-5 black peppercorn, 2 bay leaves and 2-inch cinnamon stick.Also add 2 black tea bags, water (around 4 to 5 cups) and 1 teaspoon salt. Please note: the tea bags are for giving the chole a dark color. They do not impart any taste to the final product. You may skip it.
- Pressure cook on high heat for 2 whistles. After that lower the flame to medium and let the chickpeas cook for another 10 to 12 minutes. Remove the cooker from heat and allow the pressure to release naturally. You should be able to press the chickpeas easily with your fingers once cooked. Set aside.If using Instant Pot cook for 30 minutes on high pressure with natural pressure release. Refer to the post on how to cook chickpeas in an open pot on stove-top.
- Start making the masala. Heat 1 & ½ tablespoons oil in a pan on medium heat. Once the oil is hot, add ¾ cup grated/pureed onions to it. Cook the onions until the raw smell goes away completely, around 5 minutes. Then add 2 teaspoons ginger-garlic paste and cook for 1 minute.
- Add 2 & ½ cups pureed tomatoes (from 4 medium tomatoes)and mix. Cover and cook the tomatoes for around 15 minutes on medium heat, stir once or twice in between. This step is important, so do not rush cooking the tomatoes.
- Once the tomatoes are cooked, add 3 teaspoons chole masala, ½ teaspoon red chili powder, ½ teaspoon paprika powder, ¾ teaspoon cumin powder and remaining ½ teaspoon salt. Mix and cook the spices for 1 minute.
- Add the cooked chickpeas into the pan and stir. Cover and let the curry simmer for around 30 minutes on low-medium heat. Again, don't rush the step for best tasting chole. The curry will thicken considerably and that's what we want for the chaat. The curry is now done. Taste test and adjust salt etc. at this point. Let it simmer while you make the tempering.
- For the tempering, heat 1 tablespoon ghee in a pan on medium heat. Once the ghee is hot, add 1-inch ginger juliennes to it and fry until it starts turning golden brown in color. Transfer the fried julienne to the curry.Then add ¼ teaspoon garam masala, ½ tablespoon kasuri methi and mix. Finally add 2 tablespoons cilantro (chopped) and stir. Once the chole is ready, gather all other ingredients and start plating the samosa chaat.
To Serve Samosa Chaat
- To make a plate of samosa chaat, place 1 cup of prepared chole into the serving bowl. Top with 2 big dollops of yogurt (around 2 tablespoons). Then roughly break 2 samosas and place them on top of yogurt.
- Top the samosa with more chole (1 tablespoon), cilantro chutney (1-2 teaspoon, to taste), sweet tamarind chutney (1-2 teaspoons, adjust to taste).And finally garnish the Samosa Chaat with chopped onion, sev, cilantro, pomegranate arils (if using). Sprinkle chaat masala and serve immediately! Make more samosa chaat similarly.
Video
Notes
- This recipe of chole and samosa can easily serve 7 people or more. If you just add 1 samosa per plate of the chaat, you can serve 14 people. Since I have used 2 samosa per plate, I served it more like a meal. To serve as an appetizer, reduce the portion size.
- If using canned chickpeas for making the chole, skip the step of cooking them in pressure cooker or instant pot. Start by making the masala and add the whole spices in the oil first and then add the onions and make the recipe as is.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Your feedback is valuable!Please share your comments, ratings, and any suggestions or adaptations below to help us improve and make our recipes more successful.
Dear Ms Manali, Thanks for the recipe, it was simple and easy to make. I liked the curd added on top.
Brilliant. Keep it up
Thank you
Somrajsingh
awesome!
I don’t have a pressure cooker. Can this be cooked on the hob and if so, for how long?
you will need to cook the chickpeas until they are very soft (soak them overnight), will probably take 30-45 minutes on stove-top or else use canned chickpeas
All I have is canned chickpeas. Can I use that?
yes you can but you don’t need to pressure cook the chickpeas in that case since the canned chickpeas are already cooked
Hi Manali
For step 7- Add the cooked chickpeas into the pan and stir.
Do you also add all of the chickpea liquid?
yes everything
what is the garnish that looks like fine noodles called?
it’s called sev, an Indian snack. There are different varieties of sev, this is the thin one. It is eaten as such, with chai or topped on chaat, poha etc.
Thank you Manali, I live in a small town Jerez de la Frontera, South Spain and was thinking of opening a Samosa shop. First I must try your Samosa Chaat recipe.
Many thanks,
Lesley.
that will be so fun! I will love to visit it!
Hi which chole masala would you use
I have one from Delhi, India but you can use Everest brand
Love your website. Great to see people knowing this kind of vegetarian food.
I am a professional Chef with a huge interests in Indian Cuisine. I was wondering if you have any idea on how many different samosa dishes exists in India, i am trying to find that information, but not really be able to find it. Keep the great writing going!
The most common type of samosa in India that exists everywhere in Aloo Samosa (with potato). Whenever you mention the word “samosa” in India, most people will automatically assume you are talking about potato samosa (the vegan/vegetarian one). This is what is found in every corner of the country. Of course there are other samosas too like Keema samosa (filled with lamb), chicken samosa. Samosa Chaat is also very popular where samosa is served with chole https://www.cookwithmanali.com/samosa-chaat/. There are several other varieties too but these are most common.
How would you recommend making the chole masala on the stove (without a pressure cooker)? Would you still put all of the ingredients in at once, and let everything simmer together for a while, or are there extra steps? Thank you!
it will take a lot of time on stove-top. You can use canned chickpeas if you want to make on stove-top since those are already boiled. I will follow the same steps.
If you use canned chickpeas, do you add water when adding chickpeas to the tomatoes? Otherwise, it seems a too dry. How many cups would you say? Thanks!
yes you would, add around 2 cups and go from there