An Indian party dip inspired by flavors of chaat, this has layers of pureed chole, salsa, tamarind chutney, cilantro chutney and topped with cilantro, pomegranate, papdi and sev. It's explosion of flavors in every bite!
naan dippers, tortilla chips, pita chips, to serve
Instructions
Make the Chole Layer
Start by making chole using my recipe or any recipe that you love. I followed the recipe for chole from my samosa chaat recipe here. This chole should not have too much gravy so don't add too much water while making it, that's why I feel the samosa chaat recipe is perfect here. But feel free to use any chole recipe you like.
Then take 3 cups of the prepared chole and puree in a blender. There you have your refried chole. If you want you can also leave 1 cup as such for texture but I just blended everything. 1st layer is done.
Make the Salsa Layer
Start by boiling the potatoes first. You need 1 & 1/2 cup boiled and mashed potatoes for this. So boil your potatoes first, then let them cool, peel and roughly mash them. You don't want very smooth mashed potatoes here.
Now add the boiled potatoes to a bowl along with 16 oz salsa (use any salsa you like, I used Pace medium salsa) along cumin powder, coriander powder, amchur and red chili powder.
Mix until it's all combined. If you want you can only use salsa in this layer too. Mix the spices with salsa and use it and skip the potatoes. 2nd layer is done.
Make the tamarind chutney layer
To the steel bowl of your stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment (or use your hand mixer), add 16 oz cream cheese (2 blocks, at room temperature) along with 1 cup of tamarind chutney, cumin powder and kala namak.Beat using the paddle attachment for 2 to 3 minutes at medium speed until everything is well combined. 3rd layer is done.
Make the cilantro chutney layer
To make the final layer of sour cream and cilantro chutney. To a blender add sour cream, cilantro, mint leaves, garlic cloves, green chilies ( to taste), cashews, salt and black pepper to taste.
Blend until it's all combined. This chutney will look super thin at this point, let it sit for sometime, it will thicken up as it sits because of the cashews. The 4th layer is done. And now that all our layers are done, it is time to assemble the dip.
Assemble the dip
Take a large bowl, I used a big round one which was 9.4 inches in diameter and 4.7 inches in height. It works great for showing layers. We will arrange the layers in following order starting from the bottom: chole, salsa, tamarind chutney and cilantro chutney.
Then top with cilantro, pomegranate, sev and papdi. You can also drizzle some yogurt on top if you like. Make sure to not add the sev and papdi beforehand. They will get soggy. Serve with bite size naan, tortilla chips and enjoy!
Notes
Toppings like sev and papdi are to be added just before serving else they will become soggy.
Use short cuts like using store bought tamarind chutney, store bought salsa and even store bought chana masala/chole if you have no time to cook at home to speed up the process. Festive times get busy and using shortcuts is totally okay.
You can add couple of tablespoons of whisked thick yogurt (and then swirl it around using a toothpick) as a topping too but it's totally optional.
You may skip the potatoes in the salsa layer and use just salsa.
This recipe makes a big quantity, you can easily cut it into half.