This kala chana salad is a delicious and versatile salad packed with tons of crunchy vegetables, black chickpeas for protein, a pickled onion vinaigrette, chaat masala for tang, roasted peanuts for crunch, and lots of herbs for flavor.
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What makes this salad special?
- The salad creates a quick pickled onion where the pickling juice is repurposed into the salad dressing! It makes for a bright and tangy salad.
- The whole roasted peanuts add pops of crunch that make the salad so addictive.
- The salad is so versatile. Add another protein to bulk it up, toss it with some pasta for pasta salad, or add feta, paneer, or goat cheese for a creamier salad!
What is kala chana?
Kala chana literally translates to black chickpeas. Kala chana is an Indian variety of chickpea that has a black outer skin and is generally smaller than the American chickpea variety. Kala chana has a bit more fiber and is a bit nuttier than American chickpeas as well. For this recipe, you can easily substitute American chickpeas that are either dried or of the canned variety. If you are using the canned variety, simply skip the chickpea cooking portion of this recipe.
Ingredients and substitutes
- Dry Kala Chana (Black Chickpeas) - Substitute American chickpeas or canned cooked chickpeas.
- English Cucumber - I prefer English cucumber because the skin is thinner so you don't need to peel.
- Cherry Tomatoes - You can substitute your favorite tomatoes here.
- Red Onion
- Lemons - You can substitute either lime juice or rice wine vinegar in this recipe.
- Chaat Masala
- Kashmiri Chili Powder - Use half the amount of another chili powder as a substitute as Kashmiri chili powder is mild.
- Skin-On Peanuts - These are often sold as Spanish peanuts at the grocery store and add a nice crunch. Substitute with your favorite nut or seed.
- Olive Oil
- Mint Leaves and Cilantro (Stems and Leaves) - I like a combo of mint and cilantro for the herbs, but if you don't like cilantro, swap with more mint.
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Tips for cooking chickpeas
- Soaking chickpeas overnight will reduce cook time. Soaking chickpeas is beneficial for multiple reasons. It ensures that the chickpeas are more easily digestible, it helps ensure that all of the chickpeas cook evenly, and it reduces active cook time for the chickpeas, so if you have time, please do this!
- Do a shorter soak in hot water. If you don't have time to soak your chickpeas overnight, give your chickpeas a soak in hot water for at least one hour. This is a good compromise to soaking overnight.
- Cooking chickpeas in a pressure cooker reduces time to cook. This tip is especially important if you forgot to soak your chickpeas. Use the help of pressure cooking, whether it is a traditional pressure cooker or electric pressure cooker like the Instant Pot. This will help cook your chickpeas much faster than on the stovetop.
- Use chickpea doneness as a better indicator than time. This is because dried chickpeas can be at varying levels of dryness. If you have really old chickpeas, then it will take longer for the chickpeas to cook (especially if you didn't do an overnight soak).
Meal Prep Tips
This salad is SO delicious for meal prep. In fact, I think that it gets better with time. Here are some tips for meal prepping this salad ahead of time:
- Cook the chickpeas ahead of time to make assembly easy on the weekday. If you forgot to, then just buy cooked canned chickpeas and drain them instead!
- Fully assemble and toss all of the ingredients together BESIDES the peanuts! Keeping the peanuts toasted and off to the side ensures that they stay crunchy when you get to them.
- Pickle the onions and leave in the fridge. You can make a big batch of pickled onions, leave them in the fridge with the liquid, and use them in this salad or any other one.
- To keep the salad interesting throughout the week, swap in different proteins (like grilled chicken or baked tofu) or even pile this salad on top of grilled bread! I even like adding feta or goat cheese to the salad as well!
Dishes that pair well with this salad
Add even more protein by trying one of these chicken or paneer skewers!
Oven Baked Skewers
Kala Chana Salad (Black Chickpea Salad)
This kala chana salad is a delicious and versatile salad packed with tons of crunchy vegetables, black chickpeas for protein, a pickled onion vinaigrette, chaat masala for tang, roasted peanuts for crunch, and lots of herbs for flavor.
Product Reccs
Ingredients
For cooking the chickpeas
- ½ cup dry kala chana black chickpeas
- 2 cups water
- ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
For pickling the onions
- 2 lemons
- ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- ¼ teaspoon Kashmiri chili powder
- ½ (119g ) red onion
For the toasted peanuts
- 1 teaspoon vegetable oil
- ½ cup skin-on peanuts
- pinch fine sea salt
Remaining chaat ingredients
- 1 English cucumber
- 10-12 ounces cherry tomatoes
- 2 teaspoons chaat masala
- ¼ teaspoon Kashmiri chili powder
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 30 mint leaves
- 20 sprigs of cilantro
Instructions
Cook the chickpeas (Skip if using canned chickpeas)
- Soak chickpeas: In a large bowl, place the ½ cup dry kala chana and add enough water to cover them and leave about 3 inches of water above the chickpeas. Soak the chickpeas for 12 hours or overnight to ensure that the chickpeas cook consistently. If you are short on time, pour boiling water on the chickpeas and let them soak for at least 1 hour.
- Drain the chickpea water that the chickpeas were sitting in. Place chickpeas in an Instant Pot with 2 cups water and ½ teaspoon fine sea salt and cook on high pressure for 35 minutes. Check that the chickpeas are cooked through; if not, put back in the pressure cooker for another 10-15 minutes. Some chickpeas are really dry and may need additional cook time.
- Drain any leftover water and set cooked chickpeas aside.
Quick Pickle Onions
- In a small bowl big enough to hold the onions and lemon juice, squeeze 2 lemons (each lemon should yield ~2 tablespoons of lemon juice).
- Add fine ½ teaspoon fine sea salt, 1 teaspoon sugar, and ¼ teaspoon Kashmiri chili powder to the lemon juice and mix to combine all the ingredients.
- Thinly slice ½ (119g ) red onion and place into the bowl with the lemon mixture and to allow the onions to pickle as you work on other tasks.
Toast Peanuts
- In a small skillet over medium heat, add 1 teaspoon vegetable oil and ½ cup skin-on peanuts. Stir until the peanuts are shiny, then toast for 3-4 minutes until the skin darkens and crisps. While warm, sprinkle with a pinch fine sea salt.
Assemble Salad
- Chop an 1 English cucumber into ½ inch cubes and cut 10-12 ounces cherry tomatoes in half and add them to a large salad bowl.
- Add chickpeas, 2 teaspoons chaat masala and ¼ teaspoon Kashmiri chili powder into the salad bowl.
- Use a fork to scoop up the pickled onions and add them into the salad, leaving the reserved pickling liquid behind to use for a dressing.
- Add 2 tablespoons olive oil to the pickling liquid and whisk until it combines into a salad dressing.
- Pour the dressing into the salad bowl and give the salad a nice gentle mix to mix all of the ingredients.
- Gather 30 mint leaves in a tight bunch and chiffonade chop the leaves. Gather the 20 sprigs of cilantro and stems in a tight bunch and finely chop. In total, you should have about ½ cup of loosely packed cilantro and mint. Add the finely chopped mint and cilantro leaves to the salad and gently toss.
- If you are ready to eat, toss the salad with the toasted peanuts and enjoy! If you are meal prepping, then add the peanuts when ready to eat!
If you tried this recipe, please consider leaving a comment and star rating below! It makes my day and your feedback helps the blog immensely.
Nutrition
Calories: 328kcalCarbohydrates: 33gProtein: 12gFat: 19gSaturated Fat: 3gPolyunsaturated Fat: 5gMonounsaturated Fat: 10gTrans Fat: 0.01gSodium: 620mgPotassium: 814mgFiber: 10gSugar: 9gVitamin A: 1522IUVitamin C: 54mgCalcium: 112mgIron: 4mg
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