Peanut masala

An Indian chaat (savoury street-food) that is delicious with a cold beer, and a contender for the dish with the best taste-to-effort ratio of all known food.

It does need chaat masala. Chaat masala’s a spice mix with a distinct flavour that comes from one of its ingredients, dried mango powder (amchur). Chaat masala (sometimes marketed as ‘chunky chaat masala’) should be available in any Indian grocer, or online.

Ingredients

• Peanuts (roasted, salted)
• Tomatoes
• Onion
• Coriander (cilantro)
• Green chilli
• Chaat masala
• Lime juice
• Salt

Instructions

Dry-fry the peanuts until they’re browned in parts, and set them aside.

Chop the tomatoes and onion into fairly small pieces.

Chop the coriander (cilantro) and the green chilli, deseeding the chilli unless you want the dish really hot.

Mix everything together with freshly-squeezed lime juice and a generous sprinkle of chaat masala. Add more salt if needed (the chaat masala should contain some kala namak — black salt). Serve straight away.