Kadalai sundal/ Brown chickpea salad

Yesterday was the start of  Navarathri/Navratri, a festival  celebrated with full of enthusiasm all over India. Just like its diverse language and culture, this festival is celebrated differently in each state. Navarathri means “nine nights’ and this year it is from Sepetmeber25^th to October 3rd.  Even though every states celebration will be different with one thing unique in this festival is that everybody worships Goddess Shakti/Devi. First, in the form of Goddess worshipped as Durga/Kali or as Goddess Lakshmi or as Goddess of Wealth and finally as  Saraswathi/ Goddess of wisdom. This Kadalai sundal /brown chickpea salad is offering on one day during 9 days festival.

Amma used to keep Gollu/ kolu/Tier of dolls. When people visit each other’s house to see the Kolu, usually they are given prasad (the offering given to God that day), kumkum and a small bag of gifts. These are only given to girls and married women. In the evenings, a “kuthuvilakku” (small lamp) is lit in the middle of a decorated “kolam“(Rangoli) in front of the Kolu and devotional hymns and shlokas are chanted. After performing the pujas, the food items that have been prepared are offered to the goddesses.

This Navarathi is more special to me as we are planning  to do Vidyarambam for my son which means a child starts learning from the auspicious day of Vjayadashmi (i.e. from the last day of Navarathri). This is an important ritual in my home state Kerala, India, read more from here. Even though he started going to preschool, we didn’t did this ceremony so we are going to doing it this time. Last year he was so young only 1 year 8 months to do this ceremony. In my home town during the Vijayadashmi the offering will be puffed rice (malar) kadalai sundal( brown  chickpea salad) , uzhunuvada( spilt  black gram fritters) and payasam. I am planning to make few of the offering on the day.

Do you know, this kala chana/ brown chickpea are served as offering in Devi temples? It is an indigenous crop and its dark color represents fertility, nutrition and hardiness. That is why it is soaked overnight, cooked and offered to the Goddesses.

Coming to kala chana/ brown chickpeas are smaller than the regular chickpeas, also it is indigenous to Indian Subcontinent, as well as Ethiopia, Mexico, and Iran. It has thick coat than its other counter parts. Rich in fiber than other variety and resulting in low glycemic index than the other regular chickpeas ( Kabuli chana).  Make sure to soak it over night, my friend Ammini Ramachandran mentioned in this article that  you should soak the chickpeas overnight with little bicarbonate of soda to the soaking water. This trick prevents the calcium in the water from cementing together with the pectin molecules in the chickpea’s cell walls.

After soaking overnight, wash it in running water for few times, then pressure cook till 5 whistles. Once pressure cooker has cooled down, remove the kala chana/ brown chickpeas and wash once again with water. If you are making sundal then heat little oil  in the pan and  add mustard seeds, urad dal(split black gram) curry leaves and red chilies, then once mustard seeds pops, add cooked kala chana/ brown chickpeas, salt and coconut pieces. You can add freshly grated coconut but I prefer small coconut pieces as my mom adds to the sundal.  It is easy delicious filling snack you can have any time of the day.

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Kadalai sundal/ Brown chickpea salad

Delicious, healthy fiber rich protein snack.

Prep Time10 hours hrs

Cook Time45 minutes mins

Total Time50 minutes mins

Course: Appetizer

Cuisine: Indian

Keyword: Sundal

Servings: 3 people

Calories: 236kcal

Ingredients

• ¾ cup kala chana/ brown chickpeas Indian variety
• ¼ teaspoon mustard seeds
• 1 teaspoon urad dal spilt black gram
• 1-2 red chili halved in pieces
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• ¼ cup chopped fresh coconut pieces you can you grated coconut too
• 1 sprig of curry leaves
• ½ teaspoon salt or to taste
• 2 cup water + extra for soaking

Instructions

• Soak kala chana/ brown chick peas over night (if you want you can add little baking soda)
  
• Next morning rinse the chana/ chickpeas in the running water for few times and then add 2 cup water and pressure cook them for 5 whistles yes these are really hardy variety so it requires that much time.
• Once the pressure is subsided, remove the chickpeas from the pressure cooker and wash once again in the running water.
  
• Heat oil in pan and add mustard seeds, urad dal, curry leaves, halved red chilies.
  
• When the mustard seeds starts splutter add cooked chickpeas and salt cook for 1 minutes
  
• then add coconut pieces and cook for another minutes.
  
• Enjoy as such great snack any time of the day.

Nutrition

Calories: 236kcal | Carbohydrates: 30g | Protein: 8g | Fat: 9g | Saturated Fat: 3g | Sodium: 415mg | Potassium: 428mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 1g | Vitamin A: 281IU | Vitamin C: 30mg | Calcium: 94mg | Iron: 2mg

Tried this recipe?Mention @nidhinikhil or tag #zestysouthindiankitchenrecipes!

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Swathi

This is Swathi ( Dr. Ambujom Saraswathy Ph.D) from Zesty South Indian Kitchen who loves to explore cuisines from all over the world. Whenever possible I try to to give an Indian touch to several of the world cuisine, and has weakness for freshly baked bread.  All the recipes you see here are created by me and approved after taste-test by my family.