Chaat Masala
The tangy, salty, faintly sulphurous sprinkle that makes chaat taste like chaat: roasted cumin, amchur, black salt and dried mint.
Prep 5 min · Cook 6 min · Total 11 min + 15 min cooling · Serves 36
Ingredients
To roast
- 3 tbsp Cumin seeds
- 2 tbsp Coriander seeds
- 1 tsp Black peppercorns
- ½ tsp Ajwain (carom seeds)
- 1 tbsp Dried mint leaves
Powders
- 3 tbsp Amchur (dry mango powder)
- 2 tbsp Black salt (kala namak)
- 1 tsp Salt
- 1 tsp Kashmiri red chilli powder
- ½ tsp Dry ginger powder (sonth)
- ¼ tsp Asafoetida
Method
- Roast the seeds. Dry roast the cumin, coriander, peppercorns and ajwain over low to medium heat until the cumin turns deep brown and smells smoky. Chaat masala wants the cumin a little darker than other blends.
- Warm the mint. Turn off the heat and stir the dried mint in the hot pan for 30 seconds until crisp. Tip everything onto a plate.
- Cool. Leave to cool completely.
- Grind. Grind the roasted seeds and mint to a fine powder. Add the amchur, black salt, salt, chilli powder, ginger powder and asafoetida and pulse a few times to mix evenly.
- Sieve. Sieve the whole batch so no lumps of black salt or amchur are left, pressing any clumps through with a spoon.
- Store. Amchur and black salt draw in moisture, so store in a small, tightly closed jar and keep it out of a steamy kitchen. Good for 3 to 4 months; break up any lumps with a dry spoon.
Tips
Sprinkle over fruit, cucumber, roasted corn, raita, pakoras, aloo tikki and the chole in Amritsari Chole. It also seasons the onion salad served with Tandoori Chicken and the filling of Paneer Tikka Kathi Roll. This is salty, so taste before adding extra salt to anything it goes on.