Samosa Chaat Recipe

If you love snacking on Punjabi samosa, you’ll love this North Indian street food. Imagine digging into a bowl of crispy crushed vegetable samosa topped with aromatic and spicy chickpea curry (chana masala), cooling yoghurt, zesty green chutney, and sweet tamarind chutney — this samosa chaat recipe is on a whole new level of deliciousness!

Chaat — a type of street food characterised by lip-smacking tangy spice, crispy elements, and a delightfully tasty mish-mash of ingredients — is one of India’s most popular street foods, and for good reason. Make anything into chaat, and it instantly improves it!

Honestly, I didn’t think samosas could get any better. Homemade crunchy, flaky pastry with warm spiced potato — heavenly. But how wrong I was.

The moment I was introduced to samosa chaat (many years ago now!), there was no turning back. Now, whenever I make homemade vegetable samosas, I always make extra for this samosa chaat recipe.

As soon as you take a bite of samosa chaat, it’s evident why everyone raves about it. Take homemade samosa (or you can use storebought, but I HIGHLY recommend homemade — 1000x better!) and break them into pieces, then top them with a hearty, steaming hot chickpea curry. Yoghurt, sweet tamarind chutney, and herb-packed green chutney each add depth of flavour, while the garnishes (pomegranate, sev, fresh coriander, and sharp red onions) provide texture. Mmmhmm!

Samosa chaat is ideal for parties and big gatherings, especially birthdays or festivals. Aside from the incredible explosion of flavours, it’s an immensely customisable recipe, making it a great crowdpleaser. Plus, all of the elements can be made in advance.

🇮🇳 Where is Samosa Chaat From?

Samosa chaat has its origins in North India! It’s beloved across the whole region, particularly in Punjab and Delhi NCR.

However, samosa chaat has become one of India’s most widespread chaat dishes, along with pani puri, palak patta chaat, dahi puri, and papdi chaat. This popularity means the obsession with samosa chaat has spread far and wide — to other areas of India and further abroad, in the U.K., U.S., and even Australia.

🍲 Ingredients for Samosa Chaat

What is samosa chaat made of? Great question!

The same basic principles of any chaat recipe apply here: a crunchy main ingredient (samosas), sauces and chutneys for extra flavour, and garnishes. To amp things up to the next level, samosa chaat also includes chickpea curry.

You can make these elements in advance according to recipes on my website (linked!), or buy them and then assemble everything at home. Here’s the role each ingredient plays:

• Samosas are, of course, key! Use homemade Punjabi samosas according to my recipe (pictured above) for the BEST, crispiest samosa chaat — but to save time, you can use storebought or frozen samosas as a cheat! However, it’s important to note that you’ll need vegetable samosas (with potato and pea stuffing) for samosa chaat. I don’t recommend using vegan keema samosa, chilli paneer samosa, or other variations for this dish.
• Chana masala or chole adds a hearty robustness to the dish. The chickpea curry is intensely rich, spicy, and highly aromatic, pairing beautifully with the samosa. I use homemade, but you can also buy this in.
• Yoghurt is mixed with a tiny pinch of sugar to make sweetened yoghurt. It adds a cool, refreshing, and creamy contrast to the samosa chaat recipe.
• Tamarind chutney adds a distinctive tangy, sour flavour that’s punctured by a rich depth of sweetness. Make your own or buy it!
• Green chutney is a herb-packed sauce full of zesty coriander and mint. It provides brightness and freshness to the samosa chaat recipe, as well as spice from piquant green chillies.
• Garnishes are essential to any good chaat dish. I’ve got the classics: sev (chickpea flour noodles), pomegranate arils, freshly chopped coriander (cilantro), and chopped red onions for a punchy note.

🤧 Allergy Information for Samosa Chaat

Because this samosa chaat recipe has so many elements, you might think it’s a nightmare for anyone with dietary requirements. The opposite is true!

This samosa chaat recipe is 100% soy free and nut free, plus, it’s easily made vegan!

To make samosa chaat vegan, you’ll either need to make samosa chaat without yoghurt or switch out standard dairy-based yoghurt for neutrally flavoured soy or coconut yoghurt. I’ve tried this before — it’s just as tasty! Every other element, including the samosas and chickpea curry, is naturally vegan.

Although this recipe isn’t gluten free as written, it’s not difficult to adapt; you’ll simply need to make/buy gluten free samosas.

🔄 Variations

Once you’ve made this recipe a few times, why not play with the flavour combinations and switch things up?

Here are some suggestions of what to add to samosa chaat:

• Diced avocados provide a creamy, fatty texture! While it may not be traditional, it sure is delicious. I also add them to my moong sprout chaat!
• Pickled red onions instead of raw sliced onions provide a tangier, vinegary taste that still delivers on punch.
• Homemade hot sauce drizzled on top of the samosa chaat along with chutneys will add a much more fiery kick ideal for those who like it spicy! Substitute with sriracha or masala sauce.

Furthermore, you can also substitute some of the ingredients for others; for example, to make samosa chaat without chickpeas, you can skip the chole and serve dahi samosa — or swap out the chickpea curry for ragda (white peas curry), as an equally filling option.

🧑‍🍳 How to Make This Samosa Chaat Recipe

Making samosa chaat is as easy or complicated as you’d like it to be!

Personally, I like a bit of a cooking challenge, so I make all the elements from scratch. This is surprisingly effortless if you split the work over a few days. However, you can also buy all the elements from your local Asian market and then assemble it — still cheaper and tastier than eating out, but way less work!

Either way, here’s the step-by-step recipe for samosa chaat:

1. Make the samosa, chickpea curry, and chutneys ahead of time. You can either make these from scratch using recipes on Oh My Veg or buy them to save time!
2. Make the sweetened yoghurt by whisking full-fat yoghurt with sugar.
3. Build the base of the samosa chaat by crushing the samosas into rough pieces.
4. Layer up the chaat by spooning on the chickpea curry, chutneys, and yoghurt.
5. Garnish the samosa chaat with toppings like sev, chopped coriander (cilantro), onions, and pomegranate.

🍽️ How to Serve Samosa Chaat

Wondering how to serve samosa chaat? No worries! It’s a common question.

I like to serve my samosa chaat with chickpea curry and samosas warm, while the chutneys and yoghurt are cold. This provides an incredible contrast that somehow only amplifies the complex flavours going on.

However, can you serve samosa chaat cold? Absolutely! There’s no reason why not to, although it’s not my first preference.

This samosa chaat recipe is amazing for street food parties, festive occasions, or quiet evenings. For the first two, I serve samosa chaat along with other crowdpleasers like okra fries and gluten free onion bhaji. But for evening snacks, my go-to choice is a cup of steaming hot chai (tea) on the side.

😍 Why You Should Make This Samosa Chaat Recipe

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