$\"Palak$ <\/p>\n

I recently had the pleasure of dining at Rasika, a very popular DC Indian restaurant, and trying their famous palak chaat. This dish is an amazing medley of textures and flavors, with crispy spinach playing off a sour-sweet chutney and sweetened yogurt, and I knew almost immediately that I had to try my best to recreate it. I’ve dedicated this week to a series of posts on recreating all the pieces of Rasika’s palak chaat. This post is the third in a series of three. See post 1: Chaat Masala<\/a> and post 2: Date Tamarind Chutney<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Creating the perfect crispy spinach was the difficult piece of this recipe. Going off of all the information I could glean from my dining experience and some internet research, I first tried frying the spinach with a light coating of gram flour, baking soda, and salt. This was a disaster; the batter kept burning in the oil, and the spinach was either not crispy enough or crumbled apart unpleasantly when eaten. After some experimentation with oven temperature, I found that not only was it much easier to bake the spinach, but it yielded much better results.<\/p>\n

\nThis recipe makes approximately four appetizer-sized servings (or potentially two full meals), but the flavors are truly addictive so you may very well want to double the recipe. When I prepared this, I included some chickpeas (you can see them peaking out from under the spinach in the photo), and diced avocado or dates would also be welcome additions.<\/span><\/p>\n

Palak Chaat<\/span><\/strong>
\nYield: 4 appetizer servings<\/span><\/p>\n

Ingredients:<\/p>\n

\n
1\/4 cup gram flour<\/span><\/li>\n
1\/2 tsp kosher salt<\/span><\/li>\n
1 lb baby spinach<\/span><\/li>\n
1\/2 cup Greek yogurt<\/span>*<\/li>\n
1\/2 tsp sugar<\/span><\/li>\n

chaat masala<\/a>, to taste<\/span>**<\/li>\n
date tamarind chutney<\/a>, to taste<\/span>**<\/li>\n
1\/2 red onion, diced<\/span><\/li>\n
1 large tomato, diced<\/span><\/li>\n
1\/4 cup cilantro, minced<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
*Greek yogurt adds an extra richness to the dish; you can substitute regular yogurt, but I’d recommend straining it (let it sit in a cheesecloth-lined strainer for about half an hour) to get closer to the consistency of Greek yogurt.
\n**You’ll probably want about a tsp of chaat masala and 2 Tbsp of date tamarind chutney per serving, but as the flavors of your masala and chutney may vary, make sure to taste and adjust.<\/p>\n
Method:
\n<\/p>\n
\n
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.<\/li>\n
Combine 1\/4 cup gram flour<\/em> and 1\/2 tsp kosher salt<\/em>, then sprinkle the mixture over 1 lb baby spinach<\/em>.<\/li>\n
Spread the spinach out on a baking sheet, making sure that there is no overlap – you will need to use multiple sheets and\/or do multiple batches. Bake for 5 minutes or until crisp.<\/li>\n
Meanwhile, combine 1\/2 cup Greek yogurt<\/em> and 1\/2 tsp sugar<\/em>. Set aside.<\/li>\n
Set out chaat masala<\/a><\/em>, date tamarind chutney<\/a><\/em>, 1\/2 red onion, diced<\/em>, 1 large tomato, diced<\/em>, and 1\/4 cup cilantro, minced<\/em>. For each serving, start with some crispy spinach and build with the yogurt mixture and these accompaniments.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>
Related Posts:<\/h3>
Date Tamarind Chutney<\/a><\/li>
Chaat Masala<\/a><\/li>
Chana Masala<\/a><\/li><\/ul>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I recently had the pleasure of dining at Rasika, a very popular DC Indian restaurant, and trying their famous palak chaat. This dish is an amazing medley of textures and flavors, with crispy spinach playing off a sour-sweet chutney and sweetened yogurt, and I knew almost immediately that I had to try my best to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":""},"categories":[3,126],"tags":[132,129,130,149,124,106,150],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1OY2q-6x","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seletsucre.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seletsucre.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seletsucre.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seletsucre.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seletsucre.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=405"}],"version-history":[{"count":25,"href":"https:\/\/www.seletsucre.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":996,"href":"https:\/\/www.seletsucre.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405\/revisions\/996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seletsucre.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seletsucre.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seletsucre.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}