Delicious Salad with Kala Channa and Peanuts

I know I said that I would post a sundal recipe everyday for the entire nine days of Navarathri.  In my defense, I started off with good intentions, but life took over.  With a big party on the weekend, and with huge assignments due for my course, and with grading – all piling up, I just couldn’t do justice to the sundal posts!

Anyway, my party went off well.  We had over 70 people come on Sunday for my Navarathri golu.  I also had some of my colleagues come on vijayadasami.  The food and company were good on both occasions.  Having my mom here really helped with food preparation for that many people!  

Now that the festival is done, I have a lot of varieties of sundal left over.  Typically we make one kind everyday and it just goes into the fridge, because there is a new one you make the next day.  So I decided that I was going to use these up by adding them to other recipes.

This salad is made with kala channa and peanuts.  Since I make a lot of my sundals without coconut, I can just use it as is in these recipes.  My friend, Usha, told me that she rinses out the masalas from her sundals before using them in other  recipes.

This salad is really fresh and delicious.  It has some protein because of the lentils and peanuts.  It is a great way to get fresh veggies into your system!

 

Here is what you need:

• 1 cup kala channa (small, dark brown garbanzo beans), soaked over night
• 1 cup shelled peanuts
• 1 English cucumber, diced
• ½ red onion, chopped
• 2 cups assorted peppers (I used red, yellow, and orange), seeded and diced
• salt to taste
• cilantro for garnish
• 2 – 3 green chilies
• juice of 1 large lime
• chili powder to taste

Here is how I made it:

1. Boil the kala channa and peanuts with salt in a pressure cooker till done.  Drain and set aside
2. In a bowl, mix together the cucumbers, onions,  peppers, kala channa, and peanuts.
3. Add salt, green chilies, and cilantro.
4. Squeeze lemon or lime. Mix well
5. Sprinkle chili powder on top