Cherry Mushroom Chaat
Photo: James Lenhart / Contributor
Chaats are beloved savory snacks that originated in India and are usually available at roadside stalls or food carts. At the core, they are salty, sweet, spicy, crunchy snacks usually involving vegetables, lentils and herbs with drizzles of chutneys and yogurt. It’s the food from India most of us transplants miss the most. Over the years, I have tried dozens of variations from corn mint chaat to the quintessential pani poori and loved them all. Here is a salad loosely based on the idea of a chaat. The yogurt provides the creamy touch, mushroom the meaty, cherry the sweet and tarragon the herbaceous finish.