Moth ki Chaat (Sprouted Moth Bean Chaat)

By / Food / April 13th, 2022 / 2

by Maneet Chauhan and Jody Eddy

This healthy chaat recipe features moth beans, called matki in Hindi, that are sprouted overnight for a slightly fermented flavor and loads of nutritional benefits such as antioxidants and the ability to more easily absorb essential nutrients such as calcium, zinc, and magnesium. Moth beans are small brown beans about the size of black-eyed peas that can be found at Indian markets. Any small bean of equal size can be substituted. This is a popular chaat in Agra, Lucknow, and throughout most of northern India.

SERVES 6 

PREPARATION TIME: 30 minutes, plus a few days to sprout the moth beans

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup moth beans (or any small beans, such as black-eyed peas or pink beans) 
  • 1 large russet potato 
  • 1 large tomato, cored and coarsely chopped 
  • 1 medium red onion, finely chopped 
  • 1 cucumber, coarsely chopped 
  • 3 serrano chiles, seeded and finely chopped 
  • ½ cup lightly packed coarsely chopped fresh cilantro, plus more for garnish 
  • 2 teaspoons chaat masala 
  • ½ teaspoon Kashmiri or other red chile powder 
  • Fresh lemon juice 
  • Kosher salt

Method:

Rinse the beans under cool running water to remove any debris. Place the beans in a medium bowl and cover them with enough water to fill the bowl to the top. Soak them at room temperature until tender throughout, about 12 hours. 

Drain the beans and place them at the center of a clean cotton kitchen towel that is slightly dampened. Wrap the towel around the beans to form a pouch and tie a knot at the top. Set the pouch aside in a warm place for 24 hours. Check the beans, and if they haven’t sprouted yet, have patience—they will sprout eventually. Conditions such as room temperature factor into how long this process takes. 

Bring a medium saucepan of water to a boil and add the unpeeled potato. Boil the potato until a paring knife easily slips into the center, about 15 minutes. Drain the potato and set aside to cool slightly. Once it is cool enough to handle, peel the potato and cut it into 1-inch cubes. 

Once the beans have sprouted, toss them together in a large bowl with the potato cubes, tomato, onion, cucumber, serranos, cilantro, chaat masala, and chile powder. Season to taste with lemon juice and salt and garnish with cilantro. Eat straight from the bowl or spoon into smaller bowls for single servings.

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Maneet Chauhan
Jody Eddy

An award winning author, a prominent TV personality, an active philanthropist and a James Beard Award of Excellence winner Chef Maneet Chauhan, today, sits on the permanent panel of Judges on Food Network’s Emmy Award nominated show ‘Chopped’. As executive chef of Vermilion, she was at the helm of executing the Indian-Latin cuisine developed by Rohini Dey and her kitchen teams in NY & Chicago. With Chef Chauhan at the helm, the restaurant earned many accolades, including Chicago Magazine’s Best New Restaurant and Wine Enthusiast’s Best New Restaurant in the U.S. Vermilion then set its sights on New York City and launched an equally impressive outpost in the heart of Manhattan. Soon after opening its doors, Chef Chauhan was nominated as the ‘Best Import to New York’ by Time Out Magazine. Maneet Chauhan was invited to the White House by President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama as part of the Easter Egg Roll Hunt 2014. She is an invited member of Indiaspora – an organization with the top 100 influential Indian American’s in the U.S. and sits on the Board of Society of Fellows of Culinary Institute of America. She is currently in the process of opening her own restaurant, Chauhan Ale and Masala House, in Nashville, TN. Maneet is also the owner and founder of Indie Culinaire – a New York based Avant Garde Hospitality Company that offers out of the box restaurant and hotel consulting solutions, has a line of signature spices, does exquisite and elite catering events and is engaged in multiple philanthropic events that stand for children education and end hunger, women empowerment etc.

Reprinted with permission from Chaat by Maneet Chauhan and Jody Eddy copyright © 2020. Photographs by Linda Xiao. Published by Clarkson Potter, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC. 

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Looking at the small things that make life great and the people who create them.

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