Sundal South Indian Snack

  • a little oil for frying (not olive oil; Indian ghee - clarified butter - is best)
  • 1 can of chickpeas [garbanzo beans kikärter]
  • one cantaloupe melon [nätmelon]
  • grated coconut
  • about 1 tsp salt
  • juice of 1 lemon

    Spices

  • 1-2 tsp split Indian Urad dal (black lentils)
  • 1 tsp of cumin seeds [spiskummin]
  • ½-1 tsp hot red pepper (this dish should be spicy)
  • ½ tsp of asafoetida poweder
  • 1 tsp black/brown mustard seeds [svarta/bruna senapsfrön grains de moutard noirs/bruns]

    Heat the oil in a heavy pan. Add the the Urad dal, cumin seeds and red pepper and let fry for a while. Add the asafoetida, raise the heat and add the mustard seeds. Fry until the mustard starts to sputter.

    Meanwhile, cut the melon in two halves and remove the seeds. Then cut the melon into small pieces with a small knife or spoon and add this to the Sundal spices. You may need to cut the melon into smaller pieces to do this.

    Continue frying in low heat. Add the salt. The melon will soon become watery. Fry until all of this water has evaporated - this will usually take one or more hours. You may also want to add some of the juice from the can of chickpeas.

    Put everything into a serving dish. Add the juice from the lemon and then the coconut, stir, and then add the chickpeas (without the juice). Stir gently a last time.

    Option 1: Substitue the cantaloupe with some other kind of melon or with one mango. Mango is much drier and will cook much faster.

    Option 2: Substitute the chickpeas with 2 dl of frozen peas. They can be put directly into the dish and will melt quickly. Or, prepare everything as above but put it into two serving dishes. Add ½ a can of chickpeas to one of them and 1 dl of frozen peas to the other one.

    Note: Urad dal, asafoetida and brown mustard seeds can be found in Indian grocery stores.

    RafS 08.10.2018 English only Swedish only French only