Kelli Chana

A Spicy Chickpea Snack From The Streets Of Manipur

Appetizer

Vegetarian

Snack

Kanglei

Roast

Kelli Chana

Sunday, October 29, 2023 By : Lukthel / Source / Credit Link :

5.0 1 Reviews Add Review

A Spicy Chickpea Snack From The Streets Of Manipur

14 Ingredients
40 Mins
4 People

What's Kelli Chana?Kelli chana is a popular spicy chickpea snack available on the streets of Manipur. It is traditionally served on a lotus leaf, bearing the aroma of the leaf.
HistoryIt is said that a old lady named Kelli used to sell this addictive snack under a tree and people from all over Manipur started flocking around the tree to buy her chana. She never disclosed the recipe to anyone and apparently took it to her grave. Lot of people have tried to recreate her recipe, but failed to make it taste like the original.
However, most Kelli chana, these days, are made using yellow peas instead of the original chickpeas (chana), yet it also produce a great taste.
Manipuri cuisine is famous for its simple, healthy yet delicious foods. The recipes rely less on oil and more on the natural flavors of seasonal produce, spices and fragrant herbs. Chili peppers are used in abundance to add heat and spice to most of the meals. If you are in Manipur, your visit is incomplete without hogging on the famous street food - Kelli chana.
Kelli chana is available on the streets all over the city. It is traditionally served on a lotus leaf, bearing the aroma of the leaf. You can't always find regionals herbs and spices everywhere, so regional recipes are tweaked in other places and Kelli chana recipe, too, has been successfully replicated with commonly available ingredients that help in achieving similar, if not same, look and taste.
About the recipeIn this recipe, the Kelli chana is made with Boiled chana are mixed with chopped onions, tomatoes, ginger, garlic, coriander leaves and spice powders, but the tomatoes is optional and it is excluded in original method. This chana chat is super rich in proteins from chana and is also very healthy. One plate full of this chaat satiates your evening hunger to the full. Most office workers and student enjoy this food on their day breaks.

Kelli Chana

Preparation Time
10 minutes

Cook Time
30 minutes

Total Time
40 minutes

Servings
4 servings

Ingredients
14 ingredients

Directions
10 steps

Ingredients

Primary

	400g - Dry Chickpea Soak the chickpea overnight if you are using the dry ones and boil
	1 - Medium size onion Cut into thin slice
	50g - Garlic Crush or grind
	50g - Ginger Crush or grind
	100g - Winter leek (Maroi Napaakpi) Pounded is better if you find roots, you can always leave it out or substitute it with chives if it isn’t available around your region
	10-15 leaves - Burmese Coriander (Awa fadigom)
	1 tsp - Red Chilli powder
	10-15 leaves - Cilantro Chopped into pieces
	1 tsp - Coriander powder
	2 tbsp - Mustard oil
	1 tbsp - Perilla Seeds (Thoiding) Pounded after dry fried
	3 - Medium size tomatoes Chopped into small pieces
	4-5 pieces - Green Chilli Cut into pieces
	4-5 leaves - Chameleon plant (heartleaf or fishwort) leaves Chopped

Directions

1 Boil the Peas
Boil the peas till it is just cooked. Don’t throw away the water used for boiling as some of the flavour gets infused in the water while boiling. You might want to use as little water as possible (just the amount required) for boiling it if you want your final dish to be dry.
2 Prepare the ingredients
Dice the onions and the tomatoes if included and pound or grind the garlic, ginger and the winter leek or chives, cut the Burmese Coriander and cilantro and put on a plate.
3 Start Cooking
Heat the mustard oil on a pan. Dairy oils like butter or ghee won’t be a good option unless you really want to experiment with it.
4
Gently toss in the onions and ginger and fry them till they just start turning brown.
5
Add the tomatoes (if included) and stir well then add salt to extract out the water from the tomatoes. Fry till the water evaporates.
6
Add garlic, coriander powder, winter leek (Maroi Napaakpi), burmese cilantro (Awa Fadigom) and stir well while evaporating.
7
Add Chilli powder and fry, after few minutes add boiled peas, green chillies.
8
Add the water used for boiling the chickpeas little by little and cook for few minutes. After it evaporates add a little more. Fry it till all the water evaporates but not dry, making it look like gravy.
9
Take the pounded Perilla Seeds (Thoiding) and sprinkle it over the chickpea.
10 Garnishing
Add some chives, cilantro, burmese cilantro, green onions and chameleon plant leaves and cover the hot cooked surface. Turn the heat off.