DALIYA SAFED CHANA KI SALAD (RUBY SPOTTED BROKEN WHEAT CHICK PEA SALAD)

 
A cousin, who is in the family way, was visiting me a few weeks back. Having lost her appetite for curries and anything rich or spicy, she asked me if I could prepare something light and simple for her. Keeping in mind her need for a nutritious and balanced diet I raked up my brain and came up with an idea to try this salad.  
 
 


I have often seen bulgar wheat salads as an accompaniment to Lebanese dishes. However, bulgar is not easily available here (available at speciality stores and none is even remotely close to where I stay). Instead I zeroed in on broken wheat as a substitute. I added chick peas (safed chana) to it since I found the taste of the wheat somewhat bland despite the addition of herbs. Although I do not like eating pomegranate, (love its juice though), on insistence of my cousin I added pomegranate to it. I was delighted to note that its addition gave texture and slight tart sweet flavour to the salad which everyone loved at home.

The salad is ideal for a mid day meal. It is actually a well balanced meal in itself with a healthy dose of carbohydrates and protein (broken wheat/chick peas), herbs (mint & cilantro) and the goodness of veggies (cucumber & carrots) and fruit (pom). Instead of cooking the broken wheat, I soaked it in boiling water for half an hour and then squeezed excess water from it. Being colourful, the salad instantly drew my daughter’s attention and she excitedly tried it without any prompting. She enjoyed it to the core which came as a pleasant surprise to me!! J
 


Feel free to adjust the amount of ingredients to suit your taste. My family enjoyed the ratio mentioned below.
 
½ cup broken wheat (coarse in texture)
½ cup chick peas (canned or freshly boiled, drained)
1 tbsp heaped pomegranate seeds
½ tbsp mint leaves, torn
1 tsp fresh cilantro or coriander, finely chopped (parsley can also be added)
1 tbsp cucumber, diced in small pieces
1 tbsp carrot, shredded
1 pinch black pepper, coarsely ground
1 pinch red chilli powder
2 pinch chaat masala (optional) [available at Indian grocery stores]
2 tsp lemon juice (+/- as per your taste)
Salt to taste
 
Transfer ½ cup broken wheat in a bowl and add 350 ml boiling water over it.
Let it soak for 30-35 minutes
Drain and squeeze out excess water from broken wheat
Transfer to a mixing bowl and add rest of the ingredients except pomegranate
Mix them well and sprinkle with pomegranate before serving.
 


Note: The addition of chaat masala peps up the taste of the salad and I would highly recommend it.
 
Serves 2-3
IT IS ALWAYS ENCOURAGING TO HEAR FROM FRIENDS AND READERS. I CAN ALSO BE REACHED AT: easyfoodsmith@gmail.com

34 thoughts on “DALIYA SAFED CHANA KI SALAD (RUBY SPOTTED BROKEN WHEAT CHICK PEA SALAD)

  1. Congrats on all the wonderful awards-well deserved!
    Your salad here gets a definite thumbs up from me. The variety of textures and flavor you packed into this salad sure does want me to try it. Also it makes for a lovely presentation with the bright ruby pomegranate seeds against the pale broken wheat. Great post.

  2. The salad recipe sound great,colorful and healhy I love it,I have one of pomegranate need to use up,i should make this salad,looks yummy !!
    Congrats on your award and Thank you for passing that Award to me,I appreciated 🙂
    Ridwan

  3. Your salad is just so beautiful. I love the variety in flavor and textures. (I’m with your cousin…I love pomegranates!) And I love your addition of chickpeas. And congrats on your well deserved awards!!! And I thank you so much for passing one on to me. Coming from you…I am so very flattered! : )

  4. Oh wow! Thank you so much for the award! Totally flattered! And congrats on your receiving them.
    This salad sounds really refreshing. I am with you on the pomegranate seeds … love the taste and eating it on its own for its juice but I can’t see myself swallowing the fibrous seeds with my salads or desserts. I’d just commented on this on quaypocooks blog. She’d made a pasta salad with pomegranate seeds as well. I hope I haven’t annoyed anyone with my opinions 😀

  5. That is one awesome list of bloggers you created! Thanks for including me in the awards and congratulations on getting so many well deserved honors for yourself!!

  6. Congratulations on the award, Taruna, and thank you so much for sharing it with me. 🙂 You got me by surprise there. 🙂

    BTW, the salad looks nutritious and delish!

    1. Taruna,I deleted my own comment to make some changes.Thanks for the award and I am really impressed.
      Your dish looks flavourful with pomegranate seeds and chickpeas.

  7. First of all – congratulations on all of these awards! They are well-deserved! Secondly – THANKS! I am truly flattered and appreciative of the Fabulous Blog award! WOW! Thanks so much! Thirdly – your salad looks delicious! So healthy and tasty. YUM!

  8. Strange,Even after 1 hour of updating my computer the posts are not showing up. I remember i commented on the date cake but even that is not showing. Its not only with your blog but with some other couple of blogs too.

  9. Congratulations on the very well deserved awards and thanks for passing one of them to me! The salad indeed looks very healthy, colorful and delicious! No wonder why it attracted the attention of your daughter!

  10. salad looks so delicious!!Congratulations on your awards & thanks a lot for passing to me too…it means a lot & I am so excited!!

  11. Such a lovely and colorful salad. I am a fan of grains presented like this, bulgur being my fave. But I have not tried broken wheat. Love the cilantro, mint and pomegranate.

    Congrats on the awards and thank you so much for including me in the celebrations, what an awesome list.

  12. wow, thank you so much for my award! That is so nice of you, I did not expect that! Thank you! x

    That salad looks wonderful, what beautiful colours, and healthy too! Perfect for my new year resolution to eat healthier 🙂

  13. Ah, I was just having some pomegranates yesterday, and we have made a whole bowl of it! I should’ve have made some juice out of it or make it into a salad like this, huh? But we do enjoy them as a snack/fruit too:D
    Nice recipe for me to bookmark 😉

  14. Congratulations on all your well deserved awards, and thank you so much for thinking of me! That’s very nice of you to consider me for the fabulous blog award. I really appreciate it!
    Your salad looks so delicious, btw.

  15. Thank-you so much for thinking of me. I usually don’t post them – because I want to give them to everyone! I never can “choose” but I am deeply appreciative. I am keeping this salad handy – it’s so pretty and a satisfying one for the winter.

  16. Congratulations on a so many nice awards! Thanks so much for thinking of us, it is an honor. Your salad looks so colorful and tasty. It reminds me of a bite of summer, perfect on this cold winter day.

  17. Congrats on all the awards!! And thank you so much for passing one on to me. Sorry for this terrible late reply, but I just came home after a 24+ hour flight (all kinds of problems, will blog about it later). Needs some days to recover and will be back blogging again.

    Ps: love the salad, so colorful and healty!

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