Easy Baked Taco Chaat Cups

These Easy Baked Taco Chaat Cups are a perfect fusion recipe that check off all the right boxes! A blend of two very popular street food recipes, one from Mexico and one from Pakistan, that come together beautifully to create an innovative starter recipe that you'll be making again and again!

The Universal Love For Street Food

Street food is ready to eat food sold by a vendor in a public place. Especially popular in some countries, such as Asia and Mexico, this popular style of food is making a huge comeback.

As mentioned in vstreetfood.com the origins of street food can be traced back to Ancient Greece. In those ancient times, people didn't always have a means to cook at home and as such resorted to purchasing street food.

While street food reigned in popularity for many years, at a point in time, fast food chains such as Mcdonalds and KFC began overshadow it.

Luckily, street food is making a huge comeback and the following list clearly illustrates why:

• Street Food Is Often A Healthy & Nutritious Food Option
• It Comes At Affordable Prices
• It's Usually Freshly Cooked Right In Front Of You
• The Prep Is Quick & Easy

This recipe is easy, healthy, affordable and delicious! You can't beat that!

How To Make The Taco Cups

The first step to making this delicious Mexican Chaat Recipe is to make the crispy taco cups that will be filled with the chaat. All you'll need is 4 basic things:

• A muffin tin for 12 muffins
• Full sized flour tortillas
• A biscuit cutter
• Nonstick cooking spray

One full sized flour tortilla makes about 3 small round "katori's" or cups. Once you have cut out 12 rounds, generously spray both sides with nonstick spray.

Press down each round in 1 muffin tin to make a small shallow cup and bake in your preheated oven.

Bake the taco cups @375 degrees for 10 minutes and then remove and cool completely before filling. Regular round cookie cutters do the trick as well, but I like to use a biscuit cutter as it gives a nice rimmed edge.

The result is beautiful edible canapes that will wow any guests! This innovative chaat idea mimics the traditional papdi chaat in reverse.

Whereas papdi chaat consiste of the chaat that is served in a bowl and topped with a crispy, fried poori made of flour, in this recipe, the taco cups serve as the bowls and papdi all in one!

Customize Your Chaat Bowls

This recipe is easier and healthier than papdi chaat since the bowls are baked and essentially premade. The papdi is made out of a fresh dough mixture, individually rolled out in small circles and deep fried.

In addition to these benefits, depending on your dietary needs, low carb and/or gluten free tortillas are easily available. This further helps to customize the recipe and make it an healthier option!

How To Make The Chaat

Making the chaat is very easy. A few canned ingredients, some boiling, a little bit of chopping and cutting and you're pretty much all done!

The Chana Chaat

Chaat is one of Pakistan's and India's most popular street foods. A savory snack, often also served as an appetizer, the delicious recipe is almost always a blend of some form of a starch, assorted vegetables, a minimum of one or more chutneys and a variety of garnishes.

The chaat I have made here is a blend of chanas {chickpeas} and aloo {potatoes}, mixed with serrano chillies, roma tomatoes and green onions. I boil, peel and dice the potatoes and mix them in with the finely chopped vegetables.

Since the canned chickpeas are already cooked, all I need to do is to strain and rinse them, before mixing them with all of the other ingredients. At the end, I mix in my tamarind-dipping-sauce recipe or, if I'm watching my weight, my sugar-free-imli-tamarind-chutney recipe to season the chaat.

There are also many store bought Tamarind-Chutneys to pick from if you don't feel like making the effort to make yours at home.

The Boondi Raita

While this is not essential, I like to add a dollop of boondi raita. Boondi is a small fried fritter made of chickpea flour and often mixed in with seasoned yogurt.

This whole mixture is called Raita and is often eaten as a snack or side dish. To make the raita I whip the yogurt till it's smooth and then season it with a little bit of sugar and Chaat-Masala.

If the yogurt seems too thick, I add a little bit of milk to thin it out. The boondi tends to absorb a lot of liquid and this thickens the yogurt, making this step essential!

Ofcourse, if you're vegan you can omit this part of the recipe and just add a few extras from the list of toppings and garnishes below.

The Toppings & Garnishes

There are many different ways to add toppings to or add garnishes to your chaat cups. I've chosen a simple dollop of some additional tamarind chutney, some vibrant red pomegranate seeds and a small sprig of cilantro microgreens.

Some additional options and variations could be:

• Sev
• Bhel Puri
• Namak Paras
• Mint-Cilantro Chutney
• Red Chutney
• Red Onion
• Radishes
• Corn
• Mangoes

Assembling The Easy Baked Taco Chaat Cups

Now it's time to get your Innovative Indian Starters ready for the table! Once the taco cups are baked and completely cooled, start filling them up. First add 1 tablespoon of the chana chaat and then top it with 1 teaspoon of the boondi raita.

Add to this a very small dollop of the tamarind chutney, a sprinkle of the pomegranate seeds and a sprig of the cilantro microgreens. Serve immediately to prevent the taco cups from getting soggy.

The canapes stay fresh for upto 30 minutes, at most 1 hour. Another way of serving them is to lay everything out separately and let everyone assemble them as they eat them. This not only keeps them fresh, but allows for customization!

Is There A Way To Prep These Ahead Of Time ?

Although the baked taco cups can get soggy once filled and fully prepared, it is possible to partially prep the assorted components ahead of time.

• Taco Cups - Bake these a day ahead of time and store them in an airtight container.
• Chutney - I usually prepare a huge batch of chutney every 4-6 weeks and freeze it so this can easily be made ahead of time as well.
• Potatoes - Boil, peel and chop the potatoes a day before and store them in the fridge!
• Yogurt - Whip the yogurt along with all of the seasonings and store it in the fridge. Add the boondi at the time of serving.
• Vegetables - I recommend chopping the vegetables a few hours ahead of time, 12 hours maximum to preserve freshness.

Once all of the above steps are complete there's only a little bit of mixing and assembly that needs to be done, making this a really easy, healthy and beautiful appetizer or snack to serve.