Getting Your Fruit For The Day!
So how do you eat your fruit? Everyone is trying to be healthy these days and one tasty way of achieving it is eating fruit. I love fruit, especially in the summer with abundant berries, nectarines, plums, etc. In the winter, it’s a different story, there are so many oranges and apples you can eat! A few times a week I have started eating fruit salad either for a snack or even a meal. I remembered the fruit salad (called fruit chaat in India) I used to have many years ago. The best way to describe the flavor would be similar to Thai food- hot, sour, sweet and salty. It essentially pushes your taste buds to the edge.
Most Indians eat their fruit with salt and pepper. A very popular snack on the streets of Delhi is a concoction of fruit, lemon juice and lots of cayenne pepper and a key ingredient called chaat masala.
The wikipedia definition of chaat masala is a spice mix, used in Indian cuisine. It typically consists of amchoor (dried mango powder), cumin, black salt, coriander, etc. The ingredients are combined and served on a small metal plate or a banana leaf, dried and formed into a bowl, at chaat carts (especially in Southern-India).
I love having my fruit this way! I use turbinado sugar to give the dish a nice crunch but regular sugar is fine as well. I had it for lunch today and will probably have it tomorrow as well!
- 1 cup fresh pineapple, cut into 1 inch pieces
- 1 navel orange or tangerine, peeled and sectioned (cut the slices into half)
- ½ cup red grapes, cut in half
- 1 banana, cut into ½ inch rounds
- ½ apple, cut into ½ inch squares
- 1 lemon, juiced
- 1 teaspoon sugar (turbinado)
- 1 teaspoon chaat masala
In case you can’t find the chaat masala, then use:
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon cumin powder
- ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
Toss the fruit in a bowl with the lemon juice, sugar and chaat masala (or salt, cumin and cayenne pepper).
