Peanut salad/ Peanut chaat

Peanuts aka Vaerkadalai in Tamil, are a great, healthy snack and a great ingredient to add flavor to any dish. My dad used to buy often the salted and roasted ones. There is a few more peanut snacks in which they are deep-fried. I love all of these snacks. We include peanuts in rice like in Cranberry Rice, Narthangai Sadham / Citron Rice, Instant Curry Leaf Rice. Peanuts are added while tempering and they give a creamy crunchy bites to the rice. The chutney made from peanut is everybody's  favorite in our home to eat with Idli or dosa. They add a great dimension of flavor to curries too. Check Bhagara Baingan, Vegan Pumpkin Spiced Pumpkin  and Green Gram Curry, and Mixed Vegetable Kootu / Kanu Kootu for tasty curries which have peanuts. They are great to have boiled and sautéed, Vaerkadalai Sundal. Try this Cucumber - Peanut Salad. They can be added to steamed rice or millet dumplings, like Kuthiraivali Kozhukattai. They are great as butter, cookies etc etc...Name it, anything can be made with peanut - appetizer to dessert.

This peanut salad aka peanut chaat is one of the street food in India. A mouth-watering delicious snack that is filling will be everyone's favorite.  Traditionally, peanuts with shells are pressure-cooked, and will be soft but not mushy. This recipe uses shelled raw peanuts and is cooked in instant pot. The raw shelled peanuts are available in many grocery stores. I like to have a teeny tiny bit crunch in my peanuts, so no soaking required. Just pressure cook raw peanuts and in no time you have a great snack ready. This is also a crowd pleaser and great for parties too.

This peanut salad is very healthy and vegan too. There is no oil in this salad. Cook for 20 minutes in instant pot with water and salt. You can either eat as such or go a step further and make this yummy street snack. Chopped onions, tomatoes, minced Thai chili, shredded carrots, salt, and lemon juice are added to cooked peanuts. They are great to have warm or cold.

March is National Peanut Month. To celebrate the National Peanut Month Christie is hosting the event "Goober Goodness" in our "Our Family Table" group . We are sharing recipes that uses peanut or peanut butter, basically anything with peanuts. We share Recipes From Our Dinner Table! Join our group and share your recipes, too! While you're at it, join our Pinterest board, too!

Ingredients

Serves 4

Raw peanuts - 1.5 cups, shelled

Salt - 1 and 1/4 tsp

Carrots -1/3 cup, shredded

Onions - 1/4 cup, finely chopped

Tomatoes - 1/4 cup, chopped

Thai chili - 1, minced

Lemon juice - 1/2 tsp

Cilantro - 1 to 2 tbsp, chopped

Method

Wash the peanuts. Add 2.5 cups water, 1 tsp salt, and pressure cook for 20 minutes in Instant pot. Release the pressure, and use and wait for the pressure to release naturally and then use. Drain the peanuts and transfer to a bowl.

Add the chopped onion, tomatoes, shredded carrots, 1/4 tsp salt, cilantro, Thai chili, and lemon juice. Toss well.

Transfer to serving bowls and serve.

Check the recipes we shared today for 'Goober Goodness!'. Thanks, Christie for hosting the event.

• Caramel Peanut Coffee Cake by Palatable Pastime
• Chicken Satay with Peanut Sauce by Making Miracles
• Homemade Pay Day Candy Bars by Blogghetti
• Peanut Patties by Sweet Beginnings
• Peanut Salad/Peanut Chaat by Magical Ingredients
• Salted Nut Roll Bars by Cheese Curd In Paradise
• Spicy Honey Peanuts by That Recipe