1 pound small Yukon Gold potatoes, scrubbed
1 small onion, chopped
2 serrano chile, seeds removed if desired, chopped
1 2-inch piece ginger, peeled, chopped
1 cup chopped fresh cilantro, plus more for serving
¼ cup vegetable oil
1 can chickpeas, rinsed, patted dry
Freshly ground black pepper
2 teaspoons chaat masala
2 tablespoons prepared tamarind chutney, divided
pinch of sugar

1 cup raita yogurt

¼ cup sev or similar/fried noodles

• ½ tablespoon cumin, divided
• 1 cup plain whole-milk yogurt
• 2 tablespoona fresh lemon juice, divided
• 3 garlic cloves; 1 minced, 2 thinly sliced
• 2 cups 1/2-inch cubes peeled butternut squash
• 1 cup semi-pearled farro (can add in barley and other whole grains)
• 1 tablespoons chopped Fresno chile or red jalapeño chile with seeds, divided
• ½ cup 1/2-inch cubes red onion plus 1/4 cup thinly sliced
• ½ 15-ounce can garbanzo beans (chickpeas), drained
• ¼ cup fresh cilantro leaves
• Extra-virgin olive oil

Yogurt Sauce

Indigo, the Indian food stall at Eastern Market, makes a spectacular chana chaat - basically, a chick-pea/vegetable salad/snack thing.  It's quite frankly delicious.  In anticipation of an Indian dinner party were we hosting, I coaxed the main ingredients out of the very nice woman who does all the cooking at the stall.  While she wouldn't reveal her secret spice blend, some internet reserach gave us enough clues to fill in the holes.

Obviously, this is a very notional recipe and the proportions can be added to suit your taste.  The resulting product shouldn't be soupy, but dressed in the sauce blend as a salad would be.

When we were in India, we visited MV Spices and bought a lot of Indian spices (probably at tourist prices), including a spice mix for Indian Chai (tea). The ingredients listed on the tea bag are:

Cardamom
Cinnamon
Ginger
Nutmeg
Black Pepper
Clove

The recipe, copied from the back of the bag, is as follows:

2 cups water
1 spoon tea (black tea)
Little tea spice
2 spoons sugar

Boil 5 minutes
Add hot milk (or dry milk)
Boil 3 minutes
Filter and serve.

This recipe was awesome. Delicious and super easy. Made by simplifying a slightly (but not much) more complex recipe from Madhur Jaffrey’s Indian Cooking.

Serves 6.

Ingredients
Vegetable oil
2 medium onions, peeled and sliced into thin half-rings
1-inch cube of fresh ginger, peeled and coarsely chopped
1 small, whole head of garlic, with all the cloves separated and peeled
5 Tbsp white wine vinegar
1 Tbsp ground coriander

I never met a yogurt dip I didn't like. Seriously. If there's ever one on a menu, I order it. I will slather it on everything, especially middle eastern and mediterranean foods.

Instead of proliferating pages and pages of yogurt dip recipes, I've decided to collect them all here. In most cases, the dips will be better on the second day once the flavors have had a chance to marry.

IndianFoodForever provides a good basic chaat recipe for ragda patties. I'd add more tomato and make them very finely diced.

For the Patties (can be done ahead):
3 large Potatoes
1/2 tsp ginger, grated
1/2 tbsp Garam Masala
1/4 tbsp Turmeric
2 Tbsp Bread crumbs
Oil

Peel, quarter, and boil the potatoes until soft, then mash them or pass them through a ricer.
Add spices, mix and knead well into a dough.
Add the bread crumbs and knead well.

Great on the first try. Serve with rice and mango salsa.

From http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Shrimp-Tikka-with-F...

These naan are nice and buttery and go great with all indian foods. Easy to prepare ahead of time and refrigerate. The texture's not quite right (probably due to my lack of a tandoor), but they're still pretty excellent.