Chickpea and Cucumber Salad (Chana Chaat)

Chaat is a style of savory South Asian street snack, of which there are dozens of varieties. They all combine a mix of contrasting flavors and textures—sweet, tart and spicy, as well as creamy and crunchy. This is our version of chickpea (chana) chaat; it’s a good appetizer or side to grilled meats or seafood. To mimic the crunch of fried samosa wrappers that are sometimes used in chaat, we used the fried wonton strips sold near the croutons in the supermarket. For convenience, we used store-bought tamarind chutney (look in the international aisle) and spiked it with brown sugar, lime juice and hot sauce. We preferred the acidic heat of Tabasco or Frank's Red Hot sauce. Feel free to substitute chopped tomato and/or mango for all or some of the cucumber. And if you like, drizzle with whole-milk plain yogurt.