5-Minute Tomato Chilli Dip - Salata Hara

A quick Middle Eastern style tomato dip with garlic, mint and green chillies. Five minutes, one grinder, and it lifts everything from grilled food to plain roti.

Some days you want something with a kick on the side, and you want it now. This tomato dip takes five minutes, needs no cooking at all, and keeps well in the fridge for a couple of days.

It comes from Middle Eastern kitchens, where a fresh tomato and chilli dip is served alongside grilled meats and breads. The ingredients, though, are all sitting in a Punjabi kitchen already — tomatoes, garlic, green chillies, coriander, a few mint leaves.

Fresh ingredients from SHOAM's Freshe Cart

☘ 3 large tomatoes

☘ 3 cloves garlic

☘ Half a bunch coriander leaves

☘ 10–15 mint leaves (pudina)

☘ 3 green chillies — use the spicy variety

☘ 1 tsp paprika powder

☘ Salt to taste

Method

1. Put the garlic, coriander, mint and green chillies into a grinder and pulse until roughly broken. Don't make a paste — you want texture.

2. Add the tomatoes, paprika powder and salt. Blitz again, but only in short pulses. The tomatoes should stay slightly chunky, not turn into juice.

3. Taste and adjust the salt. That's it — the dip is done.

4. Transfer to a bowl or jar and keep it in the fridge until you serve.

Serving and storing

Serve it cold, straight from the fridge. It goes with grilled chicken and kebabs, with parathas, with pakoras on a rainy evening, or simply with plain roti when there is nothing else made. Keep it covered in the fridge and finish it within two days — after that the tomatoes start releasing too much water.

A note on the season

This is a raw dip, so everything depends on your tomatoes and greens being fresh. In the monsoon, wash the coriander and mint carefully — a proper rinse in a bowl of water, not just under the tap — and use them the same day you buy them.

Do you make a version of this at home? Tell us what you add differently in the comments.