I don't normally spend much time talking about how you might choose to plate up a dish - but in the case of this egg chaat, I think it's worth paying attention the what and the why of the serving variations.

If you've skipped ahead here, let me summarize: you can serve this egg chaat in two rather different ways.  First, you can serve halved eggs topped with the various chutneys, a la devilled eggs.  This would be the basic appetizer or snack set-up.  But you can also put this together as a lunch of small meal by putting together a bowl of the fresh chutney, topping it with a couple of eggs, and then adding the other ingredients to finish it up.

This might sound like semantics, but there's an aspect to the small meal variation that makes a big difference (at least to me) - you can leave the eggs whole, cook them for a shorter time, and let the semi-cooked egg yolks break and run into the chutney.  Don't like runny eggs? No worries, just move on ahead and serve this however you like.  But if you, like me, enjoy the way a warm egg yolk spills into your dish and mingles with the ingredients there, then you'll really enjoy the lunch-style serving option.  I think it adds another layer of savoury, creamy goodness that really enriches the recipe.

Runny eggs aren't real conducive to snack servings, so that's why I've provided different cooking times and options for the two serving styles.  You don't really need to worry much about technique or anything, as it's all straightforward and laid out in the recipe card below.  Of course, you can't un-cook an egg - so make sure you decide ahead of time what you want to try.

If you're well versed with South Asian cooking, you'll probably find that most of the ingredients used to make this recipe are pretty familiar. Still, I do want to take the time to go through a few ingredients of note. Unlike most of the recipes here on Diversivore, this egg chaat includes sauces, spice blends, and other manufactured or pre-made ingredients.  You can, of course, make your own chutneys, chaat masala, and even sev - but if I assumed that you had to do that, this recipe would be very long.

Still, I think it's important to understand your options when it comes to using these ingredients, so I'm going to take some time to go into them below.  Whether you choose to make your own or go with store-bought, you'll benefit from understanding what these ingredients are all about.

Chaat masala is a unique spice blend, commonly (and unsurprisingly) used when making a wide variety of chaat recipes. The overall flavour profile emphasizes salty, sour, and spicy, along with a distinctively funky note. As with so many spice blends, the balance of ingredients varies from recipe to recipe, but the 'funky' ingredient that I'm referring to is one that may be unfamiliar to many readers: kala namak, aka black salt.

I'll get back to chaat masala in the next section, but first I want to talk about what kala namak is, why it's such a key part of this spice blend, and what you should expect if you're new to using it.

We food writers tend to couch things in euphemisms a lot of the time, but I'm going to be up front with you here.  When we say that kala namak has a 'funky' smell, we mean it smells like sulfur.  Mainly because... well, it contains sulfur.   Kala namak starts out as regular salt, but it's transformed via kiln-firing into something rather unique.  Natural sulfur-containing impurities in the salt are chemically transformed at high temperatures, producing a variety of new compounds that give kala namak its distinctive colour, flavour, and aroma.  These include acidic compounds that lend a tangy, sour taste to the salt, and minute (but potent smelling) quantities of hydrogen sulfide that are largely responsible for the aroma.  Traditionally, the process of making kala namak would start with nothing more than rock or sea salt and a variety of added ayurvedic seeds and herbs, but it's now common to make kala namak by starting with pure salt and adding in the necessary quantities of sulfur-based reactants.

If you buy decent quality chaat masala, it should contain kala namak (often along with plain salt).  If you're making your own, you certainly could just use regular salt - but let's pause for a moment to figure out just why the distinctive black salt is considered so important in chaat dishes.  Kala namak differs from regular salt in two key ways: it's slightly sour, and it's got that funky aroma.  The tanginess is big part of chaat masala and many of the other ingredients (e.g. amchoor [mango powder] and tamarind powder) also lean heavily into the sour side of things.

But why the funk?  Well, I don't want to launch into a big culturally-focused tirade (I mean, I do... I just don't have time or space), we all like a bit of funk.  Funky smells in food are peculiar in that they tend to be universally enjoyed overall, but highly regional in a more specific sense.  Kala namak isn't actually all that funky in the grand scheme of things (especially when it's ground up and added to a spice blend), but the sulfurous aroma it contributes to dishes is actually a lot more universally enjoyed than it might seem at first blush.  This is because that sulfur aroma is virtually identical to what you get from very hard-boiled egg yolks.  Now, I know not everyone loves that eggy aroma, but I think we can all agree that it's pretty widely appreciated.  In fact, it has made kala namak a popular ingredient in vegan cooking, as it allows cooks to add a bit of that egg-like characteristic to plant-based dishes.  In an egg recipe like this, it might seem redundant, but I think it really boosts the savoury side of things, cutting through the sharpness and sweetness of the chutney.

Now then, back to chaat masala itself.  While it's not quite as common in Western grocery stores as, say, garam masala, it should still be fairly easy to find at well-stocked South Asian grocery stores.  If you want to try your hand at making it yourself, it's very simple to make as long as you have access to the ingredients.  Once again, a South Asian grocery store should have everything you need.  If you already do a fair bit of Indian cooking you might have everything you need already.  I loosely follow this recipe from Serious Eats, though I substituted more amchoor in place of the tamarind powder.  You want to make sure you focus on the salty, spicy, and sour aspects of chaat masala - beyond that, there's a lot of wiggle room on the aromatic herbs and spices.

Now then, back to chaat masala itself.  While it's not quite as common in Western grocery stores as, say, garam masala, it should still be fairly easy to find at well-stocked South Asian grocery stores.  Store-bought versions can be a bit heavy on the salt (it's cheap), so do watch out.

If you want to try your hand at making your own chaat masal, it's very simple to make as long as you have access to the ingredients.  Once again, a South Asian grocery store should have everything you need.  If you already do a fair bit of Indian cooking you might have everything you need already.  I loosely follow this recipe from Serious Eats, though I substituted more amchoor and anardana (dried pomegranate seeds) in place of the tamarind powder.  You want to make sure you focus on the salty, spicy, and sour aspects of chaat masala - beyond that, there's a lot of wiggle room on the aromatics.  Feel free to experiment a little, and remember that a spice blend isn't necessarily meant to be all you need for any given recipe.  You might find that some chaats benefit from more mint (for example), in which case you can always add a little extra while preparing the recipe.  It's less of a magic bullet, and more of a beautiful jumping-off point.

If you're wondering what you can do with all the lovely chaat masala you now possess, you'll be delighted to learn that it works beautifully with all sorts of dishes.  Simple raw vegetables like tomatoes and cucumbers are fantastic when sprinkled with a bit of chaat masala.  Fresh fruits - especially tangy ones like mango and pineapple - become superb sweet-and-savoury sides when treated similarly.  You can also try your hand at making any number of chaat recipes.  Since you've already got puffed rice for this recipe, I heartily recommend going wild with lots and lots of bhel puri.  And if you have other favourite uses for chaat masala, feel free to leave a comment below!

There's a lot of chutney going on here, and that makes for a lot of different options.

The freshly-made base chutney of diced veggies and spices serves as the foundation for the recipe, and is arguably the most important part.  I wouldn't do too much to tweak it (at least the first time you make it), but it's worth noting that you can omit the chilies if you're spice-averse.  That being said, I personally feel that you miss out by not having the flavour of a chili pepper, so I always recommend that people swap in a very mild green chili (or even a simple green pepper [capsicum]) if possible.   You can also swap cilantro out for flat-leaf parsley for a more neutral flavour, or a mint for a more distinctive variation that works very well with raita.

While the veggie chutney is important, the tamarind chutney is responsible for bringing the sweet, salty, and sour flavours that make this egg chaat really pop.  Tamarind chutneys are easy to find at South Asian grocers, and often at Western grocery stores (at least where I live).  You also often get a generous helping of tamarind chutney when you order Indian takeout, and a recipe like this can be a nice way to use that up.  But variations are definitely possible here too.  Try tamarind and date chutney for a subtly sweeter, earthier take.  If you want to change things up in a bigger way, consider a tangy green mango chutney, or an Indian gooseberry (amla) chutney instead.

Finally, there's the raita or yogurt.  Because there are already so many flavours at play in this dish, a simple unseasoned yogurt (curd) works very nicely.  That said, if you do have a good raita to use, all the better.  Either way, it really helps to bring the flavours of the egg chaat together while simultaneously adding a mellow creaminess.  If you want or need to go dairy-free, you can substitute a South Indian-style coconut chutney/raita instead.

Puffed rice may be unfamiliar to many Western cooks, but it's just what it sounds like - rice that's been fried to puff it up (much like puffed wheat).  It's easy to find at South Asian grocery stores, and quite inexpensive.  It's mostly air, so a one-pound bag will be pretty large, but it's easy to use for a wide variety of other purposes too.  If you want to continue your South Asian snack explorations, try bhel puri, churumuri, and jhalmuri.

If you can't find puffed rice, you could substitute a different puffed grain like wheat or quinoa.  I wouldn't recommend using Rice Krispies - they're not the same thing.

Sev is a crunchy, noodle-like snack food that's used as a topping for all manner of chaat recipes. It's made from gram flour (chickpeas), and is often flavoured with various spices. I like using a simple, slightly spicy sev here, but you can use any flavour you want.

You should be able to find sev in any South Asian grocery store, though you'll generally want to look in the snack section, rather than with the noodles.  If you can't find sev, you can substitute crumbled Instant noodles (like ramen or chow mein).  It's not exactly traditional, and these substitutions won't be gluten-free (if that matters to you), but provide a similarly crunchy, salty, finishing touch.