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Chotpoti (Bangladeshi Spiced Peas with Tamarind)
Soft dried peas and potato, warm and tangy, heaped with raw onion, green chilli, cucumber, coriander, grated boiled egg and crushed fuchka shells and drenched in spiced tamarind water.
Bangladeshi · easy · serves 6
prep 20 min · cook 60 min · plus 8 h hands-off time
~233 cal · 15g protein · 39g carbs · 3g fat · 11g fiber · 8g sugars · 1g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Chotpoti is the street snack of urban Bangladesh, sold hot from big pans on carts and at food stalls all over Dhaka, often alongside fuchka. The name means something like zesty or many-spiced, and the dish is both spicy and sour at once.
The base is dried white or yellow peas (dabli), soaked overnight and boiled soft with turmeric and salt, mixed with potato, some of it mashed so the whole thing turns thick and creamy. It is served warm in a bowl or a leaf plate and loaded with toppings: finely chopped raw onion and green chilli, cucumber, fresh coriander, grated hard-boiled egg and a handful of crushed fuchka shells for crunch.
The last thing on is the tok, a thin water seasoned with roasted cumin, roasted dried chilli, sugar and black salt, poured over generously. Vendors adjust the chilli and the sourness to order, so every bowl is made to the customer's taste.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian and dairy-, nut- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 6
- 225 g dried white or yellow peas (dabli)
- 1/4 tsp baking soda (for soaking)
- 1/2 tsp ground turmeric
- 1 tsp salt (for the peas)
- 2 medium potatoes
- 1 tsp chaat masala
- 50 g pulp (seedless block)
- 1 cup hot water (for the )
- 3 dried red chillies
- 1 tsp cumin seeds
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 1 tsp black salt (kala namak)
- 1 red onion, finely chopped
- 3 green chillies, finely chopped
- 1 small cucumber, finely diced
- 1 small bunch fresh coriander, chopped
- 3 hard-boiled eggs
- 12 fuchka (puri) shells, crushed, made from semolina and flour
Instructions
- 1Rinse the peas and soak them overnight, at least 8 hours, in plenty of water with the baking soda.
- 2Drain and rinse the peas, cover with fresh water by 5 cm, add the turmeric and salt and simmer for 45 minutes to 1 hour, until very soft but mostly whole. Meanwhile boil the potatoes in their skins for about 20 minutes until tender, then peel them.
- 3For the tamarind water, soak the tamarind in the hot water for 30 minutes, squeeze it and strain out the fibres. Dry-roast the red chillies and cumin seeds in a small pan for 1 to 2 minutes until fragrant and crush them. Stir the crushed spices, sugar and black salt into the tamarind water; it should be thin, sour, sweet and hot.
- 4Mash one potato and dice the other. Stir both into the peas with the chaat masala and simmer for 5 minutes until thick and creamy, adding a splash of water if needed. Taste for salt.
- 5Serve warm in bowls, topped with onion, green chilli, cucumber, coriander, grated egg and crushed fuchka, with the tamarind water poured over to taste.
Dhaka street-food tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Dhaka. Two habits mark Bengali cooking off from the rest of the subcontinent. Mustard oil is the frying fat, pungent enough that cooks heat it hard before anything goes in, and panch phoron is a five-seed mix of fenugreek, nigella, mustard, cumin and fennel that hits the pan whole and uncrushed.
🗺️
Bangladesh. The Bengali meal has an order, which is unusual in South Asia: bitter first, then greens, then lentils, then fish or meat, and something sweet at the end. Malai in the name of a prawn dish means coconut, not dairy cream, a distinction worth holding on to. The same cuisine sits on both sides of the border drawn in 1947.
🌍
Asia. Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, and its food spans the delicate seasonality of Japanese washoku, the chili-fired curries of India and Thailand, and the wheat-and-lamb traditions of Central Asia. Rice, noodles, soy, and fermentation recur across its regions, while ancient spice routes and religious traditions shaped distinct grammars of flavor. Whether from a street-cart wok or a monastery kitchen, eating is deeply communal and ritual-rich.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Bangladesh
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Ruti with Aloo BhajiSoft whole-wheat flatbread with a lightly spiced potato-and-onion curry, the everyday Dhaka breakfast.
Shorshe IlishHilsa fish in a pungent mustard-and-green-chili sauce, the prized national dish of Bengal, eaten with rice.
Browse all Bangladesh recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Oven.
Storing it: Best assembled just before serving. Prep the components ahead and dress at the last moment so it stays crisp.
Make it a Bangladesh meal
BorhaniDrink
RoshogollaDessert
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Cuisine
Diet
Frequently asked questions
What is Chotpoti (Bangladeshi Spiced Peas with Tamarind)?
Soft dried peas and potato, warm and tangy, heaped with raw onion, green chilli, cucumber, coriander, grated boiled egg and crushed fuchka shells and drenched in spiced tamarind water.
Where does Chotpoti (Bangladeshi Spiced Peas with Tamarind) come from?
Chotpoti (Bangladeshi Spiced Peas with Tamarind) is a Bangladeshi dish from Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Can Chotpoti (Bangladeshi Spiced Peas with Tamarind) be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Chotpoti (Bangladeshi Spiced Peas with Tamarind) recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions. Treat the substitutions as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Chotpoti (Bangladeshi Spiced Peas with Tamarind) safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we still count coconut as a tree nut to be cautious, although the FDA stopped listing it as one in 2025), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Chotpoti (Bangladeshi Spiced Peas with Tamarind) take to make?
About 9 h 20 min in all: 20 minutes prep and 60 minutes cooking, plus 8 h of hands-off waiting the method needs, serving 6.
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