Bun kebab is the Pakistani street burger — a spiced patty crammed into a soft bun with chutney, raw onion and sometimes a thin omelette, sold from carts across Karachi and Lahore. The surprise is the patty: the quintessential Karachi bun kebab is meatless, built from chana dal and potato spiced exactly as a shami kebab would be — a creation of frugality from vendors priced out of meat, so good it fooled the carnivores it was made to please. The dal is boiled with whole spices until tender, dried out and ground to a smooth paste, shaped into patties, dipped in egg and shallow-fried, then layered into a toasted bun with a sweet-sharp green-tamarind chutney. This version follows Sarah Mir of Flour & Spice, whose Karachi bun kebab keeps the daal-only patty that started it all.
INGREDIENTS
- 1 cup chana dal (split chickpeas, soaked 4 hours or overnight)
- 1 large floury potato (peeled and quartered)
- 1 tsp cumin seeds
- 2 dried red chillies
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 2 black cardamom pods
- 1 tbsp ginger-garlic paste
- 1 tsp salt (for the dal, or to taste)
- 1 small onion (finely chopped)
- 1 green chilli (finely chopped)
- 2 tbsp chopped coriander
- 1 tsp roasted cumin powder
- ½ tsp Kashmiri red chilli powder
- 2 eggs (beaten)
- oil (for shallow-frying)
- 6 soft burger or slider buns
- green-tamarind chutney (sliced onion and tomato, to assemble)
METHOD
- Drain the soaked dal and boil it with the potato, cumin seeds, red chillies, cinnamon, black cardamom, ginger-garlic paste and salt until the dal is very soft and the water has gone.
- Pick out the whole spices, let the mixture cool, then grind it to a smooth, dry paste.
- Mix in the onion, green chilli, coriander, roasted cumin and Kashmiri chilli, and shape into patties.
- Dip each patty in the beaten egg and shallow-fry in hot oil until golden and set on both sides.
- Split and toast the buns in a little oil or ghee.
- Spread green-tamarind chutney on both cut sides, set a patty inside with sliced onion and tomato, and serve hot.
