Make Chhole Masala | Punjabi Chole | Chickpea Curry Recipe | Indian Recipes

Punjabi chole masala or chana masala is one of the most popular curry dishes from India. In fact in north India no wedding or party is complete until you have chole masala on the menu. I remember whenever we would call someone over for lunch or dinner, mom would almost always make chole.

So what actually is chole masala? In this recipe, chickpeas are cooked with onions, tomatoes and lots of spices. A special blend of spices called “chole powder/masala” is easily available at every Indian store. We can make chole masala powder at home too by dry roasting ingredients like cumin, cloves, coriander, peppercorn, cardamom etc. But I usually get the masala from the store, saves me time and also tastes good.

My family loves chole. So in every occasion I remember my mom used to make chhole, and we used to love it. After trying many times, not exactly but I think I have now found the perfect recipe.

So sharing the recipe

You can add tea bags for the darker ,colour in chhole  while cooking chickpeas in the pressure cooker, that’s because the tea bags help in giving chole a dark brown/black color. Recommended to take 2 tea bags only.

Ingredients:

To pressure cook

Chickpeas/Chole: 1/2 kg + 1 tbsp turmeric powder + 1 tbsp salt.

Onion: finely chopped [from 3 medium sized onions]

Tomatoes: finely chopped [from 4 medium tomatoes]

Ginger-garlic paste: 3 teaspoon

Chole Masala: 3 teaspoon

Cumin powder: 1.5 teaspoon

Red chili powder: 1/2 teaspoon or to taste(optional)

Salt: to taste


Method

Soak the chickpeas overnight in enough water to cover them. I soaked a little more than 2 cups and in the morning I had around 5.5 cups of it! Drain the water in which you had soaked the chickpeas.

1. In a pressure cooker add the soaked and drained chickpeas, around 5 cups water, 2 tea bags, bay leaves, cardamom, cinnamon stick and some salt. Pressure cook at high flame till you get 1-2 whistles. After that lower the flame to medium and let the chickpeas cook for another 10-12 minutes. Remove the cooker from heat and allow it to cool down. Once the steam is gone, open the cooker and check the chickpeas. You should be able to press them easily with your fingers. If not, close the cooker and cook for 2 more whistles.

Here, you can also remove the bay leaves, cinnamon stick etc. from the chickpeas if you don’t want them in the curry.

2. In a wok, heat 2 tsp of oil. Once hot, add cloves and grated onions. Fry the onions till the raw smell goes away and they are light golden brown in color.

3. Add ginger-garlic paste and cook for 3-4 minutes till the smell of ginger-garlic goes away. And after that add 3 tsp chhole masala and 1.5 tsp cumin powder and let it cook for few minutes.

4. Now add the tomatoes , stir and let it cook for 12-15 minutes on medium-low flame. Cover the pan to prevent splash all around. The tomatoes need to be cooked really well till the raw smell goes away completely. So have patience and let them cook for around 15 minutes.

5. Drain the the chickpeas and add them to the tomato-onion mixture, stir till all the chickpeas are coated with spices, around 2 minutes. Do not throw away the water once you have drained the chickpeas. We will add the same water in the gravy.

6. Add water, cover the pan and let it simmer at medium-low flame for around 30 minutes. The gravy will thicken after 30 minutes so add water accordingly.

7. In this step we will make tadka for chhole. Take one tbsp ghee and let it heat and add red chillies and cumin seeds and let it splutter.

8. Add tadka on chhole and serve hot with steamed rice.. or chappatti.

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