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Chole Masala Recipe

    Chole Masala or Chana masala recipe - Chole is a popular north indian curry. Chole goes well with poori, bhatura, roti, naan or rice.

    prep time Cooktime total time
    540 mins 45 mins 585 mins
    Ingredients
    • 1 cup dried white chickpeas OR 200 grams white chickpeas (garbanzo beans, kabuli chana or safed chole)
    • 2.5 to 3 cups water for pressure cooking the chickpeas
    • 2 to 3 dried amla OR indian gooseberry or 1 black tea bag, optional
    • ½ teaspoon salt or add as required
    ingredients for the masala gravy:
    • 1 medium sized onion, finely chopped
    • 1 medium sized tomato, finely chopped
    • 2 to 3 small garlic cloves + ½ inch ginger, crushed to a paste in a mortar-pestle or ½ tsp ginger-garlic paste
    • ¼ teaspoon turmeric powder (haldi)
    • ½ teaspoon red chili powder (lal mirch powder)
    • ¼ teaspoon garam masala powder optional
    • ¾ to 1 teaspoon amchur powder (dry mango powder), optional and only to be added when you do not have dry pomegranate seeds
    • 2 to 3 green chilies slit
    • 1 to 1.25 cups water or the stock in which the chickpeas were cooked
    • 1.5 to 2 tablespoon oil
    • salt as required
    Spices for the punjabi chole masala:
    • 2 black cardamoms (elaichi)
    • 1 inch cinnamon (dalchini)
    • 3 to 4 black peppers (sabut kali mirch)
    • 2 cloves (lavang)
    • 1 medium sized tej patta (indian bay leaf) or 2 small tej patta
    • ¼ teaspoon carom seeds (ajwain)
    • 1 teaspoon Rakesh Chole Masala
    • 1 teaspoon coriander seeds (dhania)
    • 1 teaspoon fennel seeds (saunf)
    • ½ teaspoon dry pomegranate seeds (anardana)
    • 1 to 2 kashmiri dry red chilies (sookhi kashmiri lal mirch)
    For Garnish:
    • Some chopped coriander leaves (Dhania patta)
    • ½ inch ginger (Adrak) julienne
    • 1 medium onion sliced or chopped
    • 1 medium tomato sliced or chopped
    • 1 lime (Nimbu) sliced or quartered
    Instructions
    1. Rinse and soak the Chole (chickpeas) in enough water overnight. Add enough amount of water as the Chole increase in size after soaking it. Rinse the soaked chickpeas.
    2. To give a dark color to the Chana, traditionally dried Amla (indian gooseberries) are added. These also give a faint sourness to the stock. If you do not have dried Amla, then add 1 black tea bag.
    3. In a pressure cooker add the Chole along with the 3 to 4 dried Amla pieces or a tea bag. Taj tea bags work very well then add water
    4. Season with salt and pressure cook the Chana for 18 to 20 whistles. The Chana should be cooked well and softened. The Chole should be soft when you mash it with a spoon. The Chana should not give you a bite when you eat it.
    5. In a pan, take all the whole spices as mentioned above and begin to roast them on a low heat .
    6. Stir often and roast the spices till they get extra browned. Don't burn them. you have to go beyond a point roasting them even after they become fragrant and they get more browned than the normal one.
    7. Let these roasted spices cool and then grind them finely in a coffee grinder or in a dry grinder.
    8. By now the Chana will be cooked. you will see a darker brown shade in the safed (white chana). Remove the Amla pieces which would have softened by now or the tea bag from the stock.
    9. Heat oil in a pan or kadai. Add ginger-garlic paste and saute till their raw aroma goes away.
    10. Then add chopped onions and saute till the onions turn translucent or light brown.
    11. Add tomatoes & saute them till they soften and the oil starts to leave the sides of the masala.
    12. Then add the Rakesh Chole masala , along with the Rakesh Red chili powder, Turmeric powder & Garam Masala powder.
    13. Stir the dry Masala and then add slit green chilies.
    14. Add the cooked Chole. Stir well.
    15. Add salt. Then add about 1 to 1.25 cups of the water in which the Chana was boiled.
    16. Stir and cover the Chana.
    17. Simmer on a low to medium flame. You can also cook without the lid. The gravy will thicken and reduce. mash a few chana. This will help thicken the gravy. Simmer till you get the consistency you prefer. The consistency is not thin, but medium consistency or dry.
    18. In case, you have not added dry pomegranate seeds while roasting the spices, then you need to add amchur powder (dry mango powder) now. stir.
    19. Garnish Chole Masala with coriander leaves & ginger julienne.
    20. Serve the Punjabi chole with kulchas, bhaturas, pooris, rotis, along with sliced onions, tomatoes and lime. Chole also tastes good with steamed rice or jeera rice.
    Recipe Notes

    If you don't have Amchur or dried pomegranate seeds then add
    lime or lemon juice toward the end.

    2. If cooking Chole in the pan or pot then:
    you have to take enough water in the pot while cooking the chickpeas. it takes a lot of time though. for 1.5 to 2 cups of soaked & drained chickpeas, you can take about 5-6 cups of water. adding a pinch of baking soda in the water along with salt, also helps in the cooking process and the chickpeas become really soft when cooked. you can add about 1 tsp of salt. a little less salt is also alright. i usually add less salt. cover the pot and cook. if the water starts to become frothy, then remove the lid and cook for some minutes. remove the scum if there is any while cooking the chickpeas.

    3. You can also use canned chick peas and add them once the tomatoes are sauteed.

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