What are chickpeas and what are its benefits?
Falling under the family of legumes, chickpeas are known to be packed with nutrients and fiber. High in protein, it can keep the hungry appetite at bay, instilling a feeling of satiety.
What do chickpeas taste like – they taste nutty and feel firm in terms of texture. The fact that it keeps hunger at bay, is a good excuse to avoid adding calories to the plate in the form of other foods. Naturally, the body weight stays down. That chickpeas aid in digestion is another of its attributes which is why chole masala or as commonly called chana masala recipe is frequently on the menu.
Served as mains in most cases, the chickpeas go into breakfast chole masala recipe preparations and snack time meals too. Chole masala recipes or chana masala recipes have been made popular by streetside vendors who adroitly dish them out with deep-fried puris, sliced onions and beaten curd. The health conscious people, however, would prefer to pair the chole masala with steamed rice or roti.
Origin of Chole Masala
Chole Masala is predominantly the staple food of the Punjabis and people hailing from the northern parts of India. The dish has gained popularity with the rest of the Indian states adding it as a favourite meal on their menu.
About this Recipe
This chole masala recipe uses white kabuli channa, pre-soaked and pressure-cooked before it goes into the cooking process. The use of chillies and spices are common as with most other recipes – chana masala recipe, black channa recipe, Punjabi chole recipe, Amristari chole recipe and other similar ones.
I have, however, used a minimal range of spices to reduce the roasting time. As it is, the pre-soaking and pressure-cooking lengthens the process and throwing in too many ingredients would make it seem like cooking a festival dish.
While it’s an optional ingredient, sugar brings a zing that makes the chole masala recipe delicious. If you cook it twice, try preparing the chana masala recipe without sugar the first time round and then with sugar the next time. You’d be able to tell the unmistakable difference.
Chole Masala Recipe
Equipment
- Pressure Cooker
- Mixer-grinder
- Small non-stick pan
- Wooden spoon (for roasting)
Ingredients
General Ingredients for Chole Masala Recipe
- 1 cup chickpeas (soaked overnight in water, pressure-cooked next day)
- 1 onion (large) (finely chopped, cross-wise)
- 1½ tomatoes (large) (finely chopped, cross-wise)
- 3 sprigs coriander leaves (finely chopped)
- 2 sprigs curry leaves (washed and pat dry)
- ½ tsps turmeric powder (to be added during pressure cooking)
- ¾ tsp sugar
- 1 cube Maggi (first crushed in its pack, then used in crumbled form)
- ¼ cup refined cooking oil (sunflower / rice bran)
- water (4-5 glasses for soaking, adequate for pressure cooking)
- salt (to taste)
Roast Ingredients for Chole Masala Recipe
- 1⅓ cups fresh coconut (grated)
- 6 dry red chillies (Kashmiri)
- ⅓ inch ginger
- 6 cloves garlic
- ¾ tsp cumin seeds
- 1½ tbsp whole coriander seeds
- ¾ tsp fennel seeds
- cloves
- ½ tsp whole black peppercorns
- ½ tsp cloves
- 1 green cardamom
- ¾ tsp poppy seeds
- ¼ tsp nutmeg powder
- 2 petals star anise
Instructions
Preparation Method for Chole Masala Recipe
- The process starts a day ahead of the dish preparation, by soaking the chickpeas in an adequate amount of water to dunk them completely and well. You may have to check on the chickpeas in an hour, as they tend to soak in copious amounts of water and ensure that more water is added to cover them.
- Before embarking on the preparation the next day, pressure cook the soaked chickpeas in 2 cups water. Add turmeric powder and a teaspoon of salt. Usually 3 cooker whistles should mark the end of the pressure-cooking. An easy test to check if the chickpeas are cooked is to press one down with your finger or a spoon - if it mashes under the pressure it's done. Remove and keep aside in a bowl.
- Now's the time to roast the ingredients indicated above. Use a small non-stick pan and a wooden spoon. Heat a few drops of oil to roast the grated coconut till a hint of brown. Remove from pan, and slide into a waiting bowl deep enough to hold all the roasted ingredients.
- Add a few drops of oil, heat for a few seconds and add the chopped onion / ginger / garlic till a light brown. Remove into the same bowl in which the roasted coconut lies.
- Use the above steps to roast the dry red chillies too, till crackling point. Remove into the bowl.
- Next roast the spices, taking care to not burn the poppy seeds. Save it for the last as they tend to burn soon. Ensure the spices are roasted on low heat as we want them to be sufficiently flavourful and not overly burnt. Slide into the same bowl and let cool.
- When the roasted ingredients are cooled, grind them util fine but not super fine.
- The cooking process starts now. Heat oil in a separate sufficiently deep non-stick curry pan. Add the roasted onion and curry leaves and saute till the onions till they wilt.
- Add the chopped tomatoes and saute till mushy.
- Then add the ground masala paste to the sauteed onions and tomatoes and cook for a 5-7 minutes. Do so till the masala is well-ensconced with the veggies, taking care to keep the flame low in the process.
- Now comes the near final step of adding the pressure-cooked chickpeas, together with its boiled water, crushed soup cube, sugar and salt to taste. Add water according to the desired thickness of gravy.
- Garnish with chopped coriander and serve with hot steaming rice or freshly baked chapati.
Quite often, round peas are used in place of kabuli channa, or even black channa is. Some use readymade masalas but the longer cooking process pays better dividends in the form of a satisfied husband and family.
2 Comments
Yummy
Spicy too, as hell.