Chhole Masala Recipe - Learn How To Make Chhole Masala

Chhole Masala also known as Chana Masala, is an imortant dish of the Indian and Pakistani cuisine. They are generally served with fried breads like poori, bhature and kachori. They are also sold as snack food and street food in India along with plain or stuffed kulche. People also enjoy eating chhole masala with steamed rice. Given below is a quick and easy recipe to prepare it:

Preparation time: 1o minutes; Soak the chickpeas in water for 6 hours.

Cooking Time: 20-25 minutes

Ingredients:

• Chick peas (kabuli chana) - 1 cup soaked in water for 6 hours
• Onion (pyaz) - 1 big size finely chopped
• Tomato (tamatar) - 1 big size finely chopped
• Ginger (adrak) - 1 tea-spoon chopped
• Garlic (lehsun) - 3-4 petals chopped
• Spices:
  • Cloves (laung) - 2-3
  • Bay Leaves (tej patta) - 1
  • Cumin Seed powder (jeera powder) - 1/2 tea-spoon
  • Black pepper powder (kali mirch powder) - 1/2 tea-spoon
  • Red chilli powder (lal mirch powder) - 1/2 tea-spoon
  • Coriander powder (dhaniya powder) - 1-2 tea-spoon
  • Turmeric powder (haldi powder) - 1 tea-spoon
  • Asafoetida (hing powder) - 1 pinch
• Mustard oil (sarson ka tel) or Refined oil - 2 table spoon
• Tea Leaves (chai patti) - 1 tea-spoon boiled in 1 cup water. Strain the water and keep the water for use in the recipe.
• Coriander leaves (hara dhaniya patti) - finely chopped for garnish
• Salt to taste
• Water to boil and steam the chick peas (kabuli chana) and for gravy

Procedure: 

1. Wash the soaked chick peas (kabuli chana) well and steam them with water, for 1 whistle in a pressure cooker. Lower the flame and let it cook for 10 minutes. Turn off the flame and allow it to cool. Remove the boiled chickpeas (kabuli chana) from the cooker and strain off the extra water using colander. Keep the strained water in a separate vessel for use in later step.
2. Make fresh ginger (adrak), garlic (lehsun), and cloves (laung) paste in a mixer-grinder, or use mortar and pestle to grind the 3 ingredients into a fine paste.
3. Heat some oil in a kadhai, and first add some asafoetida (hing powder) to it and bay leaf (tej patta) to it.
4. Now add chopped onions (pyaz) to the kadhai and sauté till reddish brown.
5. Add the ginger garlic and cloves paste (adrak, lehsun, laung ka paste)  to kadhai, followed by turmeric powder (haldi powder), cumin seed powder (jeera powder), black pepper powder (kali mirch powder), red chilli powder (lal mirch powder) and coriander powder (dhaniya powder). Saute it too.
6. When the masala turns red and oil begins to separate, add a little salt and chopped tomato (tamatar) to the kadhai. (Salt will help hasten the process of cooking the tomato and the masala prepared)
7. Lower the flame and now add the boiled chickpeas (kabuli chana) to the masala prepared and add the strained water to the kadhai. Allow it to cook on medium flame for atleast 5 minutes.
8. Add the tea water (chai ka pani) to the kadhai and increase the flame. This will bring a uniform  reddish color throughout the gravy and chickpeas. Turn off the flame after 2 minutes.
9. Mash a few chickpeas (kabuli chana) with the ladle to thicken the gravy. Transfer the chhole prepared to a beautiful serving bowl and garnish with chopped coriander leaves (dhaniya patti).
10. Serve with hot poori, bhature on kachoris.

(Tips: 1. After steaming the chickpeas (kabuli chana) in pressure cooker, mash 1 or 2 of them to check that they are boiled properly; 2. While cooking the chhole in kadhai, the chickpeas should be completely submerged in the water. Add more water if needed.)