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. One 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 husband loves chole, well that’s given since he is a punjabi. So after I got married I really tried to master making punjabi chole and after lots of trials and errors, I think I have now found the perfect recipe. Hubby feels that I make the best chole, maybe he’s just biased but at least that make me pretty confident about this recipe ; -)
You will notice that I added 2 tea bags while cooking chickpeas in the pressure cooker, that’s because the tea bags help in giving chole a dark brown/black color. I added only 2, but for a deeper darker brown color, you can add more tea bags. And before you start wondering, let me assure you that the tea bags do not hamper the taste of chickpeas in any way.
Serves: 5-6
Ingredients
To pressure cook
Chickpeas/Chole: 2 cups + 2 tbsp
Cardamom: 5-6
Black peppercorn: 4-5
Bay leaves: 2
Cinnamon sticks: 2
Tea bags: 2
Salt: to taste
Water: 5 cups
For the chole
Onion: 3/4 cup, grated or pureed [from 2 small onions]
Tomatoes: 2.5 cups puree [from 4 medium tomatoes]
Cloves: 3-4
Ginger-garlic paste: 2 teaspoon
Chole Masala: 3 teaspoon
Cumin powder: 3/4 teaspoon
Paprika powder: 1/2 teaspoon
Red chili powder: 1/2 teaspoon or to taste
Salt: to taste
To garnish
Ghee [clarified butter]: 1 tablespoon
Ginger: 1 inch, cut into julienne
Dried fenugreek leaves [kasuri methi]: 1/2 tbsp, crushed
Coriander leaves: 2 tablespoon, chopped
Garam masala: 1/4 teaspoon
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.
4. Now add the tomato puree , stir and let it cook for 12-15 minutes on medium-low flame. Cover the pan to prevent splash all around. This step in my opinion is very important. 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. Add the chole masala, red chilli powder, paprika powder, cumin powder, salt and mix for a 1-2 minutes.
6. 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.
7. 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. I do not like thin gravy with chole but if you do add more water than what is mentioned in the recipe.
After 30 minutes the gravy, chickpeas and all the spices would have mixed well together. We can now do the tempering.
8. To temper, heat 1 tbsp of ghee in a pan and the ginger julienne to it.
9. Fry till the juliennes are golden brown in color but do not burn them. Add to the chole curry, mix and switch off the flame.
Sprinkle some garam masala, kasuri methi and garnish with chopped coriander leaves.
Serve with roti, paratha or plain rice. Chole-chawal (chole & plain rice) is a very popular combination in North India.
If you’ve tried this Punjabi Chole Recipe then don’t forget to rate the recipe! You can also follow me on Facebook and Instagram to see what’s latest in my kitchen!
Punjabi Chole - Chickpeas Curry
Ingredients
To pressure cook
- 2 cups + 2 tablespoons raw chickpeas
- 5-6 green cardamom pods
- 4-5 black peppercorn
- 2 bay leaves
- 2 cinnamon sticks
- 2 tea bags
- salt to taste
- 5 cups water
For the chole masala
- 1 tablespoon oil
- 3-4 cloves
- 3/4 cup pureed onion from 2 small onions
- 2 teaspoons ginger-garlic paste
- 2.5 cups pureed tomatoes from 4 medium tomatoes
- 3 teaspoons chole masala
- 1/2 teaspoon red chili powder or to taste
- 1/2 teaspoon paprika powder
- 3/4 teaspoon cumin powder
- salt to taste
To garnish
- 1 tablespoon ghee
- 1 inch ginger cut into julienne
- 1/4 teaspoon garam masala
- 1/2 tablespoon crushed kasuri methi also known as dried fenugreek leaves
- 2 tablespoons chopped cilantro
Instructions
- Soak the chickpeas overnight in enough water to cover them. In the morning, drain the water.
- In a pressure cooker add the soaked and drained chickpeas, 2 tea bags, bay leaves, cardamom, cinnamon stick, salt and 4 to 5 cups water. 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.
- In a wok, heat 1 tablespoon 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.
- Add ginger-garlic paste and cook for 3-4 minutes till the smell of ginger-garlic goes away.
- Now add the tomato puree , stir and let it cook for 12-15 minutes on medium-low flame. Cover the pan to prevent the splash all around.
- Add the chole masala, red chilli powder, paprika powder, cumin powder, salt and mix for a 1-2 minutes.
- Add the chickpeas next and stir will all the chickpeas are coated with the spices, around 2 minutes.
- Add water (which was used for boiling the chickpeas), 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.
- To temper, heat 1 tbsp of ghee in a pan and the ginger julienne to it.
- Fry till the juliennes are golden brown in color but do not burn them. Add to the chole curry, mix and switch off the flame.
- Sprinkle some garam masala, kasuri methi and garnish with chopped coriander leaves.
- Serve with roti, paratha or plain rice.
Notes
- Skip the ghee in the tempering to make this vegan.
- To cut short the process of soaking chickpeas overnight, use canned chickpeas which are easily available at grocery stores. The canned ones can be prepared immediately and do not need to be soaked overnight.
- Adjust the amount of red chili powder in the recipe to taste.
- Patience is something you will need while cooking chole or any such Indian curry. Of course, I can make it in a quicker way by adding everything in the pressure cooker. But if you let the tomatoes and onions cook really well and then simmer the chickpeas with the spices for a longer time, the taste would be much much better.
- I like to keep the chole masala gravy on the thicker side, for a thinner gravy add more water.
- Chole masala actually tastes the best 1 day after you make it because the spices are then better incorporated into the chickpeas.
- Chole freeze well. Let the curry come down to room temperature, store in an airtight container and freeze.
Nutrition
Punjabi Chole
Excellent recipe tried it and was a huge hit with my family!!
Just made the recipe and it’s amazing . My family liked it so much
Hi,
So what kind of chole madala do I need. Isn’t there a recipe for that?
any brand you like, I have used Everest chole masala in the past and its good
Is there an IP version of this recipe? Secondly will the tea bags disintegrate while subject to pressure cooking? And if so, what can be done to prevent them from disintegrating and releasing all the tea leaves? Are we better off making a muslin pouch of tea leaves? I hope I am not reading too much into the tea leaves
I have a IP version in my cookbook.
Tea bags do not disintegrate. I have made this chole maybe 1000 times and it has never happened. IF you want, you can use muslin cloth.
Love how simple this recipe is. Followed it to the T, except skipped the tomatoes because I’d run out when I made the dish. Still pretty delicious! Favourite element about it is the ginger juliennes tempered in ghee – made it splendidly lip-smacking and more-ish.
glad to know Krithika!
Which brand chole masala do you recommend?
Try Everest! I usually get a brand from Delhi when I go back home, it’s local and really good
Is this different in taste and quality that is sold locally in Indian stores in the US
well every masala is different. no 2 chole masala brand will taste the same. You can use any brand you like. I also thing Everest is a good chole masala brand.
Hi Manala can you add teabags to the water which you are cooking chickpeas in if you don’t have a pressure cooker? Thanks
yes you may
Made this today and it was superb! Spot on
How can I make this without the pressure cooker?
soak chickpeas overnight, then cook in pan over stove-top until completely cooked. will take probably 45 minutes or more. Rest steps of making the masala remain same.
Do you boil them in the water when you cook them?
yes you boil and cook them until done
One note to people who may not be familiar with Indian cooking, and herbs and spices: Indian bay leaves are substantially different from European bay leaves (the kind which shows up a lot in American and Canadian cooking). Though this recipe is super yummy no matter what bay leaves you use, it will be at its absolute best if you use Indian bay leaves. You can get them at any Indian grocery or even online at Amazon. Indian bay leaves are larger, and from an entirely different plant. Try them! You’ll be glad did.
Thanks for sharing Katherine, yes they definitely taste different although if one can’t find Indian bay leaf, it is okay to use American. Of course best would be to use Indian bay leaves!
Hi Manali!
Really liked the recipe. I was thinking if it’s possible to modify the recipe by adding potatoes in it as well. In that case, in which stage should we add them?
for extra flavor, fry them first and add later on. A lot of times we makes chole like that, especially good with bhature
Are the chole pre-peeled or they have the skin?
dry chickpeas, soaked then pressure cooked and then used. There’s no peeling.