Chole Masala Recipe | Channa Masala Recipe

Chole, Chhole Masala, Chana Masala or Channa Masala whatever we make call it's one of the most popular recipe from Punjabi Cusine. Chole or Chana Masala goes well with batura, poori, kulcha, paratha, roti, jeera rice or steamed plain rice pair chole along with anything and it does the magic, this is one of best chole recipe, maximum people tried my chole would agree that it's The Best. My love for chole/chana masala is very high and this happens to be one of my popular and famous signature dish.

Chhole or channa masala is boiled chickpeas (kabuli chana) cooked in onion, tomato gravy with spices along hint of lemon is one of the best recipe. Most of the people would say they love my chole/channa masala than anything and trust me it's really good and you can make this amazing chole too just you need to have patience. It takes a while to prepare this aromatic chole but it's all worth it in the end, so if you want to make some really nice and tasty chole or chana masala then don't be in hurry, spend some time to make this dish.



In case you are in hurry and want to make something simple then try my chana aloo masala or chole aloo masala this one taste great too. But coming back to our today's recipe this is my own recipe and I started to make chole just like that without referring to any site or book and that's why I don't name this as Punjabi Chole or Chana Masala but rather I call it just chole.



This is one of the easy chole recipe with few basic ingredients and the magic comes from properly sauteing or frying the masala, do it in slow to medium flame with patience and your chole will be just amazing, next up is the garam masala I use which is home made and that's does the trick in this recipe. You can also use chole masala it works very well too, check out my Homemade Punjabi Chole Masala Powder Recipe.



You can also check other chole/channa recipes

• Sukke (Dry) Chole
• Chana Aloo Masala
• Punjabi Kala Chana Masala
• Chana Baingan Masala Masala
• Pindi Chole

Chole Masala | Channa Masala Recipe

Chole Masala or Chana Masala is popular Punjabi recipe of chickpeas (kabuli chana) cooked in onion-tomato gravy with spices.

Author:	Priti	Category:	Main Course	Cuisine:	North Indian
Prep Time:	8 Hrs 10 Mins	Cook Time:	45 Mins	Total Time:	8 Hrs 55 Mins
Serves:	4 to 5

Ingredients:

To Pressure Cook
• 1 Cup - Chickpeas/Kabuli Chana
• 1 - Dried Bay Leaf/Tejpatta
• 1 inch - Cinnamon Pieces
• 1/2 tsp - Salt
For Gravy/Curry/Masala
• 2 Large - Onion
• 2 Large - Tomatoes
• 1 tbsp - Ginger-Garlic Paste
• 3 to 4 tbsp - Oil
• 1 - Dried Bay leaf/Tejpatta
• 2 tsp - Red Chili Powder
• 2 tsp - Coriander Seeds Powder
• 1/2 tsp - Turmeric Powder
• 1 tsp - Garam or Chole Masala Powder
• 1 tbsp - Lemon Juice
• 3 tbsp - Chopped Coriander Leaves
• To Taste - Salt

Method:

1. Rinse 3-4 times chickpeas/chana in water and soak overnight with double water. Next day rinse again 1-2 times soaked chana and pressure cook with 1/2 tsp salt, bay leaf, cinnamon, 1.5 to 2 cups of water for 3-4 whistles. Once pressure released discard bay leaf, cinnamon, drain chickpeas and keep water aside.
   ~If you are using futura cooker once steam starts to come keep cooker in slow flame and simmer for 5-8 minutes.

2. Peel and roughly chop 1 1/2 onions (around 3 cups loosely packed) and finely chop remaining 1/2 onions (around 3/4 cup loosely packed). Heat 1/2 tbsp oil in a pan or wok and add roughly chopped onions, saute until it becomes golden brown and soft.
   [if you won't have ginger-garlic paste then add 3 large garlic cloves along with onion and saute.]

3. Allow to cool fried onion and grind to smooth paste (don't add water), keep aside. In a same mixer jar chopped tomato and puree it.

4. For masala in same pan heat remaining oil add bay leaf and saute for 30 secs. Add finely chopped onion and saute until it starts to get brown.

5. Add onion paste, ginger-garlic paste and mix well. Saute in slow to medium flame with regular stirring until oil starts to separates, takes around 5-8 minutes.

6. Keep sauteing onion paste until it starts to change color and becomes light brown (as in below pic). Add red chili, turmeric and coriander powders and mix well, cook for 1-2 minutes.

7. Now add tomato puree and mix well, cook until oil starts to come on top, around 5-7 minutes in slow to medium flame with regular stirring.

8. Once masala gets cooked well with no raw smell and you see oil separating add cooked chickpeas and mix well and cook for a minute.

9. Add reserved chickpeas boiled water (add more water if required), salt and bring it to good boil. Cover and simmer in medium flame 5-8 minutes or until gravy becomes thick.  Add garam masala or chole masala and mix well, simmer for 2 more minutes. Now add lemon juice, coriander leaves mix chole and off flame. Keep the chole covered for minimum of 10 minutes before serving.

Serve warm or hot with batura, puri, kulcha, paratha, roti, jeera rice, matar pulao, kashmiri pulao or anything of your choice.

Note

• Quantity you see in the pictures are made of more than 1/2 kg of chickpeas so you don't get this much quantity if you follow 1 cup chickpeas recipe.
• You can really saute onion before making paste and cook the paste well until it changes color to get good chole, if you try to miss this part your chole will be good but not exceptional.
• I don't add tea bag while boiling chickpeas as the nice brown color comes from sauteing onion well.
• While chickpeas gets boiled and you allow cooker to release pressure, on side you can start working on gravy to reduce cooking time.

Yummy chole/chana masala to relish. Check Jeera Rice recipe here if you want to try this awesome combo of jeera rice and chole.

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