Make authentic Punjabi Chole Masala at home with this easy recipe. This recipe gives you a deep, dark gravy and a tangy flavor using my special homemade chana masala spice mix!
If you ask me what true comfort food is, it is a big bowl of Chole Rice. Born into a Punjabi family, I love the popular North Indian street food Chole Bhature naturally.
My family's recipe gives you that perfect tangy flavor and dark brown color using homemade chana masala spice, without needing a single tea bag.
Though I love ghee-rich chole, this homemade chole uses as much ghee as required and uses no cream.
Boiled Chickpeas (Chole) tempered with flavorful tomato onion gravy rich in spices and ghee and topped with cilantro leaves and ginger slices is a hit in our family.
Be it a family dinner or a lazy weekend morning, Chana masala is a perfect meal when teamed with Poori, plain or bathua paratha, or jeera rice.
Spice it up with my homemade chana masala powder, chaat masala, and homemade garam masala.
If you love Chickpeas, you may also like these recipes made using chickpeas- Creamy Chickpea Salad, Chana Saag Recipe, Chana Spinach Dal, Kala Chana Curry, and Kala Chana Chaat.
Find my best Indian lunch ideas and best Indian bread recipes collection.
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Ingredients
The recipe uses simple pantry staples and if you don't have any ingredient, it can be easily procured from the local stores. For measurements, you may refer to the recipe card.
- Chickpeas (Garbanzo Beans)- is the star ingredient of this recipe. The recipe uses dry white chickpeas, which are soaked overnight and then boiled. If you are busy, you may use the canned chickpeas as well. The canned chickpeas need to drain and wash fully. They need less time to boil. Any local Indian store would have a stock of dry chickpeas.
- Onion
- Tomatoes
- Ginger & Garlic
- Ghee- I can't imagine cooking the Indian gravies without ghee. If you wish to make this recipe vegan, you may use vegan oils like almond, coconut, or avocado oil. However, the taste may vary for sure.
- Green Chili
- Indian Spices-Bay leaves, green cardamoms, cloves, and Black pepper in whole spices and red chili powder. You may add any other whole spice, like Nutmeg, black cardamom, or cinnamon, as well. You may procure these spices from Indian Grocery stores.
- Chole Masala-You may use any brand or also use a homemade chana masala powder. My homemade chana spice includes anardana (dry pomegrnaate seeds) and amchoor that adds perfect tangy flavor. If I don't have chana masala, I sometimes use Chaat Masala.
- Cilantro or Coriander Leaves.
- Salt- This recipe uses a mix of kala namak and normal salt.
How To Make Chole Chana Masala
Step 1 Soak and Boil Chickpea in a Pressure Cooker
The prep time begins as early as the night before you wish to cook chickpea curry. Soaking Chickpeas is an important step and I would recommend not skipping it.
But if for some reason you can't soak them, you may soak them in hot water for 10 min or cook them longer than usual. (15 min more). Take a large pressure cooker and add soaked chickpeas (drain the water in which they were soaked) along with salt and grated ginger.
Let it boil for 2 whistles on full and then simmer the flame and cook for about 15 min. The boiled chickpeas would be soft and their outer skin would come off. You may mash them easily with your fingers. If you don't like mushy chickpeas, you may pressure cook for 10 min only.
Tip
A few people add tea leaves wrapped in a muslin cloth for the perfect brown color of chickpeas. I have never used them, and I use a homemade chana masala, which adds the much-needed brown shade to this curry.
Step 2 Prepare The Spicy Gravy
In a saucepan or heavy-bottomed kadai/wok, prepare the onion-tomato gravy. Add ghee to the wok. Once hot, add Heeng (Asafoetida), Cumin Seeds, Bayleaf, Cardamom, Black pepper, Clove, onion, and garlic.
Onions take about 2 min to become pink and transparent. You may add the chopped tomatoes. Tomato gravy can also be used. Cook tomatoes with spices for about 2 min on slow flame.
Step 3 Add Onion Tomato Masala to Boiled Chana
Add chickpeas and let them simmer on slow flame for about 5-10 min to blend the spices and flavor. You may boil more depending upon how thick gravy you wish to have.
Once they cool off for a few hrs, they tend to become thicker.
I generally pressure cook the chickpeas after adding masala for about 5 min.
Step 4 Serve It
The Punjabi Chole Masala is ready! Top it with coriander leaves and sliced ginger and serve it with jeera rice, paratha or poori.
Expert Tips
- Pressure cooking chickpeas with salt helps cook them faster.
- If you are making this recipe in summer, I suggest soaking them in hot water for 2-3 hrs rather than soaking them overnight. This helps increase the perish-ability time.
- If you are using canned chickpeas, make sure to drain the water and remove the aquafaba layer under tap water.
- You may blend 1 tablespoon of boiled chickpeas and add them back to gravy for rich texture.
- If you are using store-bought Chole Masala, make sure to read the instructions. I use only a small quantity of it. They usually are added with extra salt, and I avoid using the whole packet in one recipe. Instead, I use 1-2 tablespoon depending upon the quantity of chole. I suggest using GM foods or SDS brands.
- If you wish to have a dark brown color of chole gravy, you may add 1 or 2 tea bags wrapped in a muslin cloth while boiling the chickpeas.
- Pls note that the serving size may change if you serve chole curry with rice. This estimated serving is in bowls and depends on the consistency of the gravy as well.
Serving Suggestions
The Chole Masala and rice is a match made in heaven. That said, I love poori and paratha with it as well. My husband loves this dish with plain bread.
- Jeera Rice
- Brown Rice Pulao
- Cilantro Lime Brown RIce
- Plain Boiled Rice
- Poori
- Ragi Paratha
- Samosa
Stories From Kitchen
Being born in a Punjabi family meant having Chole Bhature on every visit to the market. Sometimes I wonder whether we used to go to markets to buy stuff or to have this delicacy. I can't remember having anything else in the market till I grew up and was introduced to Pizza from Nirula's. Those times were great when everything was not so expensive and the food was really delicious. No-fancy food, No-fancy restaurant, no-show-off stuff, and simple yet amazing living.
Chole Recipe- Punjabi Chole Masala
Equipment
- 1 Large Bowl soaking Chole
- 1 Pressure Cooker boiling Chole
- 1 wok/ kadai Preparing onion & tomato gravy
Ingredients
- 3 cups Dry Chickpea can use canned chickpeas
- 2 medium onion
- 4 medium tomato
- 2-3 clove garlic
- 1 tablespoon grated ginger
- 2 tablespoon desi ghee
- 1 small bay leaf
- 1-2 piece whole clove
- 1-2 piece whole black pepper
- 1 piece cardamom
- 1 tablespoon red chilly powder can reduce the heat.
- 1.5 tablespoon Chole Masala GM brand
- 1-2 piece green chili
- 6-7 cups water for boiling chickpeas, can adjust
- salt as per taste I use 2 teaspoon
Instructions
- The prep time begins as early as a night before you wish to cook chickpea curry. Soaking Chickpeas is an important step and I would recommend not skipping it. But if for some reason you couldn't soak them, you may soak them in hot water for 10 min or cook them longer than usual. (15 min more). In a large pressure cooker, add soaked chickpeas (drain the water in which they were soaked) along with salt and grated ginger.Let it boil for 2 whistles on full and then simmer the flame and cook for about 15 min. The boiled chickpeas would be soft and their outer skin would come off. You may mash them easily with fingers. If you don't like mushy chickpeas, you may pressure cook for 10 min only.A few people add tea leaves wrapped in a muslin cloth for the perfect brown color of chickpeas. I have never used them and I use a good masala brand which adds the much needed brown shade to this curry.
- In a sauce pan or heavy bottomed kadai/wok, prepare the onion-tomato gravy. Add ghee to the wok. Once hot, add Heeng (Asafoetida), Cumin Seeds, Bayleaf, Cardamom, Black pepper, Clove, onion, and garlic. Onions take about 2 min to become pink and transparent. You may add the chopped tomatoes. Tomato gravy can also be used.
- Once tomatoes are cooked, you may add the spices- red chilly powder, chole masala and green chilly. I have not added Garam masala and Amchur as the chole masala had these already.Cook tomatoes with spices for about 2 min on slow flame. Add chickpeas and let them simmer on slow flame for about 5-10 min to blend the spices and flavor. You may boil more depending upon how thick gravy you wish to have. Once they cool off for few hrs, they tend to become thicker.I generally pressure cook the chickpeas after adding masala for about 5 min.
- The Chole chana Masala is ready! Top it with coriander leaves and sliced ginger and serve it with rice, paratha or poori.
Notes
- Boiling Chickpea with salt helps cook them faster.
- If you are making this dish in summers, I suggest soaking them in hot water for 2-3 hrs rather than to soak overnight. This helps increasing perish-ability time.
- If you are using the canned chickpeas, make sure to drain the water and remove the aquafaba layer under tap water.
- To have a blended flavor in the curry, make sure to pressure cook the chole for 5 min after adding the onion-tomato gravy.
- If you are using store-bought Chole Masala, make sure to read the instructions. I use only a small quantity of it. They usually are added with extra salt and I avoid using whole packet in one recipe. Instead I use 1-2 tablespoon depending upon the quantity of chole.
- Pls note that the serving size may change if you serve chole curry with rice. This estimated serving is in bowls and depends on the consistency of gravy as well.
| Nutrition Facts | |
|---|---|
| Serving size: 1 bowl | |
| Servings: 8 | |
| Amount per serving | |
| Calories | 290 |
| % Daily Value* | |
| Total Fat 7.3g | 9% |
| Saturated Fat 2.4g | 12% |
| Cholesterol 9mg | 3% |
| Sodium 535mg | 23% |
| Total Carbohydrate 44.9g | 16% |
| Dietary Fiber 12.7g | 45% |
| Total Sugars 9.1g | |
| Protein 13.5g | |
| Vitamin D 0mcg | 0% |
| Calcium 82mg | 6% |
| Iron 4mg | 25% |
| Potassium 698mg | 15% |
| *The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calorie a day is used for general nutrition advice. | |
Hema Puri says
Made Chole with your recipe and they turned out so delicious! Big hit with family. Thanks.
Deepti says
I am so glad to know this, Hema. Keep following for more such recipes. Thanks.
Gauri Shankar says
Needed a perfect recipe for chana masala and this one is just like the chole bhature of the market. love it. Thanks!
Deepti says
So glad to know this, Gauri! Thanks for sharing!!