{"id":1358,"date":"2026-01-28T22:02:53","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T21:02:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.notnick.com\/cookbook\/?p=1358"},"modified":"2026-01-29T10:27:52","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T09:27:52","slug":"chickpea-chole-indian-chole-masala","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.notnick.com\/cookbook\/chickpea-chole-indian-chole-masala\/","title":{"rendered":"Chickpea Chole (Indian Chole Masala)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>One of the best smple veggie curries going &#8211; but all about the spices. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>2 cups of dried chickpeas. Soak overnight- will give you about 4 cups of raw soaked chickpeas. &#8211; drain and wash)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>for the long pressure cook &#8211; about 20 minutes <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>the 2 cups of  chickpeas (soaked to 4 cups)<br>5 cups of water<br>2 bay leaves<br>10-ish black peppercorns<br>5-ish Green cardamom pods &#8211; cracked<br>a cinnamon stick (4cm?)<br>1 tsp salt<br>2 teabags &#8211; regular breakfast tea or similar<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The chickpeas should be cooked and but not mushy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In another pan, fry <br>1 medium fine diced onion. Once softened, add 1 tsp grated ginger (a thumb knuckle worth!) 2-3 cloves and 2 cloves of crushed garlic. Soften up but dont let it brown. Add the a can of chopped tomatoes or pasatta and cook off on a slow simmer for 10 mins, until they&#8217;re cooked and falling apart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Then, add spices &#8211;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>3 teaspoons chole masala powder (below)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>1\/2 teaspoon red chili powder <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>1\/2 teaspoon paprika<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>1 teaspoon cumin powder<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>1\/2 teaspoon salt<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Stir and cook the spices for 1 to 2 minutes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Add the cooked chickpeas (along with the water in which they were boiled) and stir until the chickpeas are combined with the rest of the sauce. Add an extra 1\/2 cup water and let it simmer for about 30 minutes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The sauce will thicken after 30 minutes &#8211; add a bit of water if needed. You can also mash some of the chickpeas back into the sauce for a creamier sauce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>14- After 30 minutes the gravy, chickpeas and all the spices would have mixed well together. We can now do the tempering. Heat 1 tablespoon of ghee in a small pan. Once hot, add ginger juliennes (from 1-inch ginger) to it. Fry until the juliennes are golden brown in color but do not burn them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>15- Add to the chole curry, mix and switch off the flame.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Finish with 1\/4 teaspoon garam masala, 1\/2 tablespoon dried fenugreek leaves and 2 tablespoons chopped corriander.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-homemade-chole-masala-powder-chana-masala-powder\">Homemade Chole Masala Powder\/Chana Masala Powder<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>This Punjabi chole recipe uses a special blend of spices known as chole masala or chana masala. Make a batch, and use as you need it:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>2\u20134 <strong>black cardamom pods<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>10\u201312 <strong>black peppercorns<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>2\u20133 <strong>green cardamom pods<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>2 <strong>mace blades<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>1\u2033 <strong>cinnamon stick<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\u00bd <strong>nutmeg<\/strong> (or a small pinch grated)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>1 <strong>star anise<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>2\u20134 <strong>cloves<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\u00bd tsp <strong>fenugreek seeds<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>1 tbsp <strong>coriander seeds<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\u00bd tsp <strong>cumin seeds<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>8\u201310 <strong>dried red chilies<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\u00bd tsp <strong>carom seeds (ajwain)<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>2 tbsp <strong>dried pomegranate seeds<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Pinch of <strong>asafoetida (hing)<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\u00bd tsp <strong>Deggi red chili powder<\/strong> <em>(optional for colour and heat)<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Dry roast all the whole spices (except ginger powder) in a pan on medium heat until the spices are fragrant and become light golden in color, around 5 minutes. Remove from the pan and let the spices cool down. Then transfer the toasted spices to a spice grinder and also add the ground ginger. Grind until the spices are powdered and well combined. Store this masala in an airtight container and use as needed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of the best smple veggie curries going &#8211; but all about the spices. 2 cups of dried chickpeas. Soak overnight- will give you about &hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1424,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1358","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-main-courses"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.notnick.com\/cookbook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1358","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.notnick.com\/cookbook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.notnick.com\/cookbook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.notnick.com\/cookbook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.notnick.com\/cookbook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1358"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.notnick.com\/cookbook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1358\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1462,"href":"https:\/\/www.notnick.com\/cookbook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1358\/revisions\/1462"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.notnick.com\/cookbook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.notnick.com\/cookbook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.notnick.com\/cookbook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.notnick.com\/cookbook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}