Pindi Chole Recipe – An Authentic Punjabi Recipe
Pindi Chole Recipe, there was a time when I used to get worried with the thought of cooking Chole, or rather, to be honest, any North Indian gravy style vegetables / curries - thinking it is way too complex process and one needs a lot of time to cook these recipes. However, my interest and love for cooking kept me to experiment further and I kept trying most of the North Indian cuisines.
We used to go to restaurants to have North Indian food to satisfy our cravings and never tried to cook North Indian cuisine at home. However, these days I have the restaurant door always open for me and that’s my kitchen and I don’t have to find any occasion to head to that restaurant. The more I explored recipes, the more I cut down my visits to the restaurants.
Soon enough I realized, it’s not that complicated as someone may think. Only thing is that the process is quite lengthy as there are wait times involved because we have to soak chana / chole overnight or at least for 6 to 8 hours.
Punjabi Pindi Chole Recipe (or Chana Masala Recipe) is traditionaly cooked on clay stove or clay oven (also known as chulha in hindi). This recipe tastes awesome when cooked on chulha but as we don’t have clay stove (chulha) at home we have to compromise a bit on taste and use modern induction / gas stoves. But anyways, with right technique and patience our home made Chole recipe can also turn out really well and tasty. And important is that this chole recipe is Vegan friendly recipe.
Back to the point why we are here, let's concentrate on Pindi Chole recipe for now. Here is the step by step guide about how to cook Pindi Chole recipe at home. This mouth watering, restaurant style pindi chole masala recipe cooked at home will definitely get you some good compliments from your family 😀.
Here you can check one more interesting recipe which I prepared from leftover pindi chole, I call as Leftover Chole Paratha or Leftover Pindi Chole Paratha.
To check many more such tasty food recipes, you may also visit FoodQuench’s YouTube Channel.
- 150 grams Chickpeas (Kabuli Chana)
- 2 cups Water (for boiling chana and for adjusting gravy consistency, use more water if required)
- 5 Clove
- 5 Black Pepper
- 3 Bay Leaves
- 1/4 tablespoon Tea Powder
- 1/2 tablespoon Salt
- 1 Onion (large sized)
- 2 Tomato (medium sized)
- 1/2 inch Ginger
- 2 cloves of Garlic
- 1/4 tablespoon Turmeric Powder
- 1/4 tablespoon Coriander Powder
- 1/4 tablespoon Cumin Powder
- 1/4 tablespoon Garam Masala
- 1/4 tablespoon Red Chilli Powder
- 1/4 tablespoon Kashmiri Red Chilli Powder
- 1 tablespoon Oil
- 1/2 tablespoon Coriander
- 1 tablespoon Oil
- 1/2 tablespoon Cumin Seeds
- 1/4 tablespoon Turmeric Powder
Soak chole (chana / chickpeas) overnight or for at least 6 to 8 hours in enough water.
Soaking Chole/Chana for enough time is very important. If you soak for couple of hours then chole wouldn’t turn very good and you may need to pressure cook for longer time.Wash chana (Chickpeas) well and Drain off excess water.
Now transfer chana to the pressure cooker and water.
Add tea powder to small piece of muslin cloth and tie it very tightly so tea powder do not get mixed in the chana.
I have used tea powder and tied it inside muslin cloth. If you find it to be difficult you may use tea bags instead. Adding tea powder is very important to give a dark colour to Chana.
Now add bay leaves, cloves, black pepper and ¼ tablespoon salt to chana.
I have just used ¼ tablespoon salt while pressure cooking chana and remaining ¼ tablespoon salt we will use while preparing gravy. Adding salt while pressure cooking helps to make chana soft. However, recipes vary person to person and some people use baking soda. But, adding salt also helps to soften chana so we can avoid using baking soda.Pressure cook chana for 4 to 5 whistles by adding enough water on medium heat.
Once pressure cooker has cooled down completely, make sure chana has been cooked properly and has turned soft.
Press chana and check if it has softened.
Now transfer cooked chana with remaining water to a bowl or container, if you may want to cook in the same pressure cooker the way I have done.
You may keep cooked chana as it is in pressure cooker and use other kadhai / pan to cook Pindi Chole. I was very lazy today so I just cooked it in the same pressure cooker.
Now heat cooker or kadhai. Add ½ tablespoon of oil to kadhai / Cooker once oil is hot, then add chopped ginger, garlic and onion to the Kadhai / Cooker and cook for 2 to 3 minutes on medium heat until it softens.
We have used only a part of oil in this step. We will be using remaining oil at later stage.
Once ginger, garlic and onion turns soft, add chopped tomatoes and cook for another 2 to 3 minutes
You may see that there are no seeds in chopped tomatoes. Reason for removing seeds from tomato is that it softens gravy compared to when we grind tomatoes with seeds. That is my observation and my preferred way of using tomatoes. You may use tomatoes with seeds as it is.
Once tomato, onions are cooked, allow it to cool down completely and grind by adding 2 to 3 tablespoon of water to form a smooth puree.
Now add another ½ tablespoon oil to the kadhai and once oil is heated, add all the spices -turmeric powder, garam masala, coriander powder, cumin powder, red chilli powder, Kashmiri red chilli powder and saute for a minute so it turns automatic and enhances taste of our Pindi Chole Recipe.
1. Kashmiri red chilli powder is used to give nice dark colour to the gravy but you may skip it if you do not have that at home. 2. You may also use Cinnamon stick or powder as well while adding the spices. I didn’t use it because I did not have that in my kitchen at the time.
At this stage add tomato, onion puree to the spices mix well and cook for 2 to 3 minutes.
Now add cooked chana, remaining ¼ tablespoon of salt (or as per taste), some water to adjust consistency and mix well. Simmer chana gravy for 15 to 20 minutes on medium flame.
Stir occasionally to make sure chana masala doesn’t stick to the bottom of kadhai.
After around 15 minutes your Pindi Chole recipe will be ready.
And at last, for tempering (tadka), heat remaining 1 tablespoon oil in small kadhai or tadka pan, add jeera, ¼ tablespoon turmeric powder and turn off the flame.
I just missed to click pictures for this process.
Before serving, add finely chopped coriander to the gravy and mix well. And then pour tempering (tadka) on Pindi Chole and serve this medium spicy Punjabi Pindi Chole with Bhature, Naan or Tandoori Roti etc.
If you like it more spicy then you may choose to add more red chilli powder while preparing tadka. However, mentioned quantity of red chilli powder is moderate and sufficient.