Indian Chole (Chickpeas Curry)

Chickpeas or Garbanzo beans in a spicy onion tomato gravy.

Ingredients:
Dry Chickpeas/Garbanzo Beans/Kabuli Chana - 1 cup
Cloves/Lavang/Long - 4
Cinnamon/Dalchini - small piece
Bay Leaf - 1
Cilantro/Coriander leaves - few sprigs
Red chilli powder/Cayenne pepper - 1 tsp
Oil - 2 tbsp
Salt

Onions - 3 medium
Tomatoes - 2 medium
Green Chilies - 4
Garlic - 4 big cloves
Ginger - 1/2 inch piece
Coriander Seeds - 2 tsp
Cumin/Jeera Seeds - 1 tsp

How to cook Indian Chole:

Soak chickpeas in water for about 6 hours. Wash and cook soaked chickpeas in 2 - 3 cups water till soft.
Roughly dice onions and tomatoes. Grind onions, tomatoes, green chilies, ginger, garlic, coriander seeds, cumin seeds, 1 tbsp cooked chickpeas to a fine paste.
Heat about 2 tbsp oil in a pan/skillet. Add bay leaf, cloves and cinnamon. After a couple of minutes, add the ground paste. Stir fry the paste for about 10 minutes or till oil starts leaving.
Add cooked chickpeas, red chili powder, and salt. Cook it covered for 10 - 15 minutes at low flame. Continue cooking until you get the desired consistency. Turn off the heat and add chopped cilantro leaves.

Serve Chole with roti/chapati or steamed rice.

Indian Dal / Lentils

Lentils, known as Dal are a staple in an Indian diet, especially vegetarian. For me, dal is comfort food. 5 different dal varieties - Toor, Moong, Chana, Masoor and Urad are commonly used in Indian sweet and savory delicacies. You can cook dal with just one kind or a mix of two or more. I generally cook dal with 1:1 Toor and Moong dals. But then, we like Panchmel or Panchratna Dal too, which is made of all five. Most dal recipes have Toor dal as the primary ingredient. It is also known as Toovar or Arhar dal or Split Pigeon Peas . Some of our family favorite dal recipes are Dalitoy (Konkani Dal) Tadka Dal Among all lentils, moong dal and masoor dal take lesser time to cook. Moong dal is also known as Split Green Gram or Split Mung Bean . Moong dal is also used in making sweet dishes like Mung Dal Kheer Mung Dal Puranpoli Chana dal is also known as Split Bengal Gram or Split Chickpeas . Chana Dal takes a little more time to cook as compared to toor dal....

Naval Kol Bhaji / Kohlrabi Stir-fry

Green Kohlrabi called as Navalkol in Marathi and Navilkosu in Kannada, belongs to the cabbage family. My Mom used to make this stir fry very often. Just like cabbage, this vegetable in available in two colors - green and purple. I was quite hesitant about the purple one, as I haven't seen that back in India. Anyway, I picked the green bulbs and Navalkohl Bhaji with Chana Dal was part of our healthy vegetarian meal today.

Surti Val Papdi Bhaji

My Mom used to make Val Papdi Bhaji in a simple way with few ingredients. This is the first time I gave it a try here in my US kitchen. This stir fry does require little more oil, as no water is added for cooking. Dal Rice tastes great with this sauteed Papdi. I tried this Bhaji once with frozen Surti Papdi and I was not happy with the result. I prefer fresh Papdi for this recipe, which I can only find in the local Indian store. I am not sure if Val Papdi is called as Navy Bean or Fava Bean in English.

One Day At A Time!

Search This Blog