Chickpea Masala without the readymade powder!
This Chickpea Masala or Chole Masala is so delicious and very easy to make. Most recipes I have seen use a readymade masala mix called ‘Chole masala powder’.
I have tried it with my own mix of spice powders, I am very happy with the way it turned out. My kids love chickpeas and I use chickpeas in my cooking at least once a week.
What are the ingredients for Chickpea Masala?
Chickpeas – canned chickpeas or you can soak dry chickpeas and pressure cook them, I soaked the dry chickpeas overnight, in the morning, I pressure cooked them in my Instant Pot for 8 minutes.
Onion – one onion chopped
Tomatoes – Purée tomatoes in a blender
Ginger garlic paste
Lime juice – juice of half a lime
Cilantro for garnish
Spice powders:
Turmeric
Coriander
Cumin
Chaat masala powder – this gives it a tangy taste! It can be found in any Indian grocery store. Or the link will take you to Amazon where it is available online.
Salt
Oil for cooking
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How do you make this Chickpea Masala?
Keep all your ingredients ready.
Heat a pan on medium heat. Add oil, when the oil is hot, put in onions and fry well till translucent.
Add ginger-garlic paste. Fry for about 5 minutes.
Add tomato purée and all the spice powders.
Mix well, cover, and cook.
After about 10 minutes you can see the oil floating on top.
Add chickpeas and about 1/2 cup water.
Mix and cook for about 5 minutes.
Switch off the stove, add lime juice and cilantro to garnish.
I served this Chickpea Masala with this Instant Pot Peas Rice and this 2 ingredients Naan. It tasted really delicious!
Chickpea Masala
Ingredients
- 2 cups Cooked Chickpeas
- 1 Onion (chopped)
- 2 Tomatoes (pureed) ( I used Roma tomatoes)
- ½ tsp Ginger garlic paste
- ½ Lime (juiced)
- Cilantro for garnish
- 2 tbsp Oil
- Salt to taste
Spice powders
- ½ tsp Turmeric powder
- 1 tsp Kashmiri Chili powder
- 1 tsp Coriander powder
- ½ tsp Cumin powder
- ½ tsp Chaat masala powder
- ½ tsp Garam masala powder
Instructions
- Heat a pan on medium heat. Add oil, when the oil is hot, add onions. Fry till translucent.
- Add ginger-garlic paste, fry for about 4 to 5 minutes, stirring occasionally so it does not burn.
- Add pureed tomatoes and all the spice powders along with salt.
- Mix well, cover, and cook.
- After 10 minutes, you can see the oil floating on top.
- Add chickpeas and about half a cup of water.
- Mix and cook for about 5 minutes.
- Switch off your stove, add lime juice and chopped cilantro.
- Your chickpea masala is ready!
Notes:
- You can cook the chickpeas ahead and keep them in the fridge or freezer! It is a time saver and you save money too by cooking your own chickpeas.
- This can be made in the Instant Pot as well. Press the saute function and follow the recipe, when adding the chickpeas, you can add the soaked chickpeas, so basically you are cooking the chickpeas along with the masala. This is a time saver for sure! Pressure cook for 10 to 12 minutes. If you are using canned chickpeas just pressure cook for 4 or 5 minutes. Once done, open the Instant Pot, add the lime juice and cilantro to garnish.
- When you add water along with the chickpeas you can add more if you want extra gravy.
- If you like it spicy increase the amount of chili powder.
- Chaat masala powder gives it a tangy taste, I recommend using it. A substitute for it could be Amchur Powder which is Raw Mango Powder.
Hope you will try this recipe out. It is delicious, you can eat it with rice, bread, paratha, or naan.
Please rate this recipe and leave me a comment down below. I would love to hear from you!
You might also like to check out my other Vegetarian recipes:
Mixed Vegetable and Paneer Curry
Potatoes and Dill Indian Style
Easy and Tasty Chickpea Burgers
Have a wonderful day and thank you for visiting my blog!
Photo by Manasvita S on Unsplash
