Chole is a spiced chickpea dish that is ubiquitous in India. They say there are as many chole recipes as there are North-Indian families. I’m not North Indian and I’ve been searching for a good chole recipe for a long time.
This variation of a recipe by “your food lab”- the Tasty videos of India (link below) comes very close to what I think are perfect chole. A trip to the Indian store for the spices is essential. I had to buy the Chana masala (I got the MDH brand).
Pressure cook- on high for 30 min
1 cup chickpeas soaked for 24 hours- drained
In a tea ball or cheesecloth - 1 tsp peppercorns, 3-4 cloves, 1-2 Black cardamon pods, 2 bay leaves, 1 inch cinnamon
4 cloves garlic - crushed
1 tsp ajwain (carom seeds)
Add 3 tbsp of Chana masala and 2 tbsp of cumin-coriander powder
Add 1 can of tomatoes - puréed
Add pressure cooked chickpeas with their water (removing the tea bags and the spice bouquet)
Stir in 1 tsp of amchur powder (dried mango powder) and 1 tsp of garam masala and 1 tbsp of kasuri methi (crushed fenugreek)
Salt to taste - this recipe needs a lot of salt
Garnish: raw onions, chopped preserved lemon, slivers of garlic
Serve with roti or naan or rice or griddled multigrain pizza dough (store bought) which tastes a lot like naan except its whole grain.
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