How to make chole masala

It is one of the famous and popular recipes in North India. So How to make chole masala? In this recipe, chickpeas or chole are cooked with onions, tomatoes and many spices or chole masala. You can prepare chole masala powder at home also by dry roasting ingredients like cumin, , coriander, cinnamon, pepper corn, cardamom etc and then make a fine powder.

Ingredients of chole masala

To boil the chickpeas

2 cups tablespoons raw chickpeas

Green cardamom pods-04

Black peppercorn-5

Cinnamon sticks-01

Bay leaves

1 tea bags (here I choose a small clothe and tied all the whole spices with 2 tspoon tea leaves)

Salt to taste

Water

For the chole

• ·         Cooking oil -3 tspoon
• ·         Onion paste (from 2 onions)
• ·         Tomato paste(from 4 tomatoes)
• ·         Ginger-garlic paste: 2 teaspoon
• ·         Chole Masala:     3 teaspoon(dry roast 1 tbsp Coriander Seeds,1/2 tbsp Cumin Seeds,1tbsp ,1/4   tsp Fenugreek Seeds,2 Dry Red Chillies,4Cloves,5-6 Black peppercorn,1 Black Cardamom,1/2 inch Cinnamon then make a fine powder)
• ·         Cumin powder: 3/4 teaspoon
•        turmeric powder(optional,I prefer to use it)
• ·         Paprika powder: 1/2 teaspoon
•       curry leaves for tempering(optional)
• ·         Red chili powder: 1/2 teaspoon or to taste
• ·         Salt: to taste

 How to make chole masala

• ·         Soak the chickpeas overnight.
• ·         In a pressure cooker add the soaked and drained chickpeas, take a piece of cloth and tie all the whole spices and 2 tea spoon tea leaves (to make the color dark).
• 
• ·         In a pan, heat 1 tablespoon of oil. Once hot, add cloves and onion paste. Fry the onions till the raw smell goes off.
• ·         Add ginger-garlic paste and cook till the smell goes away.
• ·         Now add the tomato paste, stir and let it cook for 10 minutes on medium-low flame.
• ·         Add all the spices i.e. chole masala, red chilli powder, paprika powder, cumin powder, salt and mix for a 1-2 minutes.
• 
• ·         Next add the chickpeas and stir well, for 2 minutes.
• ·         Add water (boiled dark chickpeas water), cover the lid and allow cooking for another 15 minutes.
• ·         Open the lid and add kasuri methi and mix well.
• ·         Heat ghee for tempering in a pan.
• ·         Add hing, green chilli and ginger and fry for a few seconds.
• ·         Pour the tempering over the chole and mix well.
• ·         Serve hot with bhature or roti .