I love chickpea! I like it is protein rich and has a lovely nutty flavour. I usually cook chickpea curry once a week. In India, one kind of chickpea curry is called Kadai Chhole . Kadai means ‘wok’, and Chhole is chickpea; together it means ‘cook chickpeas in a wok’.
It’s simple to make — all in one pot, but I cooked the chickpeas in a pressure cooker and use a pan for the rest of the steps in order to shorten the cooking time.
Curry Boy was quite pleased with my first-time Kadai Chhole as ‘it’s delicious and very Indian.’ He also mentioned that authentic one will have more spices and chillies, and fresh sliced onion will be added on top.
This dish is a dry curry, ideally served with flatbread. In my case, I served it with basmati rice, and it wasn’t too dry. Add more broth or coconut milk if you want it to be saucy. Remember to add more spices and seasoning accordingly.
Ref. recipe：veganricha
Indian Chickpea Curry (Kadai Chhole) Recipe
Originally, Indian chickpea curry is fairly spicy, but I left out chilli in this recipe to make it amicable to everyone.
Ingredients
Serves 3-4
- 200 g dried chickpea, soaked overnight
- 3 portions frozen spinach (fresh one works too)
- 1 medium potato, cut into cubes
- * ¼ onion
- * 5 cloves garlic
- * thumb-sized ginger (approx. 1 tbsp)
- * ½ tsp cumin powder
- * 2 tsp coriander powder
- * ¼ tsp turmeric powder
- * 1 tsp paprika powder
- 1 medium ripe tomato
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 tsp garam masala
- oil
- ½ tsp salt
- black pepper
- 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
How to Make
- Pressure cook the chickpeas in salted water with high pressure for about 10 mins, then release pressure naturally. Save the tasty chickpea broth for later use.
- Whiz all the * ingredients in a blender until paste-like. Then also blend the tomato into puree.
- Warm 2 tbsp of oil in a pan over medium heat, fry the bay leaves for a minute, then add step 2 *mixture to cook for a couple of minutes, until very fragrant. Stir in the tomato puree and cook for a further few minutes, until the tomatoes look dry.
- Add the chickpeas, potatoes, spinach, salt, garam masala to the pan. Pour in 400 ml chickpea broth as well. Cover with a lid and cook for 10 minutes. Stirring every now and then. Add more broth if it’s too dry.
- Have a taste and adjust. Freshly squeeze in lemon juice and crack some black pepper on top. Serve with basmati rice and crispy papadom.
