Pindi Chana
Pindi Chana, also known as pindi chole is a tea flavored, punjabi chole dish made with boiled chickpeas, ginger and tons of hot & tangy spices. No onion No garlic recipe!
Ingredients
For Boiling Chickpeas
- 1.25 cup (~250g) dried white chickpeas (kabuli chana)or use canned chickpeas
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 small black cardamom
- 1 black tea bag unflavored
- 2 cloves
- ½ inch cinnamon stick
- 4 green cardamom
- ⅛ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon oil
- 3 cup water for pressure cooking the chickpeas
For The Masala
- 3-4 tablespoon mustard oil or any cooking oil
- 2-3 teaspoon chole masala powder adjust quantity depending on potency of your chole masala
- 1 teaspoon roasted cumin powder
- 1 teaspoon red chilli powder (medium hot), I use degi mirch, adjust to taste
- 1 teaspoon salt adjust to taste
- ½ teaspoon unsweetened tamarind paste adjust to taste
Grind to a coarse powder
- 4 teaspoon black peppercorns
- 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
- 1 inch ginger roughly chopped
- 3-4 green chillies (super hot), adjust to taste
Tempering
- 1 tablespoon ghee
- 2 green chillies slit, adjust to taste
- 10-12 ginger julinnes
- ½ teaspoon cumin seeds
Instructions
BOIL THE CHICKPEAS
- Add dried raw chickpeas to a large bowl, wash 1-2 times under running water to get rid of any dirt on them. Then, cover in excess water. Soak chickpeas for 8-12 hours (overnight). They will grow in size after soaking. .
- Next morning, drain the water and place soaked chickpeas in a pressure cooker. You could also use instant pot for boiling the chickpeas.
- Add whole spices - bay leaf, black and green cardamom, cinnamon stick and cloves. Also add the tea bag (snip & discard the paper tag if any on the tea bag), black salt (kala namak), salt and oil. I also like to add about ? teaspoon baking soda while boiling the chickpeas but it is optional. If you have loose black tea at home, tie tea leaves in a muslin cloth along with whole spices and then use.
- Next, add water and close the lid of the pressure cooker. Pressure cook for 4-5 whistles (about 6-8 minutes) and once pressure releases, check that chickpeas are soft but not mushy. They should hold shape but should be easily mashable between your fingers. Please adjust time of pressure cooking as needed. At the end of pressure cooking, there will be chickpea stock in the pressure cooker, reserve it since we are going to use it up while cooking. Pick the tea bag using tongs and discard.
- While the chickpeas are still warm, take out about ¼ cup in a bowl and using back of spoon, mash into a paste. Since we are not using onions or coriander powder in this recipe, this chickpea mash will help us achieve a thick consistency. Set aside. (Please refer to images in post to have a better idea)
MAKE PINDI CHOLE
- While the chickpeas are boiling, add ginger, green chilies, black peppercorns and cumin seeds to a mortar pestle, pound and make a coarse paste.
- In a cast iron kadai or cooking pot, warm up the mustard oil.
- On low heat, add the ginger cumin paste to the hot oil. Fry for 10-12 seconds.
- Add the boiled chickpeas along with stock to the pot. Sprinkle chole masala powder, roasted cumin powder,red chili powder and salt. Also add the mashed chickpeas. Mix everything very well. Now for the next 10-12 minutes we are going to slow simmer the chana.
- While the chana is slow cooking, make a quick tempering on the other stove. Warm up ghee in a small pan and temper with cumin seeds, sliced green chilies and ginger julinnes.
- Add the tempering to pindi chana along with tamarind paste. Mix well and immediately transfer pindi chana to a non-reactive bowl made with glass, ceramic or stainless steel.
- While serving, add chopped raw onions, cilantro and green chilies on top of pindi chana. Pindi Chans is best served with indian flatbreads such as poori, bhatura, naan or paratha.
HOW TO USE CANNED CHICKPEAS
- Drain the canned chickpeas using a sieve and rinse 1-2 times.
- Steep 1 tea bag in 1 - 1.5 cup water for 5 minutes. Or you can brew loose black tea leaves in a small saucepan. Strain once brewed.
- Once you heat up the oil, temper with the whole spices that we added while boiling the chickpeas and fry for few seconds to infuse the flavors.
- Add the tea that we brewed earlier while the chickpeas are simmering.
Notes
- Please keep in mind that the heat levels (& sometimes salt level too) in every store bought chole masala powder is different, so please adjust the quanity of salt, green chilies & red chilli powder as per your taste when you make this recipe.
- You could also add a bit of garam masala and little kasoori methi as finishing flavors to pindi chole.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!