Chana Masala Recipe - Ingredients
Prep Time: 10 mins | Cook time: 20 mins | Serves: 2
Chana - 3/4 cup
Big Onion - 1 small sized chopped finely
Red Chilli Powder - 1.5 tsp
Coriander powder - 3/4 tsp
Garam masala (or) Chana Masala powder - 1 tsp
Coriander leaves - just to garnish
Lemon juice - from half a lemon
Water - 2.5 cups in total
Salt - to taste
To saute and grind:
Oil - 2 tspTomatoes - 3 medium sized chopped roughly
Big Onion - 1 medium sized chopped roughly
Ginger - 1 inch piece
Garlic - 6 cloves
Fennel Seeds - 1 tsp
Pepper - 1/2 tsp
To temper:
Oil - 1.5 tbspCinnamon - 1/2 inch piece
Cloves - 2
Bayleaf - 1/2
Method:
- Soak chana overnight or atleast for 8 hours.Pressure cook chana with enough water(say 1.5 cups) for 5 whistles or until soft,Set aside.In a pan heat oil - add onion, tomato, ginger, garlic and saute till mushy and raw smell of tomatoes leaves. Allow it to cool, then add fennel seeds and pepper corns along with this in a mixer.
- Grind it to a fine paste.Set aside. In a pressure cooker heat oil - add the items under 'to temper' then add onions and fry till golden brown.Then add the tomato onion paste.
- Add the spice powders, mix well.Once the raw smell of masalas leave add chana along with the cooked water to this mixture and pressure cook for 1 whistle in medium flame.Add required salt.
- Once done, open and add more water if the gravy is too thick - I added remaining 1 cup water and allowed it to boil in sim for 5mins.Once oil seperates and desired consistency is reached, Garnish with coriander leaves,lemon juice and switch off.
My Notes:
- Adjust water according to the consistency you want the gravy to be.
- Pressure cook chana until soft as in the last stage we are going to cook for just 1 whistle. This way I find the masalas blend very well with chana.
- I dont usually add chana masala powder, always use homemade garam masala powder instead.
- Adding pepper is purely optional, if you dont like the flavour then just skip it.
