Chana aloo or Chickpeas potato curry is rustic and delicious Indian dish which is made with chickpeas and potato. This also known Chole Aloo curry. Infused with aromatic and warming rich Indian spices, and big on flavours chana Aloo masala recipe is perfect weeknight dinner. This is totally Vegan and gluten-free recipe.
Chana aloo curry is an incredibly easy recipe to make in terms of actual cooking time. It hardly takes 20 minutes to cook but it requires pre-planning. You need to soak chickpeas for making curry at least 6-7 hours or overnight. Or if you are a slow cooker fan, you need 9-10 hrs for it. I sometimes make this delicious Chana aloo in my slow cooker, but mostly during winters. This slow cooker Chana masala recipe is one of the most popular recipes from my website. If you are chickpeas fan there are two more chana masala recipe variations here. Pindi Chana Masala or Pindi Chole and Pressure Cooker/Instant pot Chana Masala Recipe.
Speaking of the slow cooker, I don’t have those fancy ones which are popular these days. I have this old crockpot which a friend got me from the US when slow cooker in India wasn’t heard of much. Though I have got a new one recently which has more controls but haven’t really started using it because I feel sometimes you are stuck with the comfort of old and familiar so until the time I decide to stay with the comfort of the old one I would continue using this one 🙂
I am a sucker for old in certain ways, old family traditions, some of the age-old kitchen practices that my Mom and grandmothers used to follow, making my own spice powders, ghee or slow cooking at certain times of the year, using pure and organic ingredients, I love it all. That's the reason I make my own masala blends. In this recipe too I used my homemade Chana Masala powder which I make with organic ingredients.
Now, when I am talking about organic Ingredients, many of you who have followed this blog from the start to know I used to have a huge kitchen garden. A garden, that was enough to supply me all the veggies for our own use. That was when my husband was serving in Airforce and He was posted to remote stations we had huge backyards for kitchen gardens. But now after settling down in Delhi I only can afford a small herb garden. I still miss the fresh and organic produce that we used to have.
But Thank God for the organic groceries, and 24 Mantra organic covers me on that front. I have been a loyal customer of 24 Mantra Organic for the past 3 years and now a collaborator as a part of the Organic Mantras Initiative. How awesome is that? when you are working with a brand who is completely in sync with your own thoughts and beliefs. And now together we are making recipes for an organic life.
Easily available with all main online grocery deliveries, has a great network of stores, the switch to organic food is much easier than before. For this recipe, I have used 24 Mantra Organic Kabuli Chana as the main Ingredient, spices from 24 Mantra Organic for perfect organic seasoning and most importantly the organic peanut oil for cooking.
Kabuli chana or chickpeas are a great source of healthy proteins for vegetarians and vegans. These are so versatile in cooking different types of delicious dishes. If you love chickpeas and want to use it in a variety of ways I have a good variety of Chickpeas Recipes. And there are many evergreen chickpeas curries, which you can try, Multani Chole, Amritsari chole, Kala Chana curry, No onion no garlic Pindi Chana other than Kala chana pulao which is One dish meal.
If you have seen my recent posts, you already know about my #MTCchaiNashta series from My Breakfast Table where I am sharing traditional Indian recipes which feature two main components my favourite of Indian meals sham ka chai nashta (evening tea and snacks) and Subah ka Nashta (Breakfast). So this chana Aloo/Chole Aloo is from Subah ka Nashta (Morning breakfast).
For making Chana Aloo, Chole or chickpeas are cooked with simple but aromatic spices in onion and tomato gravy. Believe me they taste heavenly when scooped up with either Poori or Paratha or as a Chole curry with Chole Bhature if you are feeling indulgent. I often serve them with steamed rice and fried green chilli for a comfort meal bowl Or good old chole Kulcha. You can also serve this Aloo chana with Delhi style Aloo Tikki as Aloo Tikki Chole Chaat.
It all depends on your mood, I made this chole Aloo masala in a Pressure cooker. But, if you want to go with slow cooker Chana masala Curry recipe you can cook it as mentioned in that recipe but with ingredients from this recipe. Similarly, you can make this Aloo chana in the Instant pot as well. This recipe of Chole Aloo is inspired from Caribbean Chana Aloo Curry but spice profile is slightly different and in the Carribean chana aloo recipe, tomatoes are not used.
So go ahead and enjoy this healthy feast of Chickpeas and potato curry or chana Aloo with bread or rice of your choice.
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📖 Recipe
Chana Aloo Masala | Chickpeas and Potato Curry Recipe
Ingredients
- 300 grams Chickpeas/chana soaked overnight
- 150 grams Potato/aloo
- 1 teabag
- 200 grams potato cubed
- 150 grams onion ground to paste
- 300 grams Tomatoes blended to puree
- 1 tablespoon cumin powder
- 1 teaspoon coriander powder
- 1 teaspoon garam masala powder
- 1 teaspoon amchoor powder
- 1 teaspoon anardana powder
- 1 tablespoon tamarind paste
- Nutmeg powder 1 pinch
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 black cardamom
- 1 Star anise
- salt to taste
- 1 teaspoon Red chilli powder
- 1 tablespoon peanut oil
- 1 tablespoon ghee
- 3-4 green chilli
Instructions
- In a pressure cooker cook the chickpeas or chana in 600ml of water, salt and teabag, cook it for 4 whistles or 20 minutes.
- Switch off the heat and let the steam escape by itself and then release the pressure valve before opening the pressure cooker.
- When chickpeas are cooking in pressure cooker, you can make a tadka for adding to the chana aloo masala.
- Heat a frying pan, add 1 tablespoon of peanut oil to the pan, add onion paste along with bay leaf and black cardamom. Fry the paste till it is light brown in colour.
- Add rest of the spice powders and fry them with onion paste for ½ minute on slow heat.
- Add tomatoes and tamarind paste and cook everything together for about 6-7 minutes on medium heat, continue stirring in between to prevent the masala from burning.
- Cook the masala till it starts to leave the sides of the pan and then switch off the heat and transfer the tadka to the pressure cooker in which chickpeas were cooked.
- Add cubed Potatoes or Aloo
- Put the pressure cooker lid back on and pressure cook the chana aloo for 10 minutes.
- Open the lid and in the side take another small tadka pan heat the ghee and immediately add green chilli, switch off the heat and probably cover this pan otherwise sometimes green chilli upon heating tends to split.
- Pour this ghee chilli mixture after opening the lid of pressure cooker.
- Serve this delicious, hearty chickpeas and potato curry with whole wheat kulcha or steamed Basmati rice.
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