Chana masala has to be most popular dish at Indian restaurants. Chickpeas cooked in a hearty and spicy tomato masala are perfect to serve with Naan, rice or any other flatbread. You can make this easy homemade chana masala with ingredients from your pantry easily.
Chana masala, chole masala, channay, chholay – there are so many names and versions for this one a simple Indian dish. Even i have posted many versions of Chana Masala recipes that taste quite different from each other.
I have already shared many versions of chana masala recipes. You can check them and try your favorite chana masala type.
This quick and easy spicy, hearty, Indian dish with chickpeas is vegan and gluten-free. You can make chana masala on stovetop, Instant pot or slow cooker. It makes great leftovers and is perfectly freezable so you can make a large pot and enjoy it several times.
The quantity of ingredients which I have used yields 6-8 servings.
Ingredients for Chana Masala
- Dried Chickpeas or canned chickpeas ( details of using each in recipe notes below)
- Oil/ghee
- Salt, basic spices like turmeric, red chilli powder, coriander, cumin chana masala/garam masala
- Onions and tomatoes
To Make this Chana masala you will need onion, ginger garlic paste (optional) or ginger. Main Spices that are required are coriander, cumin, and garam masala. Most of these spices are easily available online or your nearest Indian grocery store.
To make Authentic chana masala in the easy way they you can follow this recipe. In that recipe chana masala is made using whole spices, but this one makes use of ground spices or spice powders.
To Make garam Masala at home here is a shortcut. However let me tell you that it is not traditional authentic garam masala which I make using whole spices. But as a substitution or when you are in a pinch it works great too.
Indian curry are inherently spicy but if you feel the heat is too much you can skip green chillies in tempering of the Chana Masala. Or, you can use Serrano peppers or jalapeño if you like the taste better.
How to Make Chana Masala Spice Mix
If you do not have chana masala, you can use this garam masala or hot spice mix. Take ½ teaspoon cumin powder, ½ teaspoon cinnamon powder, ½teaspoon ½ coriander powder, ½teaspoon black pepper powder, ¼teaspoon cardamom powder and mix well to combine. This quantity is sufficient to make chana masala one time.
Recipe Notes : Expert Tips
Substitutions and Adjustments
- Instead of using fresh pureed tomatoes you can use canned crushed tomatoes but not the ready to use bottled puree that will not give you a good result.
- If you use canned whole tomatoes, make sure to crush them with back of spoon while cooking.
- You can substitute dried chickpeas for canned chickpeas in that case do not cook chickpeas in pressure cooker. Straight away start with sauté onion paste step.
- I started with dried chickpeas and cooked them from scratch you can use canned chickpeas. Make sure to drain and rinse them before adding.
- I cooked chickpeas with teabag for a good colour and added that water to make gravy. you can boil water add a teabag and then add that water while cooking.
- If you find it too hot or extra spicy you can add a splash of coconut milk or almond milk to tone it down.
Watch Step by Step Video of Making Chana Masala Recipe
How to serve Chana Masala
You can serve this Chana Masala over steamed basmati rice. You can also serve chana with Naan or any other flatbread of your choice.
Some more popular Indian recipes you can make at home
📖 Recipe
Authentic Punjabi Chana Masala
Equipment
- pressure cooker
Ingredients
- 250 grams Chickpeas dried
- 1 teaspoon Salt
- 1 teabag
- 1 tablespoon Oil
- ½ cup Onion paste
- 1.5 cup Tomato puree fresh
- 1 teaspoon coriander powder
- 1 teaspoon cumin powder
- ½ teaspoon kasuri methi
Instructions
- First thing you need to soak dried chickpeas, I have taken 250grams of chana which can make 4-6 servings.
- Wash them thoroughly and soak them in water overnight or minimum 6 hours.
- After soaking chickpeas will be puffed up like this and this reduces cooking time and proper cooking of chana masala.
- Next discard the water in which chana is soaked, discarding this water will help to get rid of compounds that cause gas etc.
- To pressure cook them first I add drained out chickpeas in water and then added in 3 cups of water. Make sure that chickpeas are covered nicely with water.
- Now add about a teaspoon of salt, and a teabag. I like to use teabags made with cloth over the paper ones because of better quality.
- Next pressure cook it for 20 minutes. After the first whistle reduce the heat to lowest and pressure cook it.
- Now when chickpeas are cooking you can prepare masala for chana masala. First take 1 tablespoon oil in a pan and ½cup of onion paste, 1 teaspoon ginger garlic paste and fry the paste for few minutes till onion turn light brown.
- Next add in the coriander powder, salt, Red chilli powder, turmeric powder, cumin powder, garam masala powder, kasuri methi.
- Cook this masala or spice powders with oil for few minutes because cooking spices in oil before adding water helps to release the maximum flavours from spices.
- After frying add in the fresh tomato puree. It’s homemade tomato puree with fresh tomatoes. I have shown my simple method to make it in other video I will leave a linking the description below. You can click that link and watch it if you are interested.
- Now after mixing the puree nicely I am going to cook this for 5-6 minutes no need to cook this till oil release etc. Because we are going to simmer it and in that process
- Tomatoes will cook properly while retaining the tangy taste. You do not even need to add any thing else like tamarind or mango powder.
- Now add the boiled and drained out chickpeas and mix with Masala. Notice that boiling with teabag changes the color of chickpeas to brown.
- Mix them well with onion and tomato mix and then add water in which chickpeas were cooked. Mix them well and cook them on slow for 20 minutes.
- After simmering these chickpeas for 15-20 minutes these will look like this there is change in the colour.
- Next step now is you need to make a tempering which will give it a smoky taste and authentic chana masala flavour.
- In a small pan add one tablespoon ghee or oil and add a fat pinch of asafoetida, 3-4 green chillis whole and one heaping tablespoon of chana masala. Now immediately pour this tadka or tempting over cooked chana masala and mix them well.
- Once again simmer it for 5-7 minutes and after that chana masala looks like this. Just look at the perfect creamy texture of slow cooked chana and it is smoky and spicy. As a suggested before you can serve these delicious chana masala with poori, bhatura, rice or any Bread of your choice.
Video
Notes
- Instead of using fresh pureed tomatoes you can use canned crushed tomatoes but not the ready to use bottled puree that will not give you a good result.
- If you use canned whole tomatoes, make sure to crush them with back of spoon while cooking.
- You can substitute dried chickpeas for canned chickpeas in that case do not cook chickpeas in pressure cooker. Straight away start with sauté onion paste step.
- I started with dried chickpeas and cooked them from scratch you can use canned chickpeas. Make sure to drain and rinse them before adding.
- I cooked chickpeas with teabag for a good colour and added that water to make gravy. you can boil water add a teabag and then add that water while cooking.
- If you find it too hot or extra spicy you can add a splash of coconut milk or almond milk to tone it down.
Tabassum
Nice
Celeste
This was amazing! My partner said it was the best thing I've cooked, so I figured I would let you know!
Rekha Kakkar
I am glad you and your partner Enjoyed it! Thank you for your feedback!