Pindi Chana – Restaurant style
History of chana (Pindi chana or chole)
Pindi chana(chickpeas) or chole is the most popular dish in entire north India and especially in Punjab. Due to its popularity, people believe that chole originally belongs to the Punjab state.
But the sad truth is that chana isn’t from India and if you dive into history then you’ll get to know that it’s from the Arabian desert.
After seventy thousand years also, the remains of chana is found in the Middle-East.
Though India is the largest producer of chana worldwide, it produces 64% of the worldwide production.
In India, major producing states of chana are Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh.
Chana variety
Thera are basically two varieties of chana and those are “desi” and “kabuli”.
Desi chana is in dark color and are smaller in size whereas kabuli chana is in light color and bigger in size.
Kabuli chana is also known as Garbanzo or Ceci beans and desi chana is known as Kala chana, black chickpea, or Bengal gram.
Nutritional facts
Chickpeas contain a large number of healthy nutrients like vitamins, proteins, minerals, antioxidants, fibers, sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium, etc.
Chana helps in fighting diseases like Diabetes, BP, Cancer and it also helps in reducing cholesterol, weight management, and anemia.
Recipes of chole/chana
Chana/chole is the main ingredient in many recipes and the major ones are chana masala, Pindi chole, Amritsari chole-kulche, chole-bhature.
On Delhi’s street, chole-rice is one of the most popular meals in breakfast and lunch, one can easily grab a plate of chole-rice in Rs. 50/-.
In middle-east, people prepare “Hummus” (a very popular “dip” / “spread”) by using chickpeas.
“Hummus” tastes best with Pita bread and also you can enjoy crackers with this dip.
So, today I’ll cook a restaurant-style Pindi chana for you that is easy to cook, enjoy it with locally fresh-made kulche.
Ingredients
Instructions
- Wash properly and soak chole in water for 12 hours.
- Grind tomato into puree and grind onion into fine paste. Slit chilies from the center and chop ginger into juliennes.
- Place a cooker on medium flame and heat oil. Add onion paste and fry till it leaves oil. While stirring add the whole spices (cardamom, cinnamon , bay leaves and cloves). Once the oils start leaving oil add ginger-garlic paste and stir it for one more minute.
- Now add tomato puree stir it for a while and add salt. Fry the tomato puree till it starts leaving the oil. Now it's time to add our mix powder spices (chole masala, turmeric, coriander powder and pomegranate seeds).
- Mix well all the spices properly and stir it for 2-3 minutes, add some water if the masala is sticking to the base.
- Now, the most magical step that will enhance the taste and flavor of chole by 100%. Boil 1 cup of water and when it starts boiling add two tsp of tea leaves, allow it to boil for a minute or two and then pour the tea water in the cooker passing through a sieve. Along with tea water add baking soda, mix properly everything and cover the cooker with the lid.
- Cook till 6-7 whistles. Whistle depends upon the cooker-to cooker. Once the cooker releases the pressure, open the lid and add roasted kasuri methi, mix well.
- Now the last step, tadka - the tempering: heat tadka pan and add pure ghee. Add lots of heeng, green chilies and ginger juliennes. Temper the tadka on the prepared chole.
- Serve the pindi chana (chole) with kulche/ parantha/ jeera rice. Enjoy the restaurant style pindi chana.
