Before You Start
If your chole comes out pale, thin and tasting mostly of tomato, the fix is not a magic spice. Good Punjabi chole gets its deep colour and flavour from technique: a long, unhurried simmer, a whole-spice masala toasted properly, and, very often, a tea bag or a tea-soaked cloth dropped into the cooking water. The tea stains the chickpeas a rich brown and leaves a faint tannic depth that most people cannot quite name but would miss if it were gone.
Bhature are the usual partner, though chole is just as good with rice or plain bread. It is hearty enough to be the whole meal, not a side.
Where This Dish Comes From
Chickpea dishes called chole have long roots across North India, but the dark, tangy, heavily spiced chole bhature style that most people know today is closely linked to Punjab and to the street food culture of Delhi after Partition. From the 1940s and 1950s, as Punjabi migrants and refugees set up dhabas and street stalls around the city, it turned into a defined, named dish. Cooking chole in tea to darken it is widely credited to Punjabi home cooks and street vendors, and it is not thought to be an ancient technique. It remains one of the more distinctive, region-specific marks of this style, setting it apart from the chickpea curries of other parts of India.
Step by Step
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Prep
Soak the chickpeas, then cook them with tea
Put the dried chickpeas in a bowl with plenty of water and leave them overnight, or for 8 hours at the very least. Drain them and cook in fresh water with the tea bags and salt. A pressure cooker needs about 20 to 25 minutes once it has come up to pressure; in an ordinary pot, plan on 1 1/2 to 2 hours at a steady simmer, adding water whenever it runs low. The chickpeas are ready when they are completely soft and visibly darkened by the tea. Fish out the tea bags and set the cooking liquid aside.
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Cook
Sizzle the whole spices
Heat the oil or ghee in a deep pan, then drop in the cumin seeds, bay leaf, crushed black cardamom and cinnamon. Give them roughly 30 seconds to sizzle, until the whole kitchen smells of spice.
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Cook
Brown the onions, then add tomato
Put the chopped onion in the pan and cook it on medium heat for 10 to 12 minutes, stirring occasionally, until it reaches a deep golden brown. Chole gets much of its depth from this slow browning, so do not rush it. Add the ginger-garlic paste and stir for another minute. Pour in the tomato puree with the green chilli, and cook for 8 to 10 minutes, stirring now and then, until oil starts to separate at the edges.
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Cook
Spice the pan and simmer the chickpeas
Add the ground coriander, chilli powder, turmeric and chole masala, and cook for about a minute, until the aroma rises. Tip in the cooked chickpeas and enough of the reserved cooking liquid to make a thick, gravy-like sauce. Leave the pan uncovered at a gentle bubble for 20 to 25 minutes. While it cooks, crush a few chickpeas against the side of the pan with your spoon, a trick that thickens the gravy without any flour.
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Cook
Finish and check the thickness
Stir in the amchur and taste for salt. You are looking for chole that is dark and boldly spiced, and thick enough to cling to a piece of bhatura rather than run off it. Should it still look thin, give it a few more minutes at a simmer.
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Serve
Garnish and bring to the table
Top the chole with julienned fresh ginger and chopped coriander, and serve it hot alongside bhature, sliced onion rings and a lemon wedge.
Swaps That Work
Canned chickpeas are fine if you are short on time, though they do not take on colour from the tea the way dried ones do and their texture is softer and less defined. Let them simmer in the masala with a little tea-steeped water for 15 to 20 minutes, which replaces the long cooking time of dried chickpeas. Store-bought chole masala differs a great deal in strength, so with a blend you have not used before, start with a smaller amount and build up to taste.
Turning the Heat Up or Down
Chole is traditionally quite hot. To calm it down, cut the red chilli powder, skip the slit green chillies, and let the chole masala and ground coriander carry the flavour with less fire. To raise the heat, stir in chopped fresh chilli or an extra pinch of chilli powder near the end rather than at the start, so you can taste before you commit. Heat in chole masala varies widely from brand to brand, so with an unfamiliar one, add it in two stages and taste in between.
Where Cooks Often Slip
Pulling the onions off the heat too soon is the most common error. It leaves the gravy tasting thin and raw instead of deep and rounded, and the onions need real time to brown. Another is leaving out the tea. It looks optional, but it accounts for a good share of chole's colour and quiet depth, and even one tea bag steeped briefly makes a clear difference. The third is gravy that stays too thin, when it should be thick enough to cling to a torn piece of bhatura.
Keeping and Warming Up Leftovers
To keep it: Chole keeps for up to 4 days in an airtight container in the fridge, and like many bean and lentil curries it frequently tastes better on day two, after the flavours have had time to settle. It also freezes well for up to 2 months. Defrost it in the fridge before you reheat.
To warm it up: Warm it gently on the stovetop over medium-low heat, stirring now and then, until hot throughout. If the gravy has set too thick in the fridge, add a splash of water. A covered dish in the microwave also works well for single portions.
Kitchen Safety Note
In warm weather, soak the dried chickpeas in the refrigerator if they will be sitting for more than a few hours, so they are not left at room temperature for long. Let cooked chole cool within about two hours before chilling it, and reheat it until steaming hot all the way through before serving, as you would any bean-based dish that is stored and warmed up again.
References and More to Read
- Vir Sanghvi, writings on Delhi street food history, on the Partition-era development of chole bhature culture in Delhi.