I relish chole accompanied by hot fried bhature like no other dish. I have learned to cook chole from my neighbor's granny back in my hometown. Every time she cooked me chole bhature, I used to come back home and try replicating the recipe and with each time I used to move ahead by 1 step. It took me years of experiments to reach her level but still it is never be the same.

My version of punjabi chole is a thick tangy gravy with a blend of whole spices cooked along with the chickpeas. This way the flavor from the spices is inculcated well along with chole. I add boiled and mashed potatoes to make the gravy thick and I use amla to add that dark brown color to my gravy. Amla also adds a tangy flavor to the gravy. You can use tea water also as an alternative to add color.

For cooking chole

250gms kabuli channa (chickpeas), soaked overnight

2-3 bay leaves

2 cloves

3 green cardamoms

1 black cardamom

1 inch cinnamon stick

1 amla, grated

200ml black tea water

300ml water

For the tadka

1 tbsp ghee / oil

A pinch of asefoetida

1/2 tsp jeera

4 green chili, slit into 4

~2 inch ginger, julienned

1/2 tsp turmeric powder

Salt as per taste

1/2 tsp kashmiri red chili powder

1 1/2 tsp coriander powder

1/2 tsp black pepper powder

2 tsp anardana seeds

3 large tomatoes, pureed

2 medium potato, boiled and mashed

100gms paneer, cubed

1 tbsp kasuri meethi, crushed with hands

Coriander leaves for garnish, chopped

Here, channa are already soaked overnight along with 1 tsp salt for 7-8 hours. In a pressure cooker, add soaked channa, tea water, amla, cloves, green & black cardamom, bay leaves and cinnamon stick. Cook for 15-20 mins or roughly 20 whistles. I have added all the spices while boiling as this will enhance the flavor of the chickpeas.

In a pan, heat oil and add asefoetida and jeera. Keep the flame on low. Once the jeera starts to splutter, add green chilies and ginger. Saute for 2-3 minutes. Add salt, turmeric powder, coriander powder, red chili powder, black pepper powder and anardana seeds and cook for another minute or so. Keep stirring as the spices have the tendency to burn very quickly. Add tomato puree, mix well and let it cook till the oil separates.

Once the tomato gravy is cooked, add mashed potatoes. This will thicken the gravy and bring out a nice texture. To this add boiled channa along with the spices and cook for 15-20 minutes on low flame.

Garnish with chopped coriander leaves. Serve hot with poori / bhature / parantha / rice.

I have added amla while boiling the channa, this adds a dark brown color to them. Black tea water can be a substitute to this. Feel free to you either. Amla also adds a tangy flavor to the gravy. Lemon juice can be an alternative for the same. If using tea water, I prefer to boil the tea leaves in water separately or make a potli of tea leaves using a muslin clothe and add to the pressure cooker while boiling chole rather than using tea bags.

Anardana seeds are dried pomegranate seeds. They are commonly available in any supermarket. If not available, you can choose to skip them.

Add salt to the tempering keeping in mind that we have already added some salt while soaking the channa.

Adding paneer to the recipe is completely optional.