Before You Start
Punjabi chole is easy to recognise by its dark brown colour and a depth that owes less to any single spice than to the way it is cooked: a slow simmer, a masala of well-toasted whole spices, and, very frequently, a tea bag or cloth of tea leaves put in the cooking water, which stains the chickpeas deep brown and adds a faint tannic note most eaters cannot identify. It is nearly always paired with bhature, although rice or plain bread works too, and it is hearty enough to be a whole meal and not a side.
Where It Comes From
Chickpea preparations called chole are old in North India, but the dark, sour, heavily spiced style of chole bhature that people picture today is closely tied to Punjab and to Delhi's street food after Partition. Between the 1940s and 1950s it became a recognised, named dish, as Punjabi migrants and refugees set up dhabas and street stalls around the city. The use of tea to darken the chickpeas is usually credited to Punjabi home cooks and street sellers and is not an ancient technique, yet it remains among the most distinctive regional markers of this style compared with chickpea curries elsewhere in India.
How to Make It
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Prep
Soak overnight, then simmer the chickpeas in tea
Leave the dried chickpeas in plenty of water overnight, or for at least 8 hours. Drain them, then cook in fresh water with the tea bags and salt: roughly 20 to 25 minutes once a pressure cooker comes to pressure, or between 1 1/2 and 2 hours at a steady simmer in an ordinary pot, topping up the water as required. They are done when thoroughly soft and noticeably darkened by the tea. Take out the tea bags and keep the liquid for later.
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Cook
Sizzle the whole spices
Warm the oil or ghee in a deep pan and drop in the cumin seeds, bay leaf, crushed black cardamom and the cinnamon. Let them sizzle for about half a minute, until the pan smells aromatic.
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Cook
Brown the onions and cook the tomato
Put in the chopped onions and cook over medium heat, stirring from time to time, for 10 to 12 minutes until they have turned a deep golden brown; this extended browning contributes a great deal to chole's depth, so resist hurrying it. Add the ginger-garlic paste for one more minute, then the pureed tomato and green chilli, and cook, stirring now and then, for 8 to 10 minutes, until oil appears at the edges.
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Cook
Add the spices and the chickpeas
Add the ground coriander, chilli powder, turmeric and chole masala and give them a minute to become fragrant. Put in the cooked chickpeas together with enough of the reserved liquid to make a thick gravy, then simmer without a lid for 20 to 25 minutes, crushing a few chickpeas on the pan's side to help the gravy thicken.
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Cook
Finish with amchur and check the seasoning
Stir in the amchur and correct the salt. When ready the chole should be dark, thick enough to cling to bits of bhature and not slide off, and boldly spiced. If it looks thin, keep simmering for a few minutes.
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Serve
Garnish and serve hot
Top with thin ginger strips and chopped coriander, and serve hot alongside bhature, rings of sliced onion and a wedge of lemon.
Swaps That Work
Canned chickpeas can be used when time is short, but they do not take on colour from the tea in the same manner and the texture is softer and less defined; in that case, warm them in the masala for 15 to 20 minutes with a little tea-steeped water, which replaces the full dried-chickpea cooking time. Ready-made chole masala varies greatly in strength, so with a brand you have not used before, begin with less and adjust.
Turning the Heat Up or Down
Chole is traditionally served fairly hot. For a gentler version, lower the red chilli powder, leave out the slit green chillies, and depend on the chole masala and ground coriander for flavour. For more heat, put in chopped fresh chilli or a little more chilli powder close to the end, not at the beginning, which lets you taste first. Because the heat of chole masala differs widely between brands, add an unfamiliar one in two portions and taste after each.
Where Cooks Go Wrong
Not cooking the onions enough is the commonest mistake and leaves the gravy tasting thin and raw instead of deep and round, since onions need real time to brown. Leaving out the tea is another; it seems optional but is responsible for a good share of chole's colour and faint depth, and a single tea bag steeped for a short time makes a visible difference. The third is a gravy that is too runny, when chole ought to be thick enough to cling to a torn piece of bhature.
Keeping and Warming Up Leftovers
To keep: Chole lasts as long as 4 days in a sealed container in the refrigerator and, like many bean and legume curries, often tastes better on the second day. Freeze it for up to 2 months if you like and thaw it in the refrigerator before reheating.
To warm up: Heat it slowly on the stove over medium-low heat, adding a little water should the gravy have set firm in the refrigerator, and stir from time to time until it is hot throughout. Single servings also do well in the microwave in a covered dish.
Safe Handling
In warm weather, soak the dried chickpeas in the refrigerator if they are to sit for more than a few hours, so they do not spend long at room temperature. Cool cooked chole within roughly two hours before it goes into the refrigerator, and bring it back to a steaming temperature all the way through before serving, as for any legume dish that is stored and reheated.
Where to Read More
- Vir Sanghvi, writings on Delhi street food history, on the Partition-era development of chole bhature culture in Delhi.