Chholey Recipe: Punjabi Style Chholey At Home
Chholey is a flavorful and spicy gravy popular in India. Chholey recipe is pretty simple, and anyone can make it with minimum effort. Also, you will not need many ingredients to make chholey.
But before you start making Chholey, preparation is required. When you do a good preparation, you will get the best chholey.
Actually, there is a secret ingredient to make chholey. The secret ingredient that this recipe uses is the secret ingredient to make chholey in Punjabi style. So following this recipe, you will get authentic Punjabi chholey.
Do follow all the instructions to make Punjabi style chholey.
Chholey Recipe: Preparation
Before you start making chholey, you need to do preparation. You need to soak chickpeas and make masala for chholey.
Soaking ChickpeasIngredients:
1 cup chickpeas
3 cups of water
1 tea bag
Instructions:
Rinse chickpeas in a colander very well.
In a bowl, add three cups of water with the tea bag for a while. After few minutes, remove the teabag, then soak chickpea in it.
If you don’t have a tea bag, you can bring water to a boil and add a teaspoon of tea. Let it cool and rinse the water to another bowl. Then you can add chickpeas to soak.
Soaking chickpea in the tea water brings color to chholey. And soaking improves digestion and helps in making chickpea soft.
You will have to soak chholey at least for 8 hours, or you can leave it overnight.
Chholey Masala
While you will easily get chholey masala in the market, but you can make it at home because freshly made masala enhances the taste.
Ingredients:
1 tsp fennel seeds
2 dried chili
1 bay leaf
4 cloves
1-inch cinnamon stick
3 green cardamom
1 tbsp coriander seeds
8 peppercorn
1 black cardamom
1 tsp cumin seeds
Instructions:
In a pan, dry roast red chili, bay leaf, coriander seeds, cloves, peppercorn, green cardamom, and black cardamom. Dry roast in low-medium flame for few minutes.
When the spices release aroma, add remaining spices i.e. cumin seeds, fennel seeds, and coriander seeds.
Roast the spices until they turn into dark color. But make sure you don’t burn them.
Let the spices cool and add them to the blender. Blend them until you get a fine powder.
Chholey Making
After you are done with all the preparation, get ready to make chholey.
Ingredients:
Oil
Cinnamon
Cardamom
Cloves
Bay leaf
Onion
Green chili
Ginger-garlic paste
Tomato
Salt
Turmeric powder
Red chili powder
Chholey masala powder
Garam masala
Coriander powder
Coriander leaves
Instructions:Step 1:
The first step is to chop onion, tomato, and coriander leaves. You will need one medium-sized onion, one medium-sized tomato, and few coriander leaves. Chop the tomato, onion, and coriander leaves into fine pieces.
Keep them aside on the plate. You will need them late in the recipe.
Step 2:
Heat 3 tablespoons oil in the pressure cooker. You can also use an instant pot instead of a pressure cooker.
Step 3:
When the oil is hot, add 1bay leaf, 1-inch cinnamon stick, 2 green cardamom, and 2 cloves. Allow them to roast for few minutes. Roast in a medium-low flame until they release the aroma.
Step 4:
After the whole spices release aroma, you have to add finely chopped onions. You will need one medium-sized onion to make chholey. If you like spicy food, you can also add one roughly chopped green chili. Fry the onion until it turns golden brown.
Step 5:
After the onion turns golden brown, add one tablespoon ginger-garlic paste. Stir it well. Let it cook until the raw smell goes.
Step 6:
After that, you need to add one medium-sized finely chopped tomato and salt as per your taste.
Step 7:
Then you need to add all powder spices. Add one tablespoon chholey masala, half tablespoon garam masala, one teaspoon coriander powder, one teaspoon red chili powder, one-fourth turmeric powder.
Step 8:
Mix all the spices well and allow it to cook for few minutes. You will have to cook it until the spices release a good aroma. Don’t skip this step. This is a very important step that brings flavor to chholey.
Step 9:
Then add two cups of water. Use a spatula to mix spices with water. Scrub the button using a spatula if the spices are stuck. Allow it to cook for few minutes.
Step 10:
Add the soaked chickpeas and mix them well with all the spices. Put the lid on the pressure cooker and allow it to cook for 2-3 whistles on medium flame.
Step 11:
Release the pressure from the pressure cooker. Check whether the chickpeas are cook properly or not. If the chholey is raw, you can cook it for another whistle.
Step 12:
Taste the chholey and add salt if needed. Garnish chholey with finely chopped coriander leaves.
