Chole recipe with stovetop & instant pot instructions – Chickpeas cooked in a delicious, flavorful & spicy gravy. Punjabi chole served with bhatura is a favorite among many Indians and is very popular in Dhabas and North Indian restaurants. The combo of chole chawal & chole bhatura are simply irresistible & delicious.
This post will help you to make a very flavorful & delicious chole masala that you can serve with plain basmati rice, jeera rice, bhatura, poori, naan, phulka or even with plain paratha.
Making a good chole recipe at home is quite simple and here is how to do it.
Preparing chole: Firstly chole is soaked overnight or at least for 8 hours. Then pressure cooked until soft. If using canned chickpeas, these steps can be skipped.
Choosing spice powder: A special flavorful spice powder known as chole masala is the key to this dish which infuses exceptionally good flavors. You can either use readymade chole masala from any popular brands or make your own as mentioned in the recipe below.
Make Onion tomato masala: Like most other Indian curries, chole is also cooked in onion tomato gravy which forms the base of this dish. So first the onion tomato masala is prepared.
Simmering chole in the prepared spicy onion tomato masala is the important step which makes the dish flavorful and delicious.
Step-by-step photos
Preparation
1. Rinse 1 cup chickpeas (chole) very well in a pot. Then soak them in ample amount of water overnight or at least for 8 hours.
Optional
To get darker chole, I simmer half tsp tea powder or 1 black tea bag in 3 cups water for a while. Cool and filter the tea decoction to the pot and soak the chole in tea. Soaking for longer helps in better digestion and chole turns out to be soft.
2. After soaking chole will absorb much of this tea and turn darker in color. Discard the tea and give a good rinse with fresh water.
3. Add 1½ cups water. Also add dried amla or one tea bag. As I didn’t have tea bag I boiled some tea powder in the 1½ cups water and poured it.
4. This step is optional. Add a generous pinch of soda-bi-carbonate. Using soda helps to cook them soft and they turn mouth melting.
5. Cook the chole till soft but not mushy. On a medium flame, I pressure cook for 5 to 6 whistles (without soda) or for 2 whistles with soda.
6. Once done, open the pressure cooker and check. The chole must be soft cooked and not remain al dente. If they are al dente or even slightly hard, cook them again for 1 to 2 whistles.
Making chole masala
7. You can also skip this step and use ready made chole masala. While the chole cooks, on a medium to low flame dry roast
- 1 bay leaf
- 2 to 3 red chili
- 1 tablespoon coriander seeds
- 4 cloves
- 1 inch cinnamon
- 1 small black cardamom
- 3 green cardamom
- 8 pepper corn. When they turn aromatic, add 1 teaspoon cumin seeds and 1 teaspoon fennel seeds. Deep roast them until slightly dark in color without burning.
8. Cool them and add them to a blender. If using anardana add half teaspoon of it now. Make a fine powder. Set this aside.
9. Add 2 tablespoons oil to a hot pan. When the oil turns hot, add
- 1 inch cinnamon
- 2 green cardamoms
- a small piece of bay leaf
- 1 to 2 cloves
10. Add 1 tablespoon ginger garlic paste. Saute until the raw smell has gone completely.
11. Add 1½ cups finely chopped onions & 1 chopped green chili. I prefer to fine process the onions in my processor and use. You can also grate or blanch and puree, then use.
12. Fry until the onions turn light brown and the raw smell has gone completely.
13. Add 1 cup chopped tomatoes, 1/8 teaspoon turmeric and ¾ teaspoon salt. You can also add pureed or grated tomatoes.
14. Saute the entire mixture until the tomatoes turn fully mushy and the raw smell has gone.
15. Add the masala powder we made earlier for this chole recipe, and then ½ to 1 teaspoon more red chili powder & ¾ teaspoon garam masala. An addition of red chili powder is just to adjust the heat levels and color. so you may skip it as well.
16. Mix everything well and saute for another 3 to 4 minutes. Make sure the raw smell of the onion & tomatoes has gone by now. By then the masala begins to leave the sides of the pan.
17. Add cooked chickpeas, fresh water as needed. I added 1 cup fresh water plus more. Note that If you have used tea to soak & as well to pressure cook then using the entire tea decoction for the gravy may alter the taste. You can use 2 tbsps of the chole cooked stock if you like the dark color & then use fresh water.
You will need to adjust the quantity of water as desired to make the gravy.
18. Once it comes to a boil, cover and simmer on a low flame for 18 to 20 minutes or until the gravy thickens & reaches a desired consistency. Add 1 teaspoon crushed kasuri methi and amchur powder (optional).
Taste the chole and then add more salt if needed.
Remove to a serving bowl. Garnish chole with coriander leaves and ginger juliennes. Serve chole bhatura or rice with lemon & sliced onions.
Tips:
Amla or tea bags: Punjabi chole recipe makes use of dried amla which gives the dark color to the chickpeas apart from adding a slight sour taste.
Since I am not accessible to dried amla sometimes I make use of tea decoction which works fairly well without altering the taste of the dish.
However feel free to skip if you do not have. I have made this several times without the use of tea as I have young kids at home.
Using tea for dark chole
If you fancy the dark color chole and do not have access to dried amla, then add a tea bag while you boil the chickpeas. You can also make tea decoction with half tsp tea powder and then use that to boil the chole.
While making the decoction do not over boil the tea to the extent it turns bitter. Do not use tea powder that has leaves.
You can check more Instant Pot Recipes here
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Chole recipe
Ingredients (1 cup = 240ml )
For cooking chole
- 1 cup chickpeas or chole (uncooked dried)
- 1 tea bag (optional) or 2 dried amla pieces or half tsp tea powder
Whole spices (optional)
- 1 inch cinnamon
- 2 cloves
- 1 small bay leaf
- 2 green cardamon
For gravy
- 2 tablespoons oil or as needed
- 1½ cup onions finely chopped or 1¼ cup processed or 1 cup pureed (2 no)
- 1 green chilli slit (optional)
- ¾ to 1 tablespoon ginger garlic fine chopped or paste
- 1 cup tomatoes fine chopped or pureed (3 no)
- salt as needed (I used ¾ tsp pink salt)
Spice powders
- ½ to 1 teaspoon red chili powder
- 1 tablespoon chole masala (refer notes)
- ¾ teaspoon garam masala
- 1 teaspoon coriander powder
- 1/8 teaspoon turmeric
- 1 teaspoon kasuri methi (dried fenugreek leaves) (optional)
For garnish (optional)
- 1 tbsp ghee
- ½ inch ginger julienne (for garnishing)
- 1 green chilli slit
- 2 tablespoon coriander leaves (fine chopped for garnishing)
How to make the recipe
Preparation (skip this if using canned chickpeas)
- Rinse chickpeas in lot of water. Soak them overnight to 8 hours in water.
- Next morning, drain the water and rinse them well.
- Add to a pressure cooker along with 1½ cup water.
- optional – Add a tea bag or dried amla or tea decoction.
- Pressure cook until soft for 5 to 6 whistles on a medium heat. Chole must be soft cooked and not al dente.
- If the chickpeas are aldente or hard, then pressure cook for 2 more whistles.
How to make chole (stovetop)
- Add oil to a hot pan, add cinnamon, clove, cardamom and bay leaf.
- When they begin to crackle, add ginger garlic paste and saute until the raw smell goes off.
- Add finely chopped onions and green chilli. Saute until the onions lose the raw smell and get golden to light brown.
- Next add tomatoes, turmeric & salt. Cook until the mixture turns mushy and soft.
- Add chole masala powder, garam masala powder, coriander powder, turmeric & red chili powder .
- Stir and fry again for 1 to 2 minutes till the masala flavours come out.
- You will also see the oil separating.
- Add the pressure cooked chole along with the stock and 1 cup water.
- Mix together and add more water as needed to bring it to a consistency.
- Cover and simmer on a low flame for about 18 to 20 minutes until the chole absorb the flavors of masala.
- When the gravy thickens, add ginger juliennes & kasuri methi if using. Turn off. Keep covered for a while.
Garnish (optional)
- Heat ghee in a small tadka pan. Fry ginger and green chilies until fragrant. Pour this over the chole.
- Sprinkle coriander leaves. Serve chole with rice, poori or bhatura.
Instant pot chole
- Press saute button on the IP and pour oil.
- When the Ip displays hot, add the spices. Then the onions and green chili.
- Saute the onions until golden to light brown.
- Then add in ginger garlic and saute for 30 seconds.
- Next add the tomatoes and salt.
- Saute well until they break down a bit.
- Add garam masala, chole masala, coriander powder, red chilli powder and turmeric.
- Saute well until the raw smell of the onion and tomatoes reduces.
- Pour 2 cups water and deglaze the pot. Then add soaked chickpeas.
- Mix well and secure the IP with the lid.
- Position the steam release handle to sealing.
- Press cancel. Then press pressure cook (high pressure) and set the timer for 35 mins. If using canned chickpeas, then set the timer to 10 mins.
- When the IP is done cooking wait for 18 to 20 mins for the pressure to release naturally.
- Then open the lid. Add ghee, ginger julienne and kasuri methi.
- Press saute button and cook for a few minutes.
- To thicken the curry you can take 3 to 4 tbsps chole to a bowl and mash them well. Add to the curry.
- Garnish with coriander leaves.
Video
NUTRITION (estimation only)
Notes
- 1 tbsp coriander seeds
- 1 tsp fennel seeds or saunf
- 1 tsp cumin or jeera
- 1 black cardamom
- 3 green cardamoms
- 1 bay leaf
- 4 cloves
- 1 inch cinnamon
- 8 pepper corn
Alternative quantities provided in the recipe card are for 1x only, original recipe.
For best results follow my detailed step-by-step photo instructions and tips.
Anjali says
Fabulous. Total Dilli style. Couple of points – i added salt while cooking the chole, and used one moti elaichi and 2 small, instead of 3 small.Followed everything else to a T. Outstanding. I doubled the quantities and froze half. Swasthi, the hard work and time you put into perfecting and detailing each recipe, ensures we get a great result, every time. Thanks much.
swasthi says
Hello Anjali
You are welcome!
So happy to know! Thank you so much!
Smitha says
I love all your recipes! I might have followed close to a dozen recipes already and they all turned out better than expected when followed your instructions and tips exactly how you posted them. Keep up the good work. You are a true inspiration to fellow foodies!
swasthi says
Thank you so much Smitha
Glad you like them!
🙂
Hitesh Oza says
Thank you for sharing such a lovely recipe god blees, I am planning to make it tomorrow will see what is the result, all the food blooger are the biggest help during this lockdown
swasthi says
Welcome!
Hope you enjoy it
Linda says
Wow! Amazing recipe thank you all the way from Australia. Made this dish as part of my partners 50th birthday dinner and everyone LOVED it and said how authentic it was. Thank you so much for posting it.
swasthi says
Welcome Linda
Glad to know it turned out good!
Thanks for the comment
Ritu says
Hello Swathi,
Which version of your chole do you find best – the instapot one or the stovetop version?
swasthi says
Hi Ritu,
I am making only the instant pot version these days. Both taste the same.
Kate says
Made chickpea curry for the first time in my Insta pot. Turned out great with your garam masala. Thank you.
Mitali says
Hello Swathi,
Instead of this home made masala, can I use ready made chole masala to make this recipe?
swasthi says
Hi Mitali,
Yes can use 1 tablespoon ready made chole masala.
Kalyani says
Hi Swasthi,
I want to make 20 servings of this recipe. I tried canned chickpeas, but found them al dante. How can I soften them without pressure cooker? And can I used canned diced tomatoes as it is? Also I am planning to finely chop onions and freeze them till I make for a final day. Will this help?
swasthi says
Hi Kalyani,
You can try cooking the chickpeas with some soda-bi-carbonate for a few minutes. For 2 1/4 cups 1 large pinch of soda works well. But you have to careful as they may get overcooked and turn mushy quickly. Discard the stock you cooked them in.Rinse them well and then add to the curry. You can use diced tomatoes. After cooking the onions and tomatoes, you may mash the onion tomato masala with a potato masher for a better texture.
Cooking the frozen or refrigerated onions often take too long to cook well. Also I feel the flavor is not good. Instead you prepare the onion tomato masala ahead and then freeze or refrigerate. This is easier.
Hope this helps.
Kalyani says
Thanks for a quick reply! That is really helpful. I want to ask a question about veg biryani, can I assemble and refrigerate biryani previous night and dum it the next morning? Or should I dum it completely and then refrigerate the previous night? I don’t want to ruin it while reheating before serving.
swasthi says
I haven’t tried it. Not sure how the texture of the refrigerated rice would be. Instead you can also make the gravy ahead and refrigerate. The next day make the rice,layer and dum cook it.
Radhika says
I follow your version of most recipes I am looking for. Love the format of the instructions followed by step by step with photos. Thank you!!
swasthi says
Hi Radhika
You are welcome! Glad to know! Thanks for following
🙂
Kausar says
When do we add amchur powder it’s not mentioned only anardana is mentioned in the method to make cholay masal
swasthi says
Hi Kausar
Add it with kasuri methi.
Stutee Mishra says
I follow almost all your recipes. I tried this Chole recipe & it turned out to be delicious. Loved it.
swasthi says
Thanks a lot Stutee
So glad to know you loved it!
Deepika says
It was awesome!and also do you use fresh ginger garlic paste or readymade paste?
swasthi says
Hi Deepika,
Thank you! I use fresh homemade one
Neha says
Tried your recipe, replaced tomatoes with tomato puree, it tasted great! Thank you
swasthi says
Hi Neha,
You are welcome! Glad it turned out good. Thank you!
Priya says
Thanks for sharing. My chole turned out lipsmacking.
swasthi says
Welcome Priya
Neha sahoo says
We made this chole today for dinner. It turned out to be an awesome recipe. Thank you.
swasthi says
Hi Neha
You are welcome!
Ruchi says
Hi swasthi,
Thanks for the recipe. My chole masala turned out great 👍.
swasthi says
You are welcome Ruchi,
Glad your chole turned out good. Thank you!
Rom says
Hi Swasthi
I am a bit confused here. When you say chickpeas for ‘Chole” preparation, what are you referring to? The large cream color variety or small brownish color variety (commonly found in South India). In those pictures, I saw both – the large off white colored chickpeas and in some pictures they look more like brown skinned small variety chickpeas. Please clarify what type of chick peas are recommended(best) for making chole?
Keep up the great work you are doing.
Thanks
Rom
swasthi says
Hi Rom,
This recipe uses large white chickpeas. In the pictures, I used white ones and then soaked them in tea decoction. This makes them dark brown in color after soaking and cooking. This step is optional and does not enhance the taste. This recipe works with both the types white & brown chickpeas. White ones taste better. Thank you! Hope you enjoy!
Sk says
Yummy chole masala… I made this a day ahead and refrigerated. The next morning made bhatura (ur recipe). Both came out fab and delicious. My kids were very happy seeing mommy make such awesome bhaturas and chole. All thanks to you.
swasthi says
Hi Sk,
You are welcome. Glad your kids enjoyed!
suvarna gawade says
Hello Swasthi
I tried this recipe today and it turned out just like restaurant made chole. I have tried for so many years to nail it and finally succeeded today. I think your home made chole masala recipe is the key ingredient. I will definitely try other recipes too. Thanks a lot.
swasthi says
Hi Suvarna,
You are welcome. Glad you liked the chole. Yes do try more recipes. Hope you enjoy them!
🙂
Bliss says
Dear swasthi,
I will be making this in the IP. Can you please guide me? How much water do I use for soaked chickpeas? Would the recipe work with your garam masala recipe or curry powder.
swasthi says
Hello Bliss,
I have updated the post with video for instant pot instructions. Yes the recipe works with either – garam masala or curry powder. I have updated that as well.
Neetu Garg says
Hi Swasthi
Can you pls share the recipe of Bhatura ?
swasthi says
Hi Neetu,
Yes I can share in a few weeks.