Cholle recipe
by Steve, February 25th, 2006Okay, Wacky Mommy, you’re not the only one around here that can post recipes.
Made a big pot of this for dinner tonight. My goodness, it’s good and tasty. Cholle is a North Indian garbonzo bean dish. It’s very easy to make and very tasty. The only “exotic” ingredient is garam masala. If you can’t find garam masala, don’t despair. It’s just a mixture of cinnamon, cloves, black pepper and cardamon.
I used a ton of garbonzos I had cooked previously and frozen. They were in a 12 cup freezer container. With that many beans, the unit of measure for the spices was 1 tablespoon. So where it says “1part cumin”, I used 1 tablespoon. You could certainly use more, but this seemed about right to me. I used about an onion and a half, a couple tomatoes and nice chunk of fresh ginger, about the size of my thumb.
cooked garbonzo beans
oil
1 part cumin
1 part coriander
1 part turmeric
1 part red chili powder (or chili paste)
2 parts garam masala
onion, chopped
fresh ginger, grated or minced
tomato, chopped or pureed
salt to taste
fresh coriander (cilantro)
fresh green chili, sliced
fresh lime wedges
Cook beans ahead of time and have ready. (To cook dry beans, soak for several hours, 4 parts water to 1 part beans. Bring to boil and cook until tender—up to two hours. You can “quick soak” by boiling for a couple minutes, then soaking for an hour.)
Chop onions and sautee until golden. Add cumin, ginger, dry coriander, turmeric and chili powder. Sautee another couple minutes. Add tomato. Cook some more.
Add garbonzos (with enough cooking water to cover) and garam masala. Salt to taste. Cook on low heat for a while.
Garnish with fresh cilantro, chopped onions, green chili slices and lime wedges. Also great with grated daikon radish. Serve with paratha (bread).
(We’ve been doing a lot of fresh cilantro and sliced green chilis for a garnish lately. Works equally well for Mexican, Indian, Thai, etc. It really gives a meal a special touch.)
