Chana Masala From Dried Chickpeas: Soak, Boil, Simmer

It is 6 pm and the chickpeas are still hard

Everyone has done it: decided on chana masala at dinner time, tipped dry chickpeas into a pot, and watched the clock pass 8 o'clock with the centres still chalky. Chana masala from dried chickpeas is a good dinner, but it is a two-stage dish. The soak happens the night before. The masala itself is the easy part.

This page follows our Spiced Chickpeas recipe, which serves 4 and lists 60 minutes (15 prep, 45 cooking), not counting the soak.

Amounts for four people

Chaat masala is a tangy spice blend sold in South Asian shops; it goes on at the end.

Chana masala from dried chickpeas or tins: the swap

The recipe's own ingredient line reads "dried, soaked overnight (or 2 tins, drained)". So 200 g of dried chickpeas, which is 1 cup, stands in for two tins. If you use tins, skip the soaking and boiling and go straight to the onion. The dried route costs less per meal and lets you season the chickpeas as they cook. Tins save the soak and the boil. Both end up in the same masala.

If a tin is what you have right now, What Can I Cook With Chickpeas? 7 Dishes, Dried or Tinned lists other dishes for it.

The soak and the boil

1. Soak for 8 hours or overnight. Cover with plenty of water; they will swell.
2. Drain, then boil with salt for 45 to 60 minutes. In a pressure cooker, 10 to 12 minutes.
3. Test one. It should crush easily between your fingers. If it resists, it needs more time, not more masala.
4. Save 1 cup of the cooking water. You will use it in the gravy.

Pressure cookers vary. Our Pressure Cooker Lentils guide lists soaked chickpeas at 20 to 25 minutes, longer than the 10 to 12 on the recipe page, so treat both as a starting range and go by the finger-crush test. Its fill-line and safety rules apply here too.

The tea-bag trick for darker chickpeas

Our recipe tip says that for a darker, restaurant-style colour you can boil the dried chickpeas with a black tea bag, and remove it before you cook the masala. That is the only version of the trick we publish. It affects colour, not flavour in any way our data describes, so skip it if you like your chana lighter.

Building the masala

1. Onion: fry the chopped onion in the oil until golden brown, about 7 minutes per the recipe.
2. Ginger-garlic paste and tomato: fry until the oil separates, around 8 minutes. The oil separating is your signal that the tomato has cooked down.
3. Spices: add turmeric, chilli powder and coriander powder and cook for about a minute.
4. Chickpeas and water: add the boiled chickpeas plus the 1 cup of cooking water. Crush a few against the side of the pan.
5. Simmer for 10 to 15 minutes until the gravy is thick and clings to the chickpeas.
6. Finish: adjust salt, then scatter chaat masala and coriander on top.

Thick gravy, and serving

Mashing a spoonful of chickpeas into the gravy thickens it, according to the recipe tip. The starch in the chickpeas does the work, so there is no need to add flour. If it gets too thick, a splash of the saved cooking water loosens it, which is why you kept it.

A squeeze of lemon with the chaat masala brightens the flavour, per our tips. Add it at the table so it stays fresh.

Chana masala eats well with rice or roti. For a heavier meal, the same chickpeas become Chole Bhature when paired with fried bread, or you can keep some plain-boiled chickpeas aside for Chickpea Salad. If you prefer a bean rather than a chickpea, Kidney Bean Curry is built the same way.

Note that "chana daal" is a different thing: split chickpea lentils, covered in Split Chickpea Lentils. They are cooked for a lentil-style dish rather than a masala.

For storage, cool cooked chickpeas quickly, refrigerate them and reheat until steaming hot.

Weeknight plan

• Night before: rinse 200 g chickpeas, cover them with plenty of water, and leave them for 8 hours while you sleep or work.
• Next evening: boil 45 to 60 minutes (or pressure-cook), and start the masala while they simmer. The recipe lists 45 minutes of cooking in all.

If you want to check which dishes your pantry already supports before the soak, the planner on Degchi at degchi.matrixinn.net/#try can show that.