Chole Paneer Recipe | Chana Paneer

Chole Paneer is a super delicious, spicy Punjabi style curry made with Indian cottage cheese (paneer), white chickpeas (chole or chana), onions, tomatoes, herbs and spices. It is also gluten-free and quite wholesome. Make this filling dish at home, and serve with phulka, paratha, tandoori roti, steamed rice or jeera rice for a satisfying meal.

Punjabis love their Rajma Masala, Dal Makhani and Chole Masala. There are many variations of making chickpea-based recipes and this is one more popular variation of white chickpeas with cottage cheese.

This chole paneer does not use any chole masala and nor do you need to grind any masala. Just the regular Indian spices are added to the gravy. The recipe is also called Chana Paneer.

The dish is made in less time in a stovetop pressure cooker. But you do have to remember to soak the dried chickpeas for 7 to 8 hours or overnight. You can also cook the chickpeas in the Instant pot adding water as required.

Paneer Chole goes well with rotis, paratha, poori or naan or roomali roti. Also serve some onion slices and lemon wedges as a side accompaniment.

If you love bhatura or naan then you can also enjoy this chana paneer with these Indian breads.

How to make Chana Paneer

1. Rinse 1 cup dried white chickpeas (a.k.a. chana or chole) in fresh water a couple of times. Then soak the chickpeas in enough water overnight or for 7 to 8 hours. 1 cup chickpeas is equal to 200 grams of chickpeas in weight.

Later drain all the water and rinse the soaked chickpeas in water and keep aside. Ensure to use chickpeas in their shelf period.

They chickpeas should not be old or aged, as then they will take a long time to cook and will also not taste as good.

2. The following spices-herbs will be added while cooking the chickpeas – in clockwise order:

• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 black cardamoms
• 2 inch cinnamon
• 3 dried amla (Indian gooseberry) pieces (substitute 1 black tea bag in place of amla). You can skip the amla and the tea bag completely if you don’t have them.
• 2 small tej patta (Indian bay leaf)
• 1 teaspoon ginger paste

3. Take the spices-herbs and the soaked chickpeas in the stovetop pressure cooker. Add 3 cups of water. Stir.

4. Cover tightly with the lid and pressure cook the chickpeas for 10 to 12 whistles. Once the pressure settles down in the cooker naturally then only open the lid.

5. The chickpeas should be cooked well. There should not be any bite in the chickpeas. They should have a soft melt in the mouth texture.

Discard the softened amla pieces or tea bag and keep the cooked chickpeas along with the stock aside.

If the chickpeas are not cooked, then pressure cook them again for 3 to 4 whistles or more and adding some water if required.

6. In another pan or kadai, heat 2 tablespoons of oil and add ½ cup chopped onions.

7. Stir and saute on a low to medium heat stirring often till the onions are translucent or light golden.

8. Then add 1 teaspoon ginger-garlic paste. Stir and saute for a few seconds or till the raw aroma of ginger-garlic goes away.

9. Then add ¾ cup chopped tomatoes.

10. Stir and mix the tomatoes with the rest of the ingredients.

11. Saute the tomatoes stirring often on medium-low heat, till they soften and become mushy.

12. Add the following spice powders:

• 1 teaspoon coriander powder
• 1 teaspoon cumin powder
• 1 teaspoon red chili powder
• ½ teaspoon garam masala powder
• ½ teaspoon turmeric powder

13. Stir and saute for a minute.

14. Add the cooked chickpeas together with the spices that we added when pressure cooking them.

15. Stir and mix well to combine.

16. Then add 2 or 3 slit green chilies. Stir again.

17. Add 1 cup of the stock or stock+water.

18. Season with salt as required. Do keep in mind, that 1 teaspoon of salt was added to the stock earlier when cooking the chickpeas.

19. On a medium heat, bring the gravy to a simmer.

20. The gravy should thicken slightly. Mash a few chickpeas with the back of the spoon. This helps in thickening the gravy.

21. In the below photo, the gravy has thickened enough. You can keep the consistency as you prefer – either medium or thick.

22. Now add paneer cubes (125 to 150 grams of paneer), ½ teaspoon crushed kasuri methi (dry fenugreek leaves) and 1 teaspoon amchur powder. Amchur or dry mango powder can be added according to one’s taste.

Make sure to use fresh paneer. If using packaged paneer then check the expiry date as paneer should be fresh and not rancid.

If using frozen paneer thaw it according to the package instructions.

23. Stir and switch off the heat. Otherwise the paneer can become hard or chewy.

24. Add 1 or 2 tablespoons of chopped coriander leaves and some ginger julienne. You can also garnish chole paneer with coriander leaves and ginger julienne instead of adding them.

25. stir finally and serve the paneer chole with roti or paratha or poori or tandoori roti or naan bread.

Also serve some onion slices and lemon wedges as a side accompaniment.

If you have kept a medium consistency in the gravy then you can also serve this chana paneer with steamed rice or jeera rice.

Few more delicious recipes

• Chickpea curry
• Amritsari chole
• Pindi Chole
• Methi chole
• Palak chole

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Chana Paneer recipe from the archives was first published on February 2015.