Pindi chana is a delicious and super easy chickpea dish made in Punjabi style with chole masala powder. It is made without onions and tomatoes and thus a dry dish.
Rinse a few times and then soak the chickpeas in water for 8 to 9 hours or overnight.
Boil the soaked chickpeas with the whole spices, black salt, water and tea bag in a pressure cooker for 10 to 15 minutes. If the chickpeas are not cooked completely then pressure cook them for a few more minutes.
You could also tie all the spices in a muslin and make a bouquet garni and add it to the chickpeas.
Drain all the water from the cooked chickpeas. Remove and discard the spices and tea bag.
For making pindi chole
In a pan heat oil and saute the crushed ginger-garlic or ginger-garlic paste.
Sauté for some seconds until the raw aroma of the ginger-garlic disappears.
Make sure the heat is low or you can switch off the heat. Then add all the ground spice powders - red chilli powder, coriander powder, dry mango powder, garam masala powder and chana masala powder.
Mix well and sauté the ground spice powders for a minute on a low heat. Take care not to burn the ground spices.
Add the cooked chickpeas and mix it well with the masala.
Add salt and check for seasoning. Adjust the seasoning if required by adding more salt or powdered spices.
Let the chickpeas cook for 5 to 7 minutes in the masala on a low heat. Stir at intervals.
Lastly, add lemon juice to the chickpeas and mix it well. Instead of adding lemon juice at this step, you can also serve lemon wedges with pindi chana.
Serve pindi chole hot with onion rings, green chillies and lemon wedges accompanied with naan, bhatura, puri, paratha, kulcha or even roti.
Notes
Swap canned chickpeas with dried chickpeas. Add about 3.5 to 3.75 cups of canned chickpeas. Drain the water from the canned chickpeas and then rinse them in fresh water, before including in the recipe.
The recipe is moderately spiced, but for an even more spicy taste, increase the amount of red chili powder and chana masala powder.
Omit the tea bags or dried amla (Indian gooseberry) if you do not prefer them.
If in case the tea bag has burst while pressure cooking then rinse the chickpeas in a colander with water. This will rinse any of the tea particles from the cooked chickpeas.
While I have cooked the chickpeas in a stove-top pressure cooker, they can be easily cooked in an Instant Pot or in a pan on the stove-top. Add the same amount of water while cooking in either the Instant pot or in a pan.
For a more tangy taste, add more dry mango powder. Instead of dry mango powder, you can also use dried pomegranate seeds powder (anardana powder).