My take on the iconic dish Delhi Street Style Chole Masala! This version of Chole tastes tangy and spicy, full of flavours from rich tomato-based gravy made with an array of aromatic Indian spices.
Speciality about Delhi Street Style Chole
Delhi’s renowned Chole has distinctive dark colour, pleasantly pungent in flavour and thicker in texture than other variations of chole. It is made using lot many whole spices, masala powders and pastes to get that characteristic dark brown, thick gravy. Exact words to describe the taste of this recipe are ‘theeka’ and ‘chatpata’!
Like every Delhiitte, we too get hooked to this delectable ‘Chole’ quite often. As a result almost every weekend we look out for some authentic spots in Delhi to relish this dish to our heart’s content.
Here, I have tried to recreate the classic ‘Delhi Street Style Chole’ recipe. The dark colour is obtained by using black tea leaves, imli chutney and little amount of palak puree. Anardhana seeds, amla, amchur, imli chutney gives that sharp tanginess to the recipe. Cashews and melon paste and of course whole lot of Indian spices adds to the richness and taste of the tomato gravy.
Do give it a try and let me know how similar this recipe is to the authentic ‘Delhi Street Style Chole’ or how different from other chole varieties..
Ingredients
To Pressure Cook
- Kabuli Chana – 1 cup
- Black Tea Leaves – 1 tsp Or Black Tea Bag – 1
- Amla – 1 large, chopped
- Black Cardamom – 1
- Black Pepper Corns – 6 to 8
- Red Chilly – 1
- Cinnamon – 2 inch piece
- Cloves – 2 or 3
- Bay Leaves – 1
- Ginger Garlic Paste – 1 tbsp
- Salt – 1 tsp
For Masala Powder
- Coriander Seeds – 1 tbsp
- Green Cardamom – 5 or 6
- Cumin Seeds – 1 Tbsp
- Cinnamon Barks – 1 tbsp, broken
- Black Pepper Corns – 1 tbsp
- Black Cardamom – 3 or 4
- Cloves – 5 or 6
- Mace/Javitri – 2
- Red Chilly – 2
- Methi Seeds – ½ tsp
- Hing – ½ tsp
For Gravy
- Onion – 1 medium-sized
- Tomatoes – 2 large-sized
- Green Chilly – 2
- Palak Puree – ¼ cup
- Cashew + Melon Seeds Paste – 2 Tbsp
- Imli Chutney – 1 tbsp (optional)
- Sugar – 1 tsp
- Haldi – ½ tsp
- Amchur Powder – ½ tsp
- Grounded Masala Powder – 2 tbsp
- Coriander Powder – 1 tbsp
- Red Chilly Powder – 1 tsp
- Roasted Cumin Powder – 2 tsp
- Dried Anardhana Seeds – 2 tsp
- Shahi Jeera – ½ tsp
- Bay Leaf – 1
- Desi Ghee – 2 tbsp
- Cooking Oil – 2 tbsp
- Salt to taste
- Kasuri Methi – 1 tbsp
- Fresh Coriander Leaves – a handful, chopped
To Serve
- Onion – ½ cup, sliced
- Ginger – 2 inch piece, julienned
- Fried Potato Cubes – ½ cup
- Fried Green Chillies – 3 or 4 (as per requirement)
Method
- Soak Kabuli chana for 8 hours. Drain the water and add it to a pressure pan.
- Make a potli of tea leaves, amla, black cardamom, black pepper corns, red chilly, cinnamon and cloves. (you can use steel tea mesh infuser too)
- Add it to the pressure cooker along with bay leaf, ginger garlic paste, salt and 2 cups of water.
- Pressure cook to 7 to 8 whistles.
- Soak cashews and melon seeds for 30 mins and grind them into a fine paste.
- Dry roast the ingredients given for Masala Powder. Grind them finely with hing. We’ll be using just 2 tbsp of this powder. Store the rest in a clean, dry bottle for later use.
- Blanch fresh palak leaves and make puree out of it with little amount of water.
- Finely chop onion, tomatoes, green chilly and fresh coriander leaves.
- Once the pressure released open the cooker and discard the potli. Mash the boiled chana slightly along with the cooked water. Keep it covered.
- In a thick bottomed kadai, heat ghee and cooking oil. Add shahi jeera and bay leaf. Let it turn reddish brown.
- Add chopped onion. Saute till it turns translucent. Add chopped tomatoes, green chillies and salt.
- Saute till tomatoes turn mushy.
- Add rest of the ingredients (haldi, grounded masala powder, coriander powder, roasted jeera powder, red chilly powder, dried anardhana seeds, amchur powder, sugar, palak puree, imli chutney, cashew and melon paste) except kasuri methi and fresh dhaniya. Saute well till oil separates.
- Add a cup of hot water. Let it boil. Keep the flame medium to low. The gravy gets thickened and darker in colour.
- Add crushed kasuri methi and fresh dhaniya. Mix well and switch off.
- Garnish with ginger julienned, fried potato cubes and fried green chillies.
- Serve hot with any kulcha, parantha, naan, roti or pulav varieties.
Notes
- To prepare fried potato cubes: peel and cube potatoes. Par boil them. Drain the water. Either deep fry or shallow fry the cubes. Here, I have air fried them. Transfer to a bowl, add chaat masala, red chilly powder and salt. Toss them well. Same masala can be used for fried green chillies too.
- Adjust the consistency of the gravy by adding enough water and simmering in low heat. Delhi-style chole has thicker gravy than other variations.
Plz check the links for the recipes..
Paneer Stuffed Wheat Kulcha (Tawa Kulcha)
Paneer Stuffed Wheat Kulcha (Baked Kulcha)
Brunch Combo – Paneer Stuffed Wheat Kulcha with Delhi Street Style Chole and
Gulkhand Lassi
Happy Cooking!
Shyamala's Cuisine 