Mirchi Waale Kala aur Kabuli Chana (Black and Yellow Chickpeas with Red Chilies)

I forgot that the grocery stores would be closed on Easter Sunday and thus couldn't get the bits I needed to make the chicken and potato curries I had planned. So I had to do a swift search of the curry book for an emergency back-up plan. I ended up setting on a potato-paneer curry and this mixed legume dal.

Mirchi Waale Kala aur Kabuli Chana

Slightly adapted from 660 Curries by Raghavan Iyer

Ingredients

• 1/4 c. dried chickpeas
• 1/4 c. dried black chickpeas
• 1/4 c. dried kidney beans
• 1/4 c. whole black lentils (mapte beans/sabud urad)
• 3 1/2 c. water, divided
• 1 onion, chopped
• 10 whole cloves
• 3-8 dried red Thai, cayenne, or arbol chilies, stems removed
• 4 green cardamom pods
• 2 (7-8cm) cinnamon sticks, crushed/broken
• 2 Tbsp. ginger paste
• 1 Tbsp. garlic paste
• 1/2 tsp. ground turmeric
• 2 Tbsp. ghee
• 2 Tbsp. tomato paste
• 1/2 Tbsp. coarse sea salt
• 1/4 c. heavy (35%) cream
• 2 Tbsp. chopped fresh cilantro

Directions

1. Rinse the dried legumes, drain, cover with hot water and let stand for 8-24 hours. For a quick-soak, place in pressure cooker, pressure cook for 1 minute, then let stand for 1 hour.
2. Drain the legumes, add 3 c. of fresh water, and pressure cook for 1 hour, followed by a 15-minute natural release.
3. Meanwhile, add 1/4 c. of the remaining water to a blender along with onion, cloves, chilies, cardamom pods, and crushed cinnamon sticks and purée.
4. Transfer onion paste to a bowl and stir in the ginger paste, garlic paste, and turmeric.
5. Melt ghee over medium heat.
6. Add the onion paste and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 15 minutes.
7. Stir in the tomato paste and salt and set aside.
8. Once the legumes are done, open the pressure cooker and add the sauce.
9. Pour the remaining 1/4 c. of water into the pan that the sauce was cooked in to deglaze it and add this liquid to the legumes as well.
10. Simmer the dal over medium-low heat for 20-25 minutes, stirring occasionally. For thinner dal, keep it covered while simmering. For thicker dal, simmer it uncovered.
11. Stir in the cream.
12. Sprinkle with cilantro and serve.

Sookha Kala Chana (Spiced Black Chickpeas)

I don't think this is any of our favourites, but it is easy to put together and pretty tasty, and while it's not fast, most of the time is spent waiting for the chickpeas to cook -- it requires some forward planning but very little time investment. The recipe suggests serving with halwa and poori; we went with garlic naan and onion kulcha.

The Kidlet was highly suspicious of the "weird-looking" chickpeas but was ok with the taste.

Sookha Kala Chana

Vegetarian Indian Cooking with your Instant Pot

Ingredients

• 1 C black chickpeas
• 3 C water
• 1+½ tsp salt, divided
• 1 tbsp ghee
• 1 bay leaf
• 3 green cardamom pods
• ½ tsp cumin seeds
• 1-2 tbsp ginger paste
• 1-2 green chilies, sliced
• 1 tsp coriander, ground
• ¼ tsp cumin, ground
• ¼ tsp bin bhuna hua garam masala
• ¼ tsp amchor
• cilantro to taste
  

Directions

1. Rinse the chickpeas and place them in the instant pot with the water and 1 tsp of salt. Select bean/chili mode, 40 minutes, and allow for a 15 minute natural release once cooking is complete.
2. Drain the water and remove the chickpeas to a bowl.
3. Wipe out the pot and set it to sauté medium.
4. Once hot, add the ghee, bay leaf, and green cardamom. Sauté until fragrant, 15-30 seconds.
5. Add the cumin and sizzle for 5-10 seconds.
6. Add the ginger and chilies and cook for 1-2 minutes, until the ginger starts to darken.
7. Finally, add the ground spices and 2 tbsp water. Deglaze briefly and then immediately add the chickpeas.
8. Stir chickpeas together with spices, then remove from the heat and stir in the cilantro and remaining ½ tsp of salt.

Kala aur Kabuli Chana (Black and Yellow Chickpeas)

I really enjoyed the variety of legumes in this dal. Given that only chickpeas are mentioned in the title, I wasn't expecting to see kidney beans and black lentils (mapte beans) on the ingredient list. It made for a lovely combination!

Kala aur Kabuli Chana

Slightly adapted from 660 Curries by Raghavan Iyer

Ingredients

• 1/4 c. dried black chickpeas
• 1/4 c. dried (yellow) chickpeas
• 1/4 c. dried red kidney beans
• 1/4 c. whole black lentils (mapte beans/sabud urad)
• 3 c. water
• 2 Tbsp. ghee
• 1 tsp. mustard seeds
• 2 tsp. cumin seeds, 1 tsp. ground, 1 tsp. whole
• 2 tsp. sugar
• 1 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1 tsp. coriander seeds, ground
• 1/2 tsp. ground turmeric
• 1/2 tsp. ground asafetida
• 2 dried red Thai, cayenne, or arbol chilies
• 1 large tomato, cored and chopped
• 2-4 fresh green Thai or cayenne chilies, stemmed and halved lengthwise
• 2 Tbsp. chopped fresh cilantro

Directions

1. Combine dried legumes and rinse thoroughly.
2. Cover with hot water and let sit, covered, for at least 8 hours.
3. Drain legume mixture and place in pressure cooker with water.
4. Cook on high pressure for ~1 hour. Allow for a 15 minute natural release (75 minutes total).
5. Meanwhile, heat ghee over medium-high heat.
6. Add mustard seeds and cook, covered, for 30-60 seconds. (Mustard seeds will pop like popcorn.)
7. Remove from heat and add both whole and ground cumin seeds, sugar, salt, coriander, turmeric, asafetida, and dried chilies.
8. Add tomato and fresh chilies and return to medium heat.
9. Cook for ~2 minutes, then remove from heat and set aside until legumes are done.
10. Stir tomato mixture into cooked legumes.
11. Simmer over medium heat, uncovered, stirring occasionally, for ~15 minutes.
12. Sprinkle with cilantro and serve.

Kishmish Kala Chana (Black Chickpeas with Raisins)

This is another curry from my backlog of long overdue write-ups. We made this... several years ago now. I just never quite got around to writing it up. It was decent. I think I'm just too used to yellow chickpeas to really appreciate the black ones. I'll keep trying other black chickpea recipes until we've used up our current supply. But I have to admit, I probably won't bother restocking. I'd much rather focus my energies on the legumes I really enjoy: pigeon peas, yellow peas, chickpeas, and just about every lentil in the book. That said, if you find yourself with a bunch of black chickpeas and need a way to use them up (or if you just really like black chickpeas), this is a nice treatment of them. And if you don't have any black chickpeas on hand, Iyer notes that yellow chickpeas are perfectly acceptable as well.

Kishmish Kala Chana

Slightly adapted from 660 Curries by Ragahavan Iyer

Ingredients

• 1 c. golden raisins or sultanas
• 1 c. boiling water
• 1 small red onion, chopped
• 4-6 cloves garlic
• 4 fresh green Thai or cayenne chilies
• 3-4 Tbsp. ginger paste
• 2 Tbsp. canola (or other neutral) oil
• 1 c. tomato sauce
• 1 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 3 c. cooked black chickpeas
• 2 c. water
• 1/4 c. chopped fresh cilantro
• 1/2 c. heavy (35%) cream
• 2 tsp. Dhania-Jeera Masala

Directions

1. Pour boiling water over raisins and set aside for ~30 minutes.
2. Drain raisins, reserving soaking water.
3. Combine raisins, onion, garlic, and chilies in food processor and mince. If you don't have a food processor, mince by hand. Stir in ginger paste.
4. Heat oil over medium-high heat.
5. Add raisin mixture and stir-fry for ~5 minutes.
6. Add the reserved soaking water and deglaze the pan.
7. Cook, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until the liquid has been absorbed (2-4 minutes).
8. Add tomato sauce and salt.
9. Reduce heat to medium-low, partially cover, and simmer, stirring occasionally, for ~15 minutes.
10. Stir in chickpeas, water, and 2 Tbsp. cilantro.
11. Raise heat to medium and bring to a boil.
12. Simmer vigorously, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until the sauce has thickened slightly (8-10 minutes).
13. Stir in cream and spice blend and simmer, uncovered, for another 2 minutes.
14. Sprinkle with remaining cilantro and serve.

There is a note from Iyer at the end of the recipe saying that it can be made into an interesting soup as well. He recommends adding a bell pepper and a bit of Punjabi garam masala to the mix.

Kala Chana Masala

Now that we have a pressure cooker, I can finally cook black chickpeas (and all sorts of other dried legumes) in a reasonable amount of time. So exciting!

Kala Chana Masala
Slightly adapted from 660 Curries
1 c. dried black chickpeas
6 green cardamom pods
2 (Indian) bay leaves
2 cinnamon sticks
4 Tbsp. canola oil
1/2 c. shredded dried unsweetened coconut
1 Tbsp. coriander seeds
4 dried red Thai chiles
1 tsp. mustard seeds
15-20 curry fresh curry leaves
1 tsp. coarse sea salt
1 tsp. cornstarch

1. Rinse the chickpeas several times. Drain. Then cover with hot water and let soak (at room temperature), covered, overnight.
2. Drain the chickpeas and transfer to a pressure cooker. Add 3 c. water, cardamom pods, bay leaves, and cinnamon sticks. Cook at high pressure for 1 hour + 15 minute natural release.
3. While the chickpeas are cooking, toast the coconut, coriander, and chiles in 2 Tbsp. of oil over medium-high heat.
4. Puree the toasted coconut blend with 1/2 c. water and set aside.
5. Pop the mustard seeds in the remaining 2 Tbsp. of oil.
6. Once the mustard seeds have stopped popping, immediately remove from heat and add the fresh curry leaves. Let them sizzle for a moment, then set aside.
7. Once the chickpeas have finished cooking, stir in the coconut puree and the spice/oil mixture. Rinse out the blender jar with another 1/2 c. water and add that as well.
8. Stir in the salt.
9. Simmer, uncovered, over medium heat for 15 minutes.
10. If you would like a thicker sauce: Combine 1 tsp. of cornstarch with 2 Tbsp. cold water. Stir the starch slurry into the curry and allow to cook for another 5 minutes.
11. Serve over rice or, as Iyer suggests, with cornbread.