Dinner · Indian
Cholley (Chickpea Curry)
Vegan cholley (chana masala): a chickpea curry recipe with tomato-onion gravy, whole spices, and pressure-cooker or stovetop directions.
- Prep
- 30 min
- Cook
- 105 min
- Total
- 135 min
- Serves
- 4 dinner servings
Cook it
Method
Put the rinsed chickpeas in a large bowl, add the cool soaking water and leave for 12 hours. The water should stand at least 8 cm above the chickpeas because they expand. Drain and rinse; discard the soaking water.
Choose one cooking route. For a pressure cooker, combine the soaked chickpeas, 500 ml fresh water and 2.5 ml of the salt. Do not exceed the cooker’s maximum fill line. Bring to 15 psi, cook for 10 minutes, then let the pressure release naturally for at least 15 minutes and confirm the valve has dropped before opening, following the manufacturer’s instructions.
For the stovetop route instead, put the soaked chickpeas in a large pot with 2.5 ml of the salt and enough fresh water to cover them by 5 cm. Bring to a boil, skim any foam, then partly cover and simmer for 60–90 minutes. Add hot water whenever the chickpeas are no longer submerged. They are ready when one crushes easily between two fingers with no chalky centre.
Set a colander over a heatproof bowl and drain the tender chickpeas, reserving at least 300 ml of their cooking liquid. If you used a pressure cooker, allow the contents to stop bubbling before draining. Keep the chickpeas and liquid warm.
Heat the oil in a wide, heavy pan over medium heat. Add the coriander, cumin and nigella seeds. Stir for 20–30 seconds, just until they crackle and smell fragrant; do not let them blacken.
Immediately add the sliced onion. Cook for 8–10 minutes, stirring often, until soft and translucent with light golden edges. Add the garlic and cook for 30 seconds.
Stir in the garam masala and turmeric for 15 seconds, then add the chopped tomatoes and another 2.5 ml of the salt. Cook for 8–10 minutes, pressing the tomatoes with the spoon, until they collapse into a thick sauce and the raw spice aroma fades.
Add the cooked chickpeas and 250 ml of the reserved cooking liquid. Mash about one ladleful of chickpeas against the side of the pan, then simmer uncovered over low heat for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. The gravy is ready when it coats the chickpeas and a spoon drawn across the pan leaves a trail that closes slowly.
If the curry is too thick, stir in reserved cooking liquid a tablespoon at a time; if loose, simmer for a few minutes longer. Taste a cooled spoonful and add the remaining salt only if needed. Spoon into four bowls, finish with coriander leaves and serve hot. Rice or bread are serving suggestions and are not included in the ingredient quantities.
Make it work
Useful substitutions
- For a quicker version, use about 720 g drained, rinsed canned chickpeas (roughly three 400 g cans). Skip the soak and chickpea-cooking steps, start with the spiced onion-tomato base, and add 250 ml water in the simmering step. The texture and flavour will be different from dried chickpeas.
- The source marks cumin and nigella as optional. If omitting either, keep the coriander seeds and do not increase the other whole spices; the curry will simply have a less layered aroma.
- Use 300 g canned chopped tomatoes, including their juice, when ripe fresh tomatoes are unavailable. Simmer until the sauce is thick before adding the chickpeas.
- A neutral vegetable oil keeps this version vegan. Ghee changes both the flavour and the dietary status, so it is not a like-for-like vegetarian-and-vegan swap.
Keep it well
Storage and reheating
- Divide leftovers into shallow covered containers and refrigerate within 2 hours at 4°C or below. Under the linked USDA FSIS guidance, use refrigerated curry within 3 to 4 days.
- Reheat only the portion you need, adding a splash of water if the gravy has thickened. Stir often and heat to 74°C throughout before serving.
- For make-ahead preparation, cook the chickpeas up to one day ahead and refrigerate them with enough cooking liquid to keep them moist. Make the onion-tomato base and complete the final simmer when ready to serve.
Recipe notes
Sources and cooking notes
The pinned Wikibooks source supplies the vegan cholley identity, dried-chickpea soak, 250 g chickpea quantity, 500 ml cooking water, pressure-cooker and 60–90-minute stovetop options, whole spices, onion, garlic, garam masala, tomato, turmeric, 15-minute final simmer and coriander garnish. This adaptation defines four dinner servings, metric preparation details, sensory cues, measured seasoning, pressure-cooker precautions, substitutions, scaling and safe leftover guidance.
- Cookbook:Cholley (Chickpea Curry) — Pinned source for the cholley identity, ingredients, overnight soak, two chickpea-cooking routes and thick-gravy method.
- AI Love Food editorial methodology — Added the four-serving yield, metric preparation details, sensory cues, substitutions, scaling guidance and image review.
- FoodSafety.gov: 4 Steps to Food Safety — Refrigerate cooked perishables within 2 hours at 4°C or below.
- USDA FSIS: Leftovers and Food Safety — Refrigeration within 2 hours, shallow-container cooling, 3 to 4 days of refrigerated storage and reheating leftovers to 74°C (165°F).
Cooking tips and troubleshooting
Soak with enough headroom
Dried chickpeas expand substantially. A large bowl and at least 8 cm of water above the beans prevents the top layer from drying out. Discard the soaking water and cook with fresh water.
Use tenderness, not only the clock
Older chickpeas can take longer than 90 minutes on the stovetop. The centre should be creamy rather than chalky before the chickpeas enter the tomato gravy; the final 15-minute simmer is for flavour and thickness, not for finishing hard beans.
Toast whole spices briefly
Coriander, cumin and nigella should crackle and smell aromatic, but blackened seeds turn bitter. Have the sliced onion ready before heating the oil so it can cool the pan immediately.
Thicken two ways
Cooking the tomato base until jammy removes excess water, while mashing one ladleful of chickpeas adds body without flour or cream. Use the spoon-trail cue, then adjust with reserved liquid.
Scaling changes pot size
The serving calculator scales amounts only. For a larger batch, keep the pressure cooker below its manufacturer’s maximum fill line or use a wide pot with enough room for expansion and steady simmering.
Recipe source and licence
Adapted by AI Love Food from Cookbook:Cholley (Chickpea Curry) by Wikibooks contributors (contributor history). This adapted recipe text is available under CC BY-SA 4.0. The image is credited separately.
Adapted from Cookbook:Cholley (Chickpea Curry). Retains the source’s dried chickpeas, overnight soak, pressure-cooker and stovetop routes, oil, coriander seeds, optional cumin and nigella, onion, garlic, garam masala, tomatoes, turmeric, coriander garnish and 15-minute final simmer. Defines a four-serving dinner yield; adds soaking-water headroom, exact salt, pressure-release precautions, onion and tomato timing, chickpea tenderness and gravy-thickness cues, canned-chickpea and tomato substitutions, scaling, make-ahead, storage and reheating guidance. The source image is not reused. The adapted recipe text is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0; the separately generated illustration is original to AI Love Food.