Black Chana with Coriander Gravy (no onion-garlic)

Black Chana with Coriander Gravy (no onion-garlic) is a perfect dish for those who want simple food during their fasting days. Black Chana with coriander gravy is rich in nutrients. If you are inviting guests for lunch or dinner during your fasting days, this non-onion-garlic gravy dish might be the best dish in your menu!

Black chana – usually we know this as kala chana – belongs to the family of chickpeas. But kala chana is darker in colour and smaller than chickpea. Kala chana is usually cooked as a dry dish for snacks. But we can also prepare it as a gravy dish to be accompanied with roti (flat bread), poori or rice. Generally, we add onion along with tomatoes in all our gravy-based dishes to add to the volume of the gravy. Garlic is added for flavour. In India, some communities don’t use onion in their food due to their religious beliefs. Usually, new generation of these communities don’t follow these beliefs. But then, cooking two different types of dishes with the same ingredient is a burden.

So instead of using onions, you can use green coriander along with tomatoes, ginger and green chillies and prepare gravy not only for kala chana but for any other gravy based dishes as Lauki ke kofte ki sabzi (grated bottle gourd dumplings in curry), Chole (chickpeas with gravy)

Ingrediants:

Kala Chana 3/4 cup
Salt 1/2 tsp
Water 1+1/2 cups
Turmeric powder 1/2 tsp

Tomatoes 3 medium size
Grated ginger 1/4 tsp
Green chilies 3 – 4
Green coriander 30 gm

Oil 2 tbsp
Rai (tiny mustard seeds) 1/4 tsp
Jeera (cumin) 1/4 tsp
Hing (asafoetida) 1/8 tsp
Coriander powder 2 tsp
Red chili powder 1/4 tsp
Add some more water and salt if required

Process :

Wash and soak chana in 1+1/2 cups of water overnight.

Next day in the morning add salt and turmeric powder in soaked chana and pressure cook it with using the same water in which chana was soaked till it becomes soft.

While chana is getting cooked, we will prepare gravy. Wash and chop tomatoes, green coriander leaves, green chilies, grated ginger and grind all of them in the mixer to prepare paste. If required, add little bit of water while grinding.

Heat oil, crackle rai, hing, jeera and add the grinded paste in a wok.

Add rest of the spices. Keep stirring on medium heat until all spices are cooked.

By now chana must be cooked. Switch off the flame and let the steam of the pressure cooker settle down. Open the lid and add chana into the ready masala.

Reduce the heat to sim and let it cook for 10 – 15 minutes. Stir in between and add some water if you feel that consistency is too thick. Taste a bit, and if required, add some salt. After 10 – 15 minutes of cooking, kala chana with coriander gravy is ready to be served!!

 

Published by

Deeksha Pathak

I like reading, watching movies, listening to music, doing some art and craft, cooking, baking and exploring new ideas. Baking is my new passion!!

105 thoughts on “Black Chana with Coriander Gravy (no onion-garlic)

  1. Hehe, sahi. Waise bhi aap shayad Bengaluru mein? Aur hum Rajasthan mein! Lekin khushboo yahan tak aayi. I love your blog!

  2. This sounds really good, Deeksha, I love the taste of koriander. But we don’t get black chickpeas where I live. I wonder if I could do it with “normal” chickpeas?

    1. Thank you very much Stella 😊
      Both chickpeas have different taste.
      Yes, you can try regular chickpeas with coriander in the gravy. You can add garlic also in the gravy. Regular chickpeas tastes good with garlic aroma.

  3. Wow! I think black chana is rich in protein, carbohydrates and fiber, this delicious coriander gravy vegetable has a unique taste. It has different fun with Puri.😋 Very nice recipe ma’am. 😊👌👌🙏🌻🎆

      1. Oh, oh! I was addressing you as Ma’am , as I was learning many things from your cookery blog. I’m sorry if you felt that way. I’ll address you as Deeksha, hereafter, no worries. 🙂

      2. Arey, Itni serious baat nahi hai. I just said that in a very light humorous way. Personally I believe that learning doesn’t depend on age. I learn a lot from your posts. Feel free to address the way you are comfortable 😍❤️😘

      3. Sure, Deeksha, happy to .:) Btw, I tried your mango ice-cream recipe yesterday, and today morning I was thrilled with its taste, thanks a lot for the recipe. 🙂

  4. I’m always so impressed by the amount of preparation that’s involved in Indian cuisine. I fell in love with the food back when I was a teenager cutting lawns and trimming hedges for a Hare Krsna temple in Detroit. I got so much from that experience, not least of all the amazing food!

    1. I agree with you.Indian food has such a vast variety of dishes from each state. One vegetable can be cooked in many different ways through each
      state’s culture.
      Thank you very much for visiting the blog and sharing your views.

  5. Looks yummy, Deeksha! We make ‘kala channa’ with grated and fried coconut, roasted and powdered red chillies and coriander and season it with curry leaves ant mustard. Colour is like this…brown 😊

    1. Indira, thank you so much dear ❤️
      I have never prepared your version but I love it a lot. During festivals days, whenever I am invited for haldi kumkum, always get a lot this coconut based chana. I always enjoy it in next day breakfast ☺️

  6. This gravy reminds me of how my mother in law made rajma using loads of CORRIANDER and tomato several years back. Never tried it myself, but now I would love to give this a try. Looks super tempting and I love kala chana gravy

    1. Chandra, thank you very much 😊
      There are good Indian grocery stores in USA. I am sure you will find everything. But not sure if nowadays also export import is happening.

  7. Years ago I was in Australia, studying for MBA and researching into finance. My wife had to come back. I decided one day that I would make curry with Dahi. disaster. Then I decided that black channa was the easiest. What could possibly go wrong?
    Everything did.
    It was nothing like you’ve made.
    When I saw the perfectly made, delectable black Channa in this post, I remembered all of my miseries with cooking😊😊
    Congratulations on being sooooo talented.

    1. Parneet, apne haath se banaya sab kuch bahut swaad ka hota ha… Probably you were comparing your dishes with Sonu’s culinary skills, so you were not satisfied.
      Thank you so much for sharing your memories here☺️🙂 some incidents though they are very normal are just unforgettable.
      Once again many thanks for inspiring and encouraging, means a lot ☺️🙂

      1. Yeah ,I love puttu but it is very uncommon dish in our state .By the way they use small chunks of coconut in chana .Most welcome🙏

      2. Very true,but sadly I have no appetite for tasty food nevertheless you are there to help me out with the best recipes from time to time.Take care.🙏

  8. Deeksha it is really nice to follow your blog! I have never been to India, but I love Indian food. I have tried couple of recipes earlier, but now you have inspired me to try more 😊

  9. We all eat various types of pulses. Kala channa may be bit bitter in taste but it is healthiest diet. We use have pulses but we have added this dish also to our menu. Your post is lovely.

  10. Wow..this is an needed recipe..because we just reduced the consumption of onions and garlic recently and was just wondering how to make the gravy that thick ..!👍🏻💯

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