Recipe - The Easiest Instant Pot Chole / Chickpea Curry out there!

Owning an IP in the kitchen has been a game changer - yet I am always trying to come up with quick recipes to make life even easier. If you own an IP and feel like you are spending every waking minute of this quarantine period in the kitchen - listen up!! This recipe is for you!!

Chick peas are packed with protein and make a delicious gravy because they will soak up all the flavors of spices when they cook. However they can be hard to digest and can cause flatulence. The key to a satisfactory bean meal to to keep flatulence at bay! A tip to avoid this is soaking your chickpeas (or any beans) overnight with plenty of water and adding a couple of spices like cloves, bay leaves and cinnamon. Make sure you discard the water before moving on to the cooking process!

Note that you may also used organic canned chick peas - just make sure you wash it thoroughly! After that its ready to use!!

Here is the recipe for the easiest Chole-

Ingredients

• 2 cups chick peas
• 1 onion
• 3 tomatoes
• 1 inch peeled ginger
• 2-3 cloves of garlic
• 1-2 green chillies (based on your desired heat level)
• 1 tsp turmeric powder 
• 1/2 tbs kashmiri chili powder 
• 1 tsp Chole Masala
• 2 cloves
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 black cardamom
• lime and cilantro for garnish
• salt to taste
• 2-3 tbs oil for sautéing

Method

• Wash and soak chickpeas overnight in sufficient water. Add cloves and/or bay leaves to this water.

• Next day, discard the water and rinse again.
• Turn IP on sauté mode.
• Roughly chop onions and throw them in a blender or magic bullet with the cinnamon stick, cloves, black cardamom and cumin seeds, ginger, garlic and green chillies.

• When IP is ready, add oil and throw in the blended onion mix.

• It is important to let it cook well for 4-5 minutes so as to get rid of the raw onion smell in your gravy! Meanwhile you can quickly get your tomato paste ready.
• Throw in 2-3 roughly chopped tomatoes, turmeric powder, kashmiri chilli powder and Chole Masala in the blender.

 

• Add the tomato paste to the onions in IP.

• Mix well and add the chickpeas.

• I usually eyeball the water, but a good key to a thick gravy is to have about an inch of water over your chickpeas. Remember that the onion and tomato puree will also add to the liquid gravy.
• Cover, seal and cook on Bean/Chili mode for 25 min, followed by natural release.