Amritsari Chole Masala is a famous punjabi dish. It tastes great with Kulcha, Naan, Bhatura and Jeera Rice. I have tried multiple variants of recipes but this is the best that worked. I am making the Chole recipe which is topped with Imli Chutney, also called khatta, for a spicy tangy taste. A version of chole is also made dry which is directly eaten as a snack or with some namkeen.

Ingredients Used for making Amritsari Chole Masala Recipe with Imli Chutney:

Preparation time – 20mins
Cooking time – 40mins
Total cooking time – 1hr 

For boiling Kabuli Chana,

1. Dried Chickpeas – 1 glass soaked overnight in 2 glass water(chole or Kabuli chana)
2. Bay leaf – 1 pc(tej patta)
3. Cinnamon – 1 stick(daal chini)
4. Black Cardamom – 1 pc(badi elaichi)
5. Whole Dry Red Chillies – 1pc(Poori lal mirch)
6. Tea bags – 2pc(chai patti)
7. Salt – 1tsp(namak)

For making Amritsari Chole Masala,

1. Refined Oil – 2 tbl.sp. (tail)
2. Cumin Seeds – 1/2 tsp. (jeera)
3. Onion – 3pc medium size pureed (pyaz)
4. Green Chillies – 1pc (hari mirch)
5. Ginger – 1tsp (adrak)
6. Tomato – 3pc medium size pureed (tamatar)
7. Salt – 2tsp. (namak)
8. Turmeric Powder – 1/2 tsp. (haldi)
9. Red Chilli Powder – 1/2 tsp. (lal mirch powder)
10. Coriander Powder – 2 tsp. (dhania powder)
11. Cumin Powder – 1/2 tsp. (jeera powder)
12. Garam Masala Powder – 1/2 tsp.
13. Anardana Powder – 1 tsp.
14. Coriander Leaves – finely Chopped(dhania patti)

For Imli Ki Chutney,

1. Tamarind – 10 strips (imli)
2. Green Chillies – 1 pc finely chopped(hari mirch)
3. Salt – 1tsp. (namak)
4. Sugar – 1tsp. (chini)
5. Red chilli Powder – 1/4 tsp. (lal mirch powder)
6. Onion – 1 small pc finely chopped(pyaz)
7. Coriander Leaves –  finely chopped for garnishing(dhania patti)

Stepwise procedure to make Amritsari Chole Masala :

1. Take dry Kabuli Chana in a bowl and add 2 glass of water in it. Keep it aside overnight or for 7-8 hours.

Dried Kabuli Chana soaked overnight

Overnight Soaked

2. We need to boil the Kabuli Chana for Amritsari Punjabi Chole Masala. Take washed and soaked Kabuli chana in a pressure cooker and add 2 glasses of water. Add all dry spices i.e badi elaichi, dal chini, tej patta, lal mirch and salt to it and close the lid of the pressure cooker. Let 3-4 whistle come on high flame then simmer the flame for 5-10 minutes.

Dry Spices

Add Spices to the Soaked Chole

Close the Lid for Cooking

3. After some time, open the lid of the pressure cooker and check if Kabuli Chana for making Amritsari Chole Masala is cooked or not. Strain the Kabuli chana. Keep the stock (the boiled water residue) separately. Remove all spices from chana.

Checking Kabuli Chana

Strained Kabuli Chana

Stock

4. Put Oil in a Kadai. Add Jeera and then add onion puree to the oil. Stir fry for some time till onion paste becomes brown in colour.

Oil in a Kadai

Onion paste added to the oil

Onion paste brown in colour

5. Add tomato puree to the Onion paste and stir fry for 5 minutes.

Tomato Puree adding to the gravy

6. We can now add all the spices i.e. haldi, dhania powder, salt, lal mirch, jeera powder, chole masala, and garam masala to the paste prepared in step #5 and sauté for 5 minutes so that spices also gets cooked.

Spices to be added

Adding Spices to the paste

7. Now masala is ready to put boiled Kabuli chana in it. Add kabuli chana and stir fry it for 5 minutes so that aroma and flavour of spices gets mixed up with the  chana well. Then add the stock to the Chana Masala. Let it Cook for 5 minutes on medium flame.

Adding boiled Kabuli Chana

Adding Stock

Let it boil on medium flame

8. Amritsari Chole Masale is ready. Garnish it with some Corriander leaves and julienne ginger.

Amritsari Chole Masala

Recipe For Imli Chutney

The chutney, or Khatta, is used to top the chole while serving. This adds additional spices to chole. The chutney is generally used while serving chole with Kulcha and not with rice.

9. Take soaked Imli and squeeze it well so that all Imli pulp comes out.

Soaked Imli

10. Strain off the Imli pulp over a strainer. Add salt, sugar, green chillies, red chilli powder, coriander leaves and chopped onion.

Straining over the strainer

Adding spices

Garnish it with Onion and Corriander leaves

11. Serve hot Amritsari Chole Masala and Imli Chutney. This Amritsari chole masala can be served with Puri, Bhature, Naan, Kulcha, Pulao, Jeera Rice etc.

Chole Masala Recipe, Served with khatta and Onion

Important points to be noted in Amritsari Chole Masala Recipe:

1. We can make the Kabuli Chana black in different ways:
   1. We can put tea in a muslin cloth and tie it properly and then put it in the pressure cooker while boiling the Kabuli Chana.
   2. Put Amla in the Pressure Cooker while boiling Kabuli Chana.
   3. Boil 2 tbl spoon of tea in a glass of water. Add this liquid to the Kabuli Chana when boiling.
2. Make sure that the Kabuli Chana doesn’t gets over cooked.
3. Don’t throw the stock after boiling the chana. This is used in last step for gravy of the chole masala. The stock contains flavours of spices.

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