Chole Puri

Chole Puri is a very popular dish in most of the North Indian homes.
It also happens to be one of the favourites in our home.
We eat chole i.e. white chick peas or Garbanzo beans or chana in various forms.
Sometimes I just boil the chickpeas and throw in some chopped raw onions, tomatoes, cilantro, salt, red chilli powder and some chaat masala and eat it for breakfast or as an evening snack.

At other times I cook them in a gravy form that is Chana masala and we have it with pav or sliced bread and chopped raw onions.

But at times when I am not much worried about the fat consumption, I serve it with Puris i.e. deep fried indian bread.

For making the Puris-

4 cups of All-purpose flour

2 tbsps Oil

Salt to taste

1/4 tsp of Ajwain

Water to knead the dough.

Oil for deep frying.

Method-

Mix the flour, salt, oil, ajwain and knead it into a dough using water.

And keep it aside for 1/2 an hour, covered with a damp cloth.

Then make small balls from the dough and roll them into small flat round shapes using dry flour if required.

Simultaneously, also keep oil for heating, for deep frying the Puris.

When the oil gets hot enough, drop the puris one by one. Fry them well on both sides turning once.

Tip-

Always fry the puris just before serving.

I usually roll out a few puris and keep and then fry them in batches.

For making the Chole-

1 cup dried chick peas

2 big onions, finely chopped

4 tomatoes, pureed

2 tsps ginger-garlic paste

1/2 tsp Jeera(cumin seeds)

1 green chilly chopped

1/2 tsp red chilly powder

1/2 tsp dry mango powder

1/4 tsp turmeric powder

1 tbsp chole masala powder(Everest or Badshah or whichever brand you like)

1 tsp Dhania(coriander) powder

1/2 tsp jeera powder(cumin powder)

salt to taste

Cilantro for garnishing.

2 tbsps Oil

Method-

Rinse the dried chick peas in 2-3 changes of water and soak them overnight.

Heat the oil in a pressure cooker and add jeera.

Then add chopped onions, ginger-garlic paste, green chilly and saute till the onions turn brown.

Then put the pureed tomatoes, salt, turmeric, redchilly pwdr, dhania-jeera pwdr, dry mango pwdr and roast well till the oil seperates.

Then put in the chole sans water. But reserve the water for later use.

Add the chole masala and roast well.

Then put in the reserved water and close the lid of the cooker and give 5-6 whistles or till the chole is properly cooked.

Open the lid of the cooker when the pressure drops.

Garnish with cilantro leaves and serve with hot puris and onion tomato kachumber.