This recipe comes from a blogger who recently visited weirdcombinations for the first time. Prerna cooks easy-to-make Indian food which she publishes on her blog, Indian Simmer. Her recipes and pictures look amazing! Inspired, I made this chickpea curry masala adapted from her blog the other day. I ended up adding a few things that just happened to be here. Her recipe didn’t call for left-over pico de gallo, for example. It tasted divine! I was reminded of this other chana recipe that I made in the past. Yet today’s was completely different because of the spice combinations.

chole masala

We had this with Indian style chili pickle as a condiment.

chole masala

2 cups cooked chickpeas, drained
1 red onion, chopped
5 cloves garlic
2 tbsp freshly grated ginger
5 tbsp freshly ground coriander
1 tsp turmeric powder
1 jalapeño pepper, minced, seed and ribs partially removed
¼ tsp chili pepper powder
1 tbsp curry powder
3 tbsp olive oil
2 cups canned tomato chunks with juice
½ cup pico de gallo salsa (optional)
3 roasted tomato halves
1 bunch cilantro, chopped
Kosher salt

Place onion, garlic and ginger in the food processor and pulse until a thick and uniform purplish paste is formed. Pour oil in a non-stick pan. Add onion-ginger-garlic paste and cook for about 10-12 minutes in medium heat stirring constantly. It is ready when the smell in the kitchen has gone from harsh to mellow & sweet. Don’t caramelize the paste however. Next, bring the temperature up, add turmeric powder, chili powder, ground coriander, curry powder and stir until it turns into a thicker paste.

Meanwhile place tomato chucks, salsa and roasted tomato halves in the food processor and pulse a few seconds to combine. Fold tomato mixture into paste. Add chickpeas (chana). Stir. Bring to a boil then reduce to simmer for about 15 minutes. Remove from heat. Add chopped cilantro and serve over rice. Yumm!