Indian chickpea tomato curry (Vegan chana masala)

Do you love Chana Masala (Chickpeas curry) served at your favorite Indian restaurant? You can make it easily at home using this Chickpea curry recipe. Make this delicious gluten-free curry for your weeknight dinner with only pantry ingredients.

What is Chana Masala?

Chana Masala is an Indian-style Chickpea curry cooked in an onion-tomato mixture and spices. Chana means chickpeas, and masala means Indian-style onion tomato sauce.

Ingredients

Chickpeas: I used homemade cooked chickpeas in this recipe. Though you can make this chana masala using dry chickpeas, I usually don't make it that way. Instead, cook chickpeas with plain water and simmer them in tomato masala to get the best flavors, taste, and consistency.

Onion: Onion gives a nice flavor, but you can safely omit it.

Tomatoes: I used fresh tomato puree. You can use canned tomatoes or tomato puree to make this curry. Crushed tomatoes or diced tomatoes also work. You can even roughly chop the tomatoes and make this curry. 

Spices: We only need basic spices like turmeric powder, ground cumin, ground coriander, red chili powder, and garam masala to make this curry. If you have, you can also use homemade chana masala powder to make this curry. To get that restaurant-style taste, use dried fenugreek leaves or powder. You can get this easily in any Indian supermarket.

How to make Chana Masala

In traditional chana masala, chickpeas are cooked first with plain water and then simmered in the onion-tomato sauce.

If you are out of time, check out my Instant pot chana masala recipe to make a delicious meal in less time.

Step 1 - Cooking chickpeas using an Instant pot

You can make this curry using canned chickpeas. First, drain and wash the chickpeas once. Then, keep them aside and follow step 2 to make chana masala.

It's effortless to cook chickpeas from scratch, and I always cook them at home. Check my detailed post on Instant pot chickpeas to prep, cook, and store chickpeas.

Follow these basic steps to cook chickpeas using an Instant pot or pressure cooker.

• Soak the chickpeas overnight or for at least 8 hours.
• Discard the water from the soaked chickpeas and wash them a couple of times.
• Add soaked and rinsed chickpeas to the Instant pot inner pot.

• Add water and close the Instant pot with its lid.

• Seal the vent, select manual or pressure cook mode, and cook for 10 minutes on HIGH pressure.
• If you use a stovetop pressure cooker, cook for about 4 to 5 whistles on medium flame.

Step 2- Making Chana Masala curry

Once you have cooked chickpeas ready, you can make this curry using a stovetop pan or Instant pot.

Stovetop Instructions

• Heat a heavy-bottomed pan or cooking pot.
• Once it is hot, add oil, bay leaf, cumin seeds, and fresh ginger paste.

• Once cumin seeds start spluttering, add chopped onion and sauté them for 3 to 4 minutes. 

• Add tomato purée and cook it on a medium flame for 4 to 5 minutes.

• Add spice powders to this cooked tomato mixture and mix it well. 

• Cook it for a couple of more minutes. By now, the oil will be oozing out from the tomato mixture.
• Add cooked chickpeas and stir it, so the tomato mixture is coated well with the chickpeas.

• It's time to add the water to this chickpeas tomato curry. I have used water reserved from cooked chickpeas here. It will make the curry creamy. 

• Mix it well and simmer the chickpea curry over medium heat for about 8 to 10 minutes. 

• The more you simmer, the more flavor the curry will be. Give a good stir in between so that the curry will not burn.
• Garnish the curry with chopped coriander leaves. And the delicious Indian chickpea masala curry is ready to serve with basmati rice and naan bread.

Recipe Notes

• To make the dry version of this chickpea masala, reduce some water and cook it for more time so that all moisture evaporates.
• Want to make the curry creamy and less spicy? Use coconut milk instead of water in this recipe. Though the taste will not be the same as you get in your favorite Indian restaurants, it will be creamy and delicious.
• Want to make the curry creamy? Add some cashew cream or regular cream at the end and cook it for a couple more minutes.
• If you get dried fenugreek leaves, add ½ teaspoon of them. If you are using chana masala powder, you can skip these, and that blend will already have dried fenugreek leaves. 
• Want to make it healthy? Add some green leafy veggies. Spinach and fenugreek leaves are the best choice and do very well in this recipe.
• To make it spicier, like how you get in the restaurants, add 1 or 2 Indian green chili or jalapeno.
• As this curry will have a smoother texture, tomato puree works best. But you can use freshly chopped tomatoes or canned tomatoes as well.
• If required, add half a cup of water to adjust the consistency to your liking.
• You can use a chana masala blend to make this curry. Skip red chili powder and garam masala in this recipe and use 1 tablespoon chana masala powder. You can taste the curry and add more chili powder to make it spicy.
• Before serving, add a dash of fresh lemon juice and garnish with fresh cilantro leaves for added flavor and taste.

Variations

• Coconut chickpea curry: To make a coconut version, use coconut milk for cooking the curry in step 2 instead of water. Creamy and milk coconut chickpea curry will be ready.
• Chickpea Potato curry (Aloo chana curry): Add some chopped potatoes while adding chickpeas to this recipe and cook everything till the potatoes are cooked well. You can use sweet potato as well.
• Paneer chickpea curry: You can add some more protein to this curry. Indian cottage cheese or tofu is a good addition. 
• Cauliflower chickpea curry: Cauliflower goes very well with chickpeas. Add chopped cauliflower florets and chickpeas and simmer everything till cauliflower cooks.

Serving suggestions

The best and a favorite side dish to pair with this Indian-style chickpea curry is basmati rice. Naan bread and everyday Indian flatbread chapathi also pair very well with this curry.

Storage and Leftovers

This curry tastes delicious the next day. So store some portion in the refrigerator for the next day. You can keep this for two days in the fridge and around three months in the freezer.

I usually batch cook, freeze chickpeas, and make this curry when needed.

I make over the leftover curry and use it in many ways.

• Hummus: Instead of plain chickpeas, use this curry to make the hummus, and it will taste delicious.
• Sandwich: Use this curry as a sandwich spread to make a smashed chickpea sandwich. Usually, curry consistency will become thick when you store it in the refrigerator. So you can use it directly as a sandwich spread. You can simmer the curry for some time to make it thick.
• Quesadilla: You can use this curry as a quesadilla filling.
• Rice pilaf: While making rice pilaf, you can add this curry, and chickpea rice pilaf will be ready. It will be a complete meal by itself.

FAQ

As you are here, you will like my other curry recipes. Do try them out!

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Kidney beans curry

Spinach potato curry

Saag Chana

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