Punjabi Chole -No Onion No Garlic

By now, the veggies that I had got from Mustafa and some from India are all over and some repeated over and over again. There is nothing interesting to come up with these dishes and so now it is time to make some interesting legumes. However, legumes like chole or rajma, cannot taste even close to good without the two important ingredients, onion and garlic. Myth! True it is that onions and garlic lift up the flavors of this dish but this recipe without onion and garlic tastes equally good, maybe even better. In fact, I got confused momentarily that I had added garlic by mistake. Such superb was the taste and I am thinking of making my chole with this recipe henceforth. Why shed those tears while cutting onions when you can make it with a smiling face! :)

Ingredients

1 cup chick peas or chole (I added about 1/2 cup more as I wanted to finish it off)

2 big tomatoes or 3 small

1 medium bunch of coriander (I used chinese parsley as coriander was not available)

1 heaped tablespoon ginger paste

2-3 green chillies

1 tsp cumin seeds

1 tsp cumin powder

1 tsp coriander powder

1 tbsp pomegranate seeds powder

1/2 tsp turmeric powder

1 tsp red chilli powder (I used kashmiri chilli)

Salt to taste

2 tbsp olive oil or any oil

Ginger juliennes for garnishing

Direction 

Wash and soak the chick peas overnight or at least for 5-6 hours. Drain and pressure cook with freshly added water until done. 

Meanwhile, make a paste with the ginger, coriander, tomatoes, and green chillies. Heat oil in a pan and splutter the cumin seeds. Now add the paste and saute on medium flame for 3-5 minutes till raw smell disappears. Now add the dry spices and salt and mix well. Fry further for about 2-3 minutes till everything well incorporated. Now add the boiled chick peas, reserving 10-12 pieces. Mix well. Make a paste with the reserved chick peas either with a potato masher or the blender and add it to the pan along with the boiled chick pea liquid. Add any additional water if required or dry up the excess water if you desire a drier consistency. Garnish with ginger juliennes and serve hot with naan/kulcha/roti or jeera rice.