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Chana Masala
Chickpeas in a tomato-onion sauce
🌱 Beginner🍛 Main Course🌿 Vegan🕑 35 min
A complete dinner from a can of chickpeas and whatever's already in the kitchen. Vegan, filling, and better the next day than fresh - the kind of dish you know by heart after the third time.
🌱 Beginner: Nothing here can go wrong. If you can boil pasta, you can cook this.
Prep10 min
Cook time25 min
Total35 min
Serves4 servings
Allergens: None of the 14 EU-declarable allergens, as this recipe is written.
Store-bought ingredients may carry traces — please check the packet.
Ingredients
0 of 13✅ All set to cook!
Method
0 of 6🎉 All done — enjoy!
- Heat the oil, add the cumin seeds and let them sizzle for 20 seconds.
- Add the onions and fry for 8–10 minutes. They need to turn truly golden brown, not just translucent - this is where the flavor is built, and this is the step most often cut short.
- Add the ginger-garlic paste, fry for 1 minute, until it no longer smells raw.
- Stir in the tomatoes, turmeric, ground coriander and chili powder. Cook down for 8–10 minutes, until the oil visibly separates at the edge. That is the sign the masala is done.
- Add the chickpeas and 150 ml water, season with salt, and simmer uncovered for 10 minutes.
- Mash a few chickpeas with the back of the spoon to thicken the sauce. Stir in the garam masala and amchur, scatter coriander on top.
Tips
- The oil visibly separating in step 4 is the most important moment in the recipe. Before that the sauce tastes of raw tomato, after it, of curry.
- Amchur gives the characteristic tang. Without it: lemon at the end, but only once off the heat.
- With dried chickpeas: soak 250 g overnight and simmer for 40 minutes until soft. The difference is noticeable, but the can is a perfectly legitimate weeknight choice.
Shop the Ingredients
Everything for this recipe is available from us in Munich — in store or delivered.
