# Desi Chana Masala

Desi-style Channa Masala is a flavour explosion with tender chickpeas simmered in an onion-based gravy loaded with spices.

- Cuisine: Indian
- Category: Soup
- Language: en

## Ingredients

- 5 tbsp vegetable oil
- 1 inch cinnamon stick
- 1 blade mace blade
- 4 pods green cardamom pods
- 7 peppercorns whole black peppercorns
- 4 cloves cloves
- 3 leaves bay leaves
- 400 g chickpeas
- 3 tbsp fresh ginger and garlic paste
- 4 onions onions, minced without water
- 3 tomatoes tomatoes, minced without water
- 3 tsp turmeric powder
- 2 tsp Kashmiri red chili powder
- 2 tbsp coriander powder
- 3 tsp cumin powder
- 1 tsp dried mango powder
- 1 tsp anardana powder
- as required salt
- as required warm water
- 4 cloves garlic, chopped
- 2 chilies green chilies, thinly sliced
- 0.5 tsp dried fenugreek leaves
- 0.5 tsp Kashmiri red chili powder

## Instructions

1. Roughly cut up onions
2. Put it into a blender jar and make a fine paste of it
3. In a heavy bottom pan, add vegetable oil and let it heat up
4. Add cinnamon stick, a mace blade, few black cardamons, green cardamons, a few black pepper corns, a few bay leaves and a few cloves
5. Let the oil be infused with these spices and fry them on a gentle flame for about 30 to 40 seconds
6. Add ginger and garlic paste and let it fry on a gentle flame for about three to four minutes or until the raw aromas have disappeared
7. Add the onion paste and cook it on a medium flame
8. Fry the onion paste until you see the oil separating
9. Put the flame setting to lowest and add turmeric powder, red chili powder, coriander powder and cumin powder, and cook the spices for about 30 to 40 seconds
10. Add hot water
11. Cook the sauce for about two to three minutes on a high setting
12. Roughly cut up tomatoes into a grinder jar, and make a fine puree of it
13. Lower your tomato purée
14. Season the masala with salt
15. Cook the tomatoes well
16. Cover the pan and put your gas setting to lowest and let it simmer over a low flame for about three to four minutes
17. Add dry mango powder, anardana powder and chickpeas
18. Cook them in the sauce for about three to four minutes
19. Add some warm water, cover the pan, put your gas setting to medium-low and let it simmer for about five to six minutes
20. Finely chop garlic cloves and finely slice few green chillies
21. In another pan add vegetable oil, chopped garlic, chopped up chillies, dried kasuri methi, and give a quick stir
22. Take the pan off heat, add red chili powder
23. Top it up to the chana masala

## Tips

- Do not add water when you grind onions because they tend to get little bitter.
- Keep stirring when you are frying your onions
- It's important that the water evaporates and they fry evenly.
- You don't want to brown them too much, just a brown tinge is enough.
- Cook the tomatoes well until you see the oil separating and coming on the surface
- Take the tadka pan off heat before adding red chili powder, its really important.
- Temper your chana masala at the end of cook off.

## Source

- Original video: https://www.facebook.com/share/v/12LBHGVsB24/?mibextid=wwXIfr
- Recipe page: https://www.cliprecipe.com/recipe/aa4f59a0-a427-47de-8046-b5d6eb881240
- Extracted: 2025-06-07

Extracted from the video by Clip Recipe (https://www.cliprecipe.com). Quantities and steps are as stated or shown in the video. Site guide for agents: https://www.cliprecipe.com/llms.txt