Cholay – Easy Curried Chickpeas with Jasmine Rice

This fragrant cholay, also spelled chole, is an easy curried chickpea dish featuring tomatoes, onion, and spices. Pantry staples make preparation a cinch! You can serve this flavorful and delicious dish with rice, naan, roti, or however you’d like.

Making this cholay as written yields a savory dish that smells like something you would be served at an Indian restaurant. This curried chickpea recipe is spicy enough to clear out your sinuses, but feel free to adjust the spices to your taste. The cinnamon, cloves, and allspice do give it a slightly sweet flavor, so if you only want savory spices in a main dish, leave them out.

Are cholay and chana masala the same thing?

They are very similar. Cholay is a Punjabi variation with slightly different spices. Cholay means chickpea in Punjabi, and chana means chickpea in Hindi. Chana masala refers to any Indian chickpea curry, while cholay or cholay masala refers specifically to the Punjabi regional variation.

Adaptations

I call this an easy cholay recipe because, well, authentic cholay requires a lot of steps. Some of those steps don’t seem to me like they would have much of an impact on flavor, so I skipped them.

For those curious, in a more traditional recipe, you would boil the chickpeas in black tea with a bay leaf for a minute or two. This darkens the chickpeas and is supposed to make them slightly easier to digest, so if that is a concern for you, try this method. However, I just didn’t want to wash a ton of dishes.

Other more traditional cooking methods have you divide the chickpeas, onion, and tomato so you end up with some more cooked and some less cooked. I cooked it all to almost a mush, again to conserve dishes. The taste was still delicious, but if you want more substantial chunks of tomato (especially if you use fresh instead of canned), feel free to divide them.

The spices are the real star of this dish. Some versions call for either garam masala or curry. Those are both spice blends. However, if your spice rack looks like mine, you probably don’t have room for more blends. Instead, you can make something similar with common spices.

Easy garam masala recipe (with ground spices you probably already own)

• 1 Tbsp cumin
• 2 tsp coriander
• 2 tsp ground black pepper
• 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper (optional)
• 2 tsp cardamom
• 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp clove
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg

Then, mix! You can make a more authentic garam masala by getting whole spices (cinnamon sticks, cardamom pods, peppercorns, etc.), toasting them lightly in a skillet, and grinding them in a coffee grinder. Using already ground spices yields a similar result in much less time. Feel free to add fennel, mace, bay leaves, or whatever you’d like. Some blends even contain rose petals!

According to this spice company, you can even use pumpkin pie spice in a pinch!

Curious about the history and health benefits of cinnamon? Check out this baked porridge post for a peek at the drama of the spice trade.

I didn’t have any coriander on hand, so I used fenugreek seeds. They are hard to track down, but I had some from another recipe. They are supposed to go well with cumin and coriander, and they were good in this cholay.

Honestly, this smelled really good with just the fresh ingredients, too: onion, garlic, ginger, and tomato. You could get away with little to no added spices as well for a plainer dish, or maybe just cumin, salt, pepper, and possibly turmeric.

To read more about the health benefits of turmeric and cumin, check out my silken tofu scramble post.

Cholay Ingredients

Before you begin, you will need:

Edible Ingredients

• One 15.5-ounce can of chickpeas (garbanzo beans), drained and rinsed
• One 14.5-ounce can of diced tomatoes, divided roughly in half
• 2 cloves of garlic, peeled and minced (or you can use a garlic press)
• 1 Tbsp minced fresh ginger
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
• 1/2 tsp chili powder
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp turmeric
• 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper (optional, omit for less heat)
• 1/4 tsp fennel seeds
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 tsp salt, plus a pinch for the rice
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon (optional)
• 1/2 tsp paprika
• 1/4 tsp fenugreek seeds (completely optional as they are hard to find)
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 2 whole cloves (optional)
• 2 allspice berries (optional)
• 1 cup uncooked rice (I used jasmine rice.)
• 1 cup water

Tools

• Large skillet and spoon
• Knife and cutting board
• Pot with lid for cooking rice (I used my Instant Pot.)
• Can opener
• Measuring spoons
• Garlic press or allow extra time for mincing garlic with a knife

How to make cholay (the easy way)

1. First, cook the rice. I used equal parts rice and water with a pinch of salt in my instant pot.
2. While the rice is cooking, measure out your spices. Keep all the powdered spices together. Make another pile of the whole spices: fenugreek seeds, fennel seeds, cloves, and allspice berries. Keep the bay leaf on its own.
3. Then, chop the onion.
4. After that, in a large skillet, heat the olive oil over medium heat.
5. Once the oil is hot, add the onion. Then, cook and stir until golden brown.
6. When the onion is almost done, clear the middle of the skillet and add the whole spices. Let them cook for a minute or so, stirring as needed to prevent burning.
7. Then, add the fresh garlic and ginger to the middle of the pan and cook until fragrant.
8. After that, add half the diced tomatoes and the bay leaf. Combine and let the tomato juice cook down so your skillet won’t overflow. When there’s room, add the rest of the tomatoes.
9. When the tomato juice has cooked down enough to make room, add the chickpeas. Mix thoroughly.
10. Once the chickpeas have started to take the color of the dish, simmer for ten minutes (or longer if desired). If you want a soupier cholay, add water or vegetable broth, and if you want more of a paste, keep simmering beyond ten minutes until the liquid has reduced to your liking.
11. Finally, fish out the bay leaf and discard it. Serve the cholay over the rice, garnish with parsley, lemon juice, or yogurt if desired, and enjoy!

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Variations on Cholay

In order to make a soupier cholay, add water or vegetable broth.

If you want only savory ingredients, omit the cinnamon, cloves, and allspice.

In order to reduce the spiciness of this dish, omit the cayenne pepper and/or the chili powder.

If you have fresh tomatoes you want to use instead of canned, that would be a nice addition.

The same goes for cooking dried chickpeas. However, I don’t know if I would consider this recipe easy if you started with dried chickpeas.

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Related recipes discussing spices, their history, and their health benefits

My baked porridge post discusses the history and health benefits of cinnamon.

In addition, this silken tofu scramble discusses the health benefits of turmeric and cumin.

If you liked this dish, I think you’ll love my tikil gomen, or Ethiopian stir-fried cabbage with potatoes and carrots!

Try serving cholay with this vegan roti recipe!

I hope you enjoyed this cholay recipe for easy curried chickpeas!