Loup Studio

Ingredients:

Serves 4

5-6 tbsp sunflower oil

2 tins chickpeas

4 tomatoes

5 cloves garlic

5cm piece of ginger

3 red onions

1-2 green chillies

1 bay leaf

2 brown cardamoms

5 green cardamoms

2 cloves

5-6 black pepper corns

1 tsp cumin seeds

Cinnamon stick

¼ tsp turmeric powder

2 tsp coriander powder

¼ tsp Kashmiri chilli powder

Salt

Fresh coriander

Method:

1. Drain chickpeas and put in the pressure cooker with a pinch of salt and a bay leaf. Add in enough water to cover the chickpeas by 1 inch.  Cook until you hear 3-4 whistles. If you don’t have a pressure cooker, it’s no problem, but you’ll just need to boil your chickpeas (covered), for longer. They need to be super soft.

2. Roughly chop 1 onion and blend with the ginger and garlic into a paste. I use the Nutri-Bullet but any blender works well.

3. Chop the remaining onions very fine, keep to one side.

4. Chop the tomatoes finely, and the chilli if using, keep to one side.

5. Prepare your dry masala spices; black cardamom, green cardamom, cloves, black peppercorns, cumin seeds and piece of cinnamon

6. Heat 5-6 tbsp oil in a saucepan/casserole.

7. Fry the dry masala spices in the hot oil.

8. Once the spices are spluttering, add in the chopped onion.

9. Allow it to fry until the onions are golden brown… not burnt at all! It should take between 5-10 minutes depending on your pan.

10. Prepare your powder mix: turmeric powder, coriander powder, and Kashmiri chilli powder – leave to one side.

11. Add the onion, garlic, ginger paste to your golden brown onions. Keep cooking and stirring until it has all browned.

12. Add in the prepared powder spices and stir.

13. Straight away add the tomatoes and chilli. Now add some salt. Allow it to keep cooking until it is paste like.

14. Add 1 teaspoon of chana masala (if using)

15. Now add in the chickpeas with the water, stir well, reduce the heat to low and cover.

16. Cook for 10-15 minutes until it’s a lovely thick sauce consistency.

17.  Once cooked, serve with rice, raita, paratha… whatever you like! I love lime pickle with mine.

Enjoy! L x