Delhi Style Chole | Instant-Pot Friendly Chickpea Curry!

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Cooking With Anadi

12K subscribers · smoky chickpea curry, spiced bold and darkened with tea

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What Is Chole?

Chole translates to “chickpeas.” “Chole masala” refers to a chickpea curry, where “masala” translates to the gravy made with spices. Chole masala is the marriage of boiled chickpeas in a flavorful tomato gravy with traditional Indian whole and ground spices. Chole masala is a very popular dish in India because it’s an excellent vegetarian protein source! When you can make some good chole, you’ve got plenty of options for a healthy balanced meal!

About This Delhi Style Chole Recipe

There are quite a few variations of chole masala. You’ve got homestyle versions and you’ve got street-style. This recipe will be my take on the classic street-style chole masala. This iconic dish is my favorite way to enjoy chole, and it’s been such a long time in the making! I’ve finally managed to recreate those wonderful flavors that are heavenly in street-style chole! Even if you’ve never had chole like this, you’re sure to love this, and if you know what I’m talking about, then this will truly take you to the streets of Delhi right at home!

Tips for Making a Great Delhi-Style Chickpea Curry

• Plan ahead and soak the beans overnight before cooking.
• To speed up the soaking process, boil the chickpeas for 1 hour and then pressure cook them using the steps directed in the recipe.
• Ensure the spice bundle is well sealed.
• For a darker color on the chickpeas, you’ll need to add more tea while the chickpeas are pressure cooking. The tea will stain the chickpeas and the water while they’re cooking. Use 4 Tbsp for a darker color and 2 Tbsp for a lighter shade of brown.
• Reserve the cooking water for the chickpeas, it contains a lot of flavor and provides the classic color we all love in chole masala.
• The base flavor of this curry comes from the “masala” that we cook with the onions, ginger, garlic and tomatoes. Make sure that you cook the masala well, until reddish brown and almost dried out.
• This dish uses more than usual amount of spices, so don’t be alarmed. This is after all similar to a street style experience.

Tools Needed

• Instant pot
• Wok
• Cheesecloth
• Measuring cups
• Wooden spoon
• Spatula

Ingredients for Delhi-style Chole

Let’s review what we’ll need for our Delhi Chole Recipe.

Remember, the FULL PRINTABLE RECIPE CARD for all ingredient quantities and step by step instructions. You can save the recipe for later, and it’s so easy to scale the ingredient quantities based on how many portions of chickpeas you want to make!

• Chickpeas: Chickpeas are the star of our dish! Ensure that they have been soaking overnight prior to cooking or have boiled for 1-2 hours if you forgot to soak your chickpeas.
• Black tea: You can use tea leaves or powdered black tea. This is a must to stain our chickpeas, and it will provide a lot of flavor.
• Whole spices: Cinnamon stick, cloves, bay leaf, dried Kashmiri red chilies, whole black peppercorn, shahi jeera (caraway seeds), dried pomegranate seeds.
• Ground Spices: Garam masala, ground coriander, ground cumin, Kashmiri mirch and salt to taste.
• Essentials: Garlic cloves, ginger, onions, tomatoes, green chilies.
• Ghee: Used sauté the ingredients to make our masala.
• Onions: We’ll have extra raw sliced onions for garnish.
• Lime: Sliced in wedges, for garnish and to squeeze on lime juice when serving.

You may have seen other recipes use gooseberry or amla. It’s not easy to find here in Canada, and I figured my North American audience may also have difficulty finding it. Trust me, I don’t think you’re missing out by omitting it, but if you do have access for it, then by all means include it!

Furthermore, many recipes use pomegranate seeds, but to make things convenient for me, I used dried pomegranate seeds. Again, use whatever is best for you!

How to Make Authentic Street-style Chickpea Curry

To Prepare the Chickpeas

Stovetop Pressure Cooker

1. Place all the whole spices for the chickpeas in the center of a muslin cloth. Make sure the cloth is at least 3-4 layers thick. Add the tea leaves as well and then tie a knot. You can also use a kitchen string to tie it.
2. Add chickpeas to stovetop pressure cooker and add around 3-4 times the volume of water, along with the bundle of spices from earlier.
3. Season with salt, add the ginger-garlic paste and cook for 2-3 whistles on high heat, then turn down the heat to medium and cook for 15-20 minutes.
4. Let the pressure release naturally.

Instant Pot

1. Place all the whole spices for the chickpeas in the center of a muslin cloth. Make sure the cloth is at least 3-4 layers thick. Add the tea leaves as well and then tie a knot. You can also use a kitchen string to tie it.
2. Add chickpeas to the Instant Pot and add 3/4 to 1 quarts of water along with the bundle of spices from earlier.
3. Season with salt, add the ginger-garlic paste and set the Instant Pot to Bean and Chili mode and cook for 30 minutes.
4. Let the pressure release naturally (about 20 minutes).

To Prepare the Delhi Chole

1. Heat ghee in a wok/pan on medium heat and add the caraway seeds. Cook until the shahi jeera/caraway seeds turn reddish brown and aromatic.
2. Add the onions and saute until the onions become soft and translucent, making sure to stir ever so often.
3. Once the onions turn slightly brown, add in the tomatoes and cook while stirring until they start to break down. Add all of the dried spices and 1-2 tsp of salt. Keep stirring from time to time.
4. Add a splash of water at any stage if the mixture starts to stick to the pan. Once this masala feels fluffy, slides around the pan easily and has released some of the oil, add the cooked chickpeas, along with the cooking liquid. Discard the bundle of spices.
5. Season with salt and simmer on medium low heat until the gravy starts to thicken. Reduce the consistency to your preference, traditionally this type of chole has a very thick gravy.
6. When the gravy is ready, serve with sliced red onions, green chilies and lime if desired.

How to Serve Chickpea Curry

The most famous combo on the streets is to transform this chole into a Delhi style chole bhature recipe, and that’s what I did as you can see in the video! Bhature are huge fluffy breads, made with semolina and all-purpose flour, and they are deep fried in vegetable or peanut oil. It was only my second time ever making bhature, but I think I did a decent job! The hard part is to get the bhature to rise! You can check out my bhature recipe here to enjoy the complete Delhi style chole bhature experience.

You could also serve this Delhi-Style Chole with puris. Puris are similar to bhature, but they are made with atta flour and they are much smaller. Furthermore, they’re fried in ghee instead of oil. I actually really love the combo of puris and chole, so I definitely need to make this again and enjoy with puris soon!

Another excellent bread option is kulche. I’ve never made kulche at home before but really would love to give it a shot! Kulche is actually one of my favorite breads, and I really have no idea when I last had it! Kulche is made with flour over a tawa pan, so it’s an easy lower-fat alternative to the previously mentioned breads. Another delicious bread that’s low in fat that you could pair with this Delhi-Style Chole is Homestyle Roti! Rotis are made with atta flour, and they are puffy breads made over the tawa! No ghee or oil required!

Finally, if you want an extra side or don’t want to eat bread, then you could of course serve your chole with simple basmati rice. Check out How to Make the Best Basmati Rice for tips and tricks on achieving that perfect fluffy rice - either boiled or steamed!

Chole Masala, Chana Masala and Punjabi Chole Masala: What Is the Difference?

The names get used interchangeably on menus, so here is how they actually differ. Chana masala is the broadest, everyday term — any chickpea curry in a spiced tomato gravy. Punjabi chole masala is the homestyle version: a lighter, more golden gravy, usually richer with ghee and served alongside bhature. What you are making here is the Delhi street-style version, and the giveaway is the colour. The 2 tablespoons of black tea leaves tied into the spice bundle stain both the chickpeas and their cooking water a deep brown, and that stained liquid goes straight into the gravy — use 4 tablespoons for a darker result and 2 for a lighter shade of brown. The other difference is thickness: street-style chole is simmered down until the gravy clings to the chickpeas rather than pooling around them.

Making Your Own Chole Masala Powder

This recipe leans on pre-ground spices: 1 tablespoon garam masala, 1 tablespoon ground coriander, 1/2 tablespoon ground cumin and 1/2 tablespoon Kashmiri chili, which is simply a red chili powder with far more colour than heat. Measured the other way, that is 3 teaspoons garam masala, 3 teaspoons coriander powder, 1 1/2 teaspoons cumin powder and 1 1/2 teaspoons Kashmiri red chili powder. If you would rather build a masala powder from scratch, dry roast the whole spices in a dry pan over low heat until they smell toasty but have not darkened, let them cool completely, then grind them to a fine powder. A tablespoon of coriander seeds, a teaspoon of cumin seeds and a couple of dried Kashmiri chilies will get you most of the way there, and freshly ground spices are noticeably more fragrant than anything from a jar.

Ingredient Substitutes and Optional Additions

Black tea bags: no loose leaves in the house? Two black tea bags tied inside the muslin bundle do exactly the same staining job as the 2 tablespoons of tea leaves — just keep the paper tags outside the knot.

Mango powder: this recipe draws its sourness from 1/2 teaspoon of dried pomegranate seeds. A pinch of amchur, or mango powder, is the usual stand-in and gives a sharper, fruitier tang.

Kasuri methi: not in the recipe as written, but a pinch of dried fenugreek leaves crushed between your palms and stirred in right at the end is a very common Delhi finishing touch.

Hing: a pinch of asafoetida bloomed in the tablespoon of ghee alongside the shahi jeera is optional, and it is the traditional answer to how heavy a bowl of chickpeas can sit.

Black cardamoms and green cardamoms: the spice bundle here is cinnamon stick, cloves, whole black peppercorns, bay leaf and dried Kashmiri red chilies. One black cardamom will add a smoky note and two green cardamoms will add perfume — both are optional extras rather than part of the recipe.

Vegan: swap the 1 tablespoon of ghee for 1 to 2 tablespoons of a neutral oil and the whole dish is vegan, since everything else in it is plant-based already.

Soda: a pinch of baking soda in the soaking or cooking water softens stubborn chickpeas faster. Use it sparingly — too much turns them mushy and leaves a faintly soapy taste.

Cooking Notes, Texture and Storing Leftovers

Soak chickpeas overnight whenever you can; 1/2 cup of dried chole will roughly double in size. If you forget, bring them to a rolling boil in enough water to cover them generously, boil for an hour with the lid off, then pressure cook as directed. In the Instant Pot that means 3/4 to 1 quart of water — 3 to 4 cups — on Bean and Chili for 30 minutes with a natural release. For the masala, take the onions to golden brown before the fresh tomatoes go in, then keep the pan on medium-low heat once the chickpeas and their cooking liquid are back so the gravy thickens without catching. Texture is what you judge by: the masala should feel fluffy, slide around the pan easily and have released some of its oil before the chickpeas join it. For less heat, leave the dried Kashmiri red chili out of the spice bundle and halve the Kashmiri chili powder. Leftovers keep in an airtight container in the fridge for up to four days and will thicken as they sit, so loosen them with a splash of water when you reheat. Finish the bowl the way it is served on the street — sliced red onions, a lime wedge, and chopped cilantro if you like it.

Quick Reference: Measurements and Heat

Everything is in the printable recipe card, but if you like to measure as you go: 1 teaspoon salt seasons the chickpeas in the pot, with more going into the masala to taste, and 1 tablespoon ghee is all the fat this curry needs. The Instant Pot takes 3 to 4 cups water for 1/2 cup of soaked chole. The chickpeas are seasoned with salt and ginger garlic paste before they cook — one to two teaspoons ginger garlic paste is the usual amount at this quantity. If your spice drawer only runs to a teaspoon measure, the ground spices scale like this: one teaspoon garam masala three times over, one teaspoon coriander powder three times, one and a half of a teaspoon cumin powder, and one and a half of a teaspoon Kashmiri chili powder. Grinding your own instead? Start with one tablespoon coriander seeds. Cooking it vegan means 2 tablespoons oil in place of the ghee. And on heat: the stovetop pressure cooker wants high heat for its 2 to 3 whistles — medium-high heat is plenty if your burner runs hot — then medium for 15 to 20 minutes, and medium-low once the gravy is simmering down.

Other Indian Bean & Grain Recipes

• Best-No Soak Instant Pot Rajma Masala
• Restaurant-Style Dal Makhani
• Punjabi Lobia
• Maseladar Chana Dal Tadka