Chole infused with Green Tea (chickpea curry)

30 Jul Chole infused with Green Tea (chickpea curry)

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Growing up a first-generation Indian-American, my parents thought it was best to acclimate us to American culture by not teaching us their native language, Kannada, the official language of the state of Karnataka in south India. Thanks mom and dad… So with this first post I’m going to explain the name “Oota Beku”… I’m not quite sure if it’s a real phrase spoken in Bangalore (my parents home city), but it’s two Kannada words put together. “Oota” translates as food, and “Beku” translates as want. I’m assuming Kannada is like French (or is it Spanish) where you put the noun before the verb… No idea… Either way, I liked the way Oota Beku sounds, and I’m going to tell all of you that it means I want food. Cool?

Over the early years of my childhood on the west side of Chicago… (suburbs).. my mom would make us such comfort classics, like “rice balls” which are rice, mixed with salt and melted butter, and formed into little balls… Or my all-time favorite, “buttermilk rice with crushed up bbq chips”, which I don’t have to describe… But trust me, it’s so damn good.

Today, however, I’m going to focus on “Chole” or “channa masala” which is a form of comfort food that’s vegan-friendly, created in North India, but eaten throughout. It can be served with puri, chapati, or just paired with a little rice. 

Choose your tomatoes.

In February, I moved to Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, and literally have a garden in my backyard. I planted tomatoes for the first time in my life, and was so pleased to see it worked… I can keep things alive! It doesn’t matter what tomatoes you use, but I loved how this turned out, so I recommend using yellow cherry-sized tomatoes and one larger green tomato.

Gather your ingredients

The main ingredient of chole, is chickpea. You can get the canned stuff, but we’re all living in the middle of a pandemic, so you’ve got the time… Just soak some dry chickpeas overnight. It tastes so much better.. And by the way, homemade hummus is sooo good with dry chickpeas.. I wanted to make a twist on a traditional chole, by slow cooking them with green tea instead of black tea. It’s also important to note that you don’t have to follow any recipe to a tea (unless you’re baking some kind of cake or something…)

The “Tadka”, the start…

Where my recipe differs from most chole recipes is that I have to infuse an element of South Indian cooking to the process. That process almost always starts with a tadka, which is heating up mustard seeds in oil. It brings an element of earthy spiciness to your dish. As soon as the seeds start popping, then you add other elements like cloves, which is specific to chole.

Layering on flavors and spices and vegetables and…

Indian cooking is always about heavy layering of spices and vegetables. For chole, it starts with the tadka, then add cloves, shaved garlic, minced chili peppers, then onions. Cook the onions down so they’re translucent, then add cumin, your chopped tomatoes, and finally salt, paprika, chili powder, tumeric… Cook it down. You should be able to smell an amazing spicy aroma.

Putting it all together

After your tomato onion mixture is cooked down, add your cooked chickpeas to the mix, and mix it all together. Chole is typically a loose slightly watery curry. I had vegetable stock, so I used half of that and some water so that the mixture was immersed in liquid (1″ above the mix). Stir and let that simmer for approximately 30 minutes.

Recipe

Serves 3
Approximately 1.5 hours cooking time (after soaking chickpeas overnight)

Ingredients:
– 1 cup dry chickpeas (soaked overnight)
– Tomatoes (I used mostly cherry tomatoes but use what you have)
– 2 Thai chili peppers
– 1/2 of a large onion (I used red)
– Green tea (1 bag)
– Cardamom (4-5)
– Black Peppercorn (4-5)
– Curry Leaves (4-5)
– 2 Cinnamon sticks
– Mustard seeds
– Cumin
– 3 Cloves of Garlic
– Ginger
– Turmeric
– Paprika
– Chili Powder
– Vegetable stock
– Cilantro
– Salt

1. Soak dry chickpeas overnight.
2. The next day, discard water from chickpeas, add 2.5 cups fresh water to pot with chickpeas and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and add green tea, crushed cardamom pods, cinnamon stick, black peppercorn, salt, and curry leaves. Simmer for one hour.
3. Prepare your vegetables. Chop up tomatoes, onions, garlic, and chili peppers.
4. After your chickpeas are cooked, drain in colander, and remove tea bag, cinnamon sticks, and cardamom pods. You should see a greenish brown tint to your chickpeas.
5. Start the tadka. Heat a couple table spoons olive oil in a pot on medium high heat, then add mustards seeds. Once you hear the mustard seeds start to pop, zest ginger right into the pot. Then add onions. cook for a few minutes until they become translucent. Add garlic and chili peppers. Then add cumin.
6. Continue to build your flavors by adding the tomatoes, then turmeric, paprika, chili powder, and more salt. Once it’s all cooked, add your cooked chickpeas, and mix it together for 5 minutes. Add equal parts vegetable stock and water so that the chickpea tomato mixture is immersed in liquid (1″ above the mix).
7. Reduce heat and simmer, covered for 30 minutes.
8. Remove from heat, serve with rice, chapati, or puri. Garnish with chopped cilantro. Maybe add a little greek yogurt on the side (not if you’re vegan) and enjoy!