Name: Chana Masala (Chickpea Curry)
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 25 min
Total time: 35 min
Yield: 3 servings
Cuisine: Indian
Ingredients: 2 cans Canned chickpeas; 1 Onion; 2 Tomatoes; 3 cloves Garlic; 1 tbsp Ginger; 1 Green chili; 2 tbsp Cooking oil; 150 ml Water; 1 handful Cilantro; 0.5 Lemon; 1 tsp Ground cumin; 1 tsp Ground coriander; 0.5 tsp Turmeric; 1 tsp Garam masala; 0.5 tsp Chili powder; 1 tsp Salt

Ingredients

3servings

Canned chickpeas · ~480g, rinsed (or 480g cooked)2 cans
Onion · finely chopped1
Tomatoes · chopped (or 200g canned)2
Garlic · minced3 cloves
Ginger · minced1 tbsp
Green chili · optional1
Cooking oil2 tbsp
Water150 ml
Cilantro · garnish, optional1 handful
Lemon · to finish0.5
Spices
Ground cumin1 tsp
Ground coriander1 tsp
Turmeric0.5 tsp
Garam masala1 tsp
Chili powder · to taste0.5 tsp
Salt · to taste1 tsp

Steps

Heat the oil over medium and fry the onion until golden brown, 6–8 minutes (the flavor base).
⏲ 7 min
Add the garlic, ginger, and chili and fry 1 minute until fragrant.
⏲ 1 min
Add the cumin, coriander, turmeric, and chili powder and fry 30 seconds to wake up the spices (mind the heat so they don't burn).
⏲ 30 sec
Add the tomatoes and cook 5–6 minutes, crushing them, until thick and the oil just separates (the masala).
⏲ 6 min
Add the chickpeas, water, and salt, bring to a simmer, and cook gently 15 minutes. Mash a few chickpeas to thicken the gravy.
⏲ 15 min
Stir in the garam masala, simmer 1 minute, and turn off the heat. Squeeze in lemon juice, top with cilantro, and serve with rice or naan.
⏲ 1 min 30 sec

Variations

Chole: A richer Punjabi style — be generous with the spices.
With spinach: Add spinach for saag chana.
Coconut: A splash of coconut milk for a South Indian touch.
With potato: Add diced potato for a heartier chole aloo.

Tips

Mashing a few chickpeas is body without adding a thickener. It is thickening with nothing added (thickening). A few only — mash them all and you have hummus.
Brown the onions well — it's the key to deep flavor.
Bloom the spices briefly in oil to release their aroma.
Canned chickpeas make it fast and easy; cooked-from-dry are even nuttier.
Mash a few chickpeas to thicken the gravy naturally.
A finish of lemon juice and garam masala lifts the whole dish.

More detail and the reasons why (4)

The oil breaking out is not a flavour event, it is a moisture gauge. Green curry and rendang are also cooked "until the oil separates". A tomato masala is an emulsion: oil dispersed through the tomato's own water. An emulsion is always trying to separate (why sauces split), and once enough water has boiled off there is not enough left to keep the oil dispersed, so it breaks out and pools. The break means the water is gone.
Two things happen at that moment. The raw-tomato tang is volatile and leaves with the steam, so it goes at the same time; and from then on the spices are frying in fat rather than stewing in water. Moambe chicken is the case that treats the same split as a failure — there the palm-nut fat must not break, so it never gets a hard boil.
From dried chickpeas, the order in this recipe is wrong. Vinegar, tomato and lemon set pectin firm, so in bean dishes the tomato goes in after the beans are tender (soaking). This recipe puts the tomato first. It gets away with it only because canned chickpeas are already cooked. From dry, simmer them tender first and add the tomato after, the order Red Red and cassoulet use.
Why the garam masala goes in at the end. Ground spice has a window of about thirty seconds (blooming spices): far more surface area, so it burns in seconds, and, as in dal, burnt cumin is a bitterness there is no way back from. The spices in step 3 are being woken in fat; the garam masala is being laid on top. Different jobs.

The basics behind this dish

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