Black Chick Pea Curry (Kala Chana) Made in a Crock Pot

 

Black chick peas, also known as Kala Chana is like comfort food at my house. I ate this dish a lot growing up. My Nani (mom’s mom) would often throw in some sliced mushrooms into this dish to make it a little more interesting and we loved it! Black chick peas are very different from white chick peas. They have a much thicker skin and are smaller in size. I’ll often serve this dish with basmati rice or quinoa seasoned with cumin seeds. This is a very effortless recipe. I usually place the chickpeas in the crockpot in the morning and the only thing I have to do is make my onion mixture after 5 hours and add it to the crock pot and voila, I’m done!

 

Prep Time: 20 minutes    Cook Time: 5 hours high setting on crock pot    Serves: 4-6

Ingredients

  • 3 cups dry black chick peas
  • 1 medium onion chopped
  • 1 medium tomato chopped
  • 4 cloves chopped garlic
  • 1 tablespoon ginger
  • 2 tsp Pink Himalayan Salt
  • 1 tsp cumin seeds
  • 1/4 tsp red cayenne pepper
  • 1 tablespoon Garam Masala
  • 3 tablespoons Tomato paste
  • 2-3 tablespoons Avocado Oil
  • 2 tsp Kasoori Methi
  • 10 cups boiling water
  • 1/2 cup Cilantro

 

Directions

  1. Thoroughly wash black chick peas and put into crock pot. Add water. I find crock pots to be temperamental. I seem to have a very high powered one that cooks quickly.Place crock pot setting to high for 4 to 5 hours. If you are working and cannot adjust settings of the crock pot, place settings to low for 8 hours. If you find the chickpeas look dry and have absorbed too much of the water, add 2-3 cups more of boiling water.
  2. Before making onion mixture, turn crock pot settings to high. In a separate fry pan, heat avocado oil and sauté onions, garlic cumin seeds and ginger together.

    3. Once the onion mixture looks golden to light brown, add tomatoes and sauté for 10 minutes until they have softened and blended well with the onions. If you have a hand blender, you can purée the mixture to make a paste.

    4. Add salt, cayenne pepper, garam masala, kasoori methi and tomato paste and sauté on high heat for 5 minutes.

  5. Pour onion mixture into crock pot and mix well.

  6.Garnish with cilantro.

 

Serve with rice or quinoa and salad once the mixture appears to have blended well with the chick peas.