Chana Masala (Chickpeas in Tomato-Onion Sauce)

I had planned to post this recipe midweek but I wasn’t happy with the pictures. So I made it again, which is fine because I could eat it just about every day, I love it so much. Even my picky daughter will eat this.

In summer, I buy lots of Early Girl, dry farmed tomatoes and roast and freeze them so we’ll have tomatoes for several months after the season ends. You can read about that in this post. I choose this type of tomato because it has an intense and sweet flavor.

In a perfect world, I would run my roasted tomatoes through the food mill to remove the skins. The pictures would look better. But in the real world, I don’t often my tomatoes through the food mill for this recipe—I can’t be bothered. Sure the skin-free pics would make for better food porn but you get to see what I actually eat.

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cups dried chickpeas
• 2 tablespoons coconut oil (or other oil)
• 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
• 1 medium onion diced
• 4 teaspoons peeled, minced ginger
• 4 garlic cloves minced
• 1 to 2 serrano chiles or jalapeños, minced
• 2 cups roasted tomatoes
• 2 teaspoons garam masala
• 1 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
• 1 teaspoon salt or to taste
• 1/2 cup water

Directions

1. Soak chickpeas for six hours or longer and cook in a pot on the stove, in a slow cooker or in a pressure cooker until done. I cooked the chickpeas for this post in a mere 5 minutes in my pressure cooker (I love my pressure cooker).

2. In a large skillet or Dutch oven, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the cumin seeds and cook, stirring until fragrant, about 1 minute.

3. Add the onion, ginger, garlic, chiles and salt. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions have softened, about 5 minutes.

4. Add the garam masala, coriander, turmeric and salt and stir to coat the onion mixture. Cook, stirring occasionally, until fragrant, about 1 minute.

5. Stir in the tomatoes. Break them up with the back of a wooden spoon.

6. Stir in the chickpeas and the water. Bring to a simmer. Reduce the heat to medium low and simmer uncovered, stirring occasionally, until the sauce has thickened slightly, about 20 minutes.

Serve with rice or naan. We love naan. I have to figure out how to make it…