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Slow cooked Chickpea Masala (Chana Masala)

Name: Slow cooked Chickpea Masala (Chana Masala)
Yield: Serves 6 to 8
Cuisine: Indian
Ingredients: 2.5 cups dried chickpeas, cleaned and washed; 1 onion, finely chopped; 1 tomato, finely chopped; 6 cloves garlic, finely minced; 1 jalapeno, deseeded and finely minced; 1 tablespoon coriander powder; 1 tablespoon garam masala; 1 tablespoon chaat masala; 1.5 teaspoons salt or to taste; 2 tablespoons tomato paste; 1 cinnamon stick; 5 cups water; 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional)

by: Shalini Singh @ Shalini's Kitchen

February 16, 2015

0 Ratings

Serves 6 to 8

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Author Notes

SLOW COOKED (for 13 hours) CHICKPEAS in a tangy sauce (Chana Masala). All the ingredients are basically dumped into the slow cooker and you let it cook on high for 12 to 14 hours. The result is simply amazing. Couldn't get any easier. The important spice here is Chaat Masala. It is available online or in Indian stores and is really essential to the delicious and tangy flavor of this dish. —Shalini Singh @ Shalini's Kitchen

Ingredients

2.5 cups dried chickpeas, cleaned and washed
1 onion, finely chopped
1 tomato, finely chopped
6 cloves garlic, finely minced
1 jalapeno, deseeded and finely minced
1 tablespoon coriander powder
1 tablespoon garam masala
1 tablespoon chaat masala
1.5 teaspoons salt or to taste
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 cinnamon stick
5 cups water
¹/₂ teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional)

Directions

Place all ingredients in a slow cooker.
Turn setting to high for 13 hours.
Serve with rice or Indian bread. (Don't forget to remove Cinnamon stick before serving).

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4 Reviews

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dickensthedog January 9, 2017

Good evening,
I think that there may be an error in this recipe. It calls for 13 cups of water, which I followed against my better judgment, and after 13 hours of cooking on high in my slow cooker, what resulted was a pot full of broth with a layer of chickpeas at the bottom. It was not a saucy stew as pictured by any stretch of the imagination. Perhaps the correct amount of water was 3 vs. 13 cups?

Shalini S. January 10, 2017

Hi and thanks for trying out the recipe and I am sorry this recipe did not work out. The water amount indicated is not incorrect. These are dry chickpeas that have not been soaked and should absorb a lot of the water during the cooking process leaving enough for a nice thick sauce. You do have to mix it in the end after it has cooked. And once you mix it, it should be a saucy stew. 3 cups will not cook them. It could be that slow cookers vary and chickpeas vary perhaps? And once the chickpeas are cooked you mash a few gently to make the sauce thicker. The other option would be to start with less water (9 to 10 cups) then add more as necessary. I will also remake this recipe again this week and provide any updates. Sorry about the trouble. Thanks and happy new year. Shalini

dickensthedog January 10, 2017

Hi Shalini, and thanks for getting back to me. I haven't cooked dried chickpeas before, and I did suspect that the fact that they are usually soaked prior to cooking accounted for the large quantity of water in the recipe, as you stated. But I ended up with a shallow layer of chickpeas at the bottom of the slow cooker which was still almost filled with watery liquid after 13 hrs cooking, and no amount of mixing helped. Perhaps slow cooker variation is responsible for the outcome, however, my husband came home before me, and he said it was boiling furiously after about 12 hours. Oh well, you can't win them all, lol.