Being a food enthusiast, I can lay claim to my share of learnings. One of the major aspect of this learning process has been to expect surprises at most unexpected places. My strong conviction into this philosophy was reaffirmed, when last month we went for a road trip. I enjoy the road trips for the foods that I encounter at different places, and interspersed somewhere in heaps of dishes on the menu, one can find few gem of the recipes.
During my last road trip, we halted at a Dhaba, owned by a Punjabi owner and had a pretty exhaustive menu. I ordered couple of Lassis, as that gave me some time to neatly examine the menu, and keeps the server at bay for some time. I found Achaari Chole Pulao nestled in rice section of the menu card and could have easily skipped my gaze, had I not been attentive enough. I liked the idea of mixing Chole with Achaari masala and then turning that mixture into a flavorful pulao. We quickly tried to do reverse engineering of the pulao, as we consumed it, bite by bite, to decode the ingredients involved into making the dish. As we already had put the Achaari masala and few recipes that make use of it on our website and YouTube channel, we thought this would make a very interesting addition to that list.
Once we reached pune and I was back in kitchen, I tried to replicate the recipe based upon my remembrances of the dish. We had to do this few more times before we were satisfied with our efforts. The soul of the recipe is Panch Phoran masala, in powdered form, which is a concoction of 5 spices. You can check video embedded below for how to make Panch Phoran.
Chickpeas or Chole are boiled and cooked with Indian spices to make a flavorful preparation. If you do not want to add rice to this dish, this can definitely be consumed with Roti, Paratha and naan. However adding rice would give you an opportunity to explore an interesting pulao, other than the usual jeera rice, green pea’s pulao and paneer pulao that we are used. You can modify the spiciness of the dish to suit your palate, and if you like a spicier version, then we have some Raita recipes that can pacify your taste receptors.
Make this recipe for your family, for their Sunday lunch and share your comments in the feedback section below.
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 3-4
- ½ cup chole (chickpeas) soaked overnight or minimum for 6 hours.
- 160 grams long grain basmati rice (soaked for 30 minutes).
- 100 grams onions sliced lengthwise
- 2 green chilies slit lengthwise
- 2 tbsp ginger-garlic paste
- 1 large (black) cardamom
- 6-7 cloves
- 2 tsp cumin seeds
- 4 small (green) cardamom
- 2 and ½ tsp red chili powder
- 1 and ½ tsp garam masala powder
- ½ tsp turmeric powder
- 2 tsp panch phoran powder
- Ghee.
- Salt
- Pressure Cook chickpeas in a pressure cooker with 2 cups of water and 1 tsp salt.
- We must pressure cook on medium flame until 3-4 whistles.
- Heat 4 tbsp ghee (clarified butter) in a pan.
- Put black cardamom, cloves, green cardamom, cumin seeds in the pan.
- We will fry until cloves and black cardamom get puffed.
- Add green chilies and onions. Fry onions until they become soft.
- After 2 minutes of frying on medium flame, onions become soft.
- Now add ginger-garlic paste and fry until raw smell from the paste disappears.
- Fry ginger-garlic paste for 2 minutes on medium flame.
- Now add turmeric powder, garam masala powder,Panch Phoran powder, red chili powder.Stir in the ingredients.
- Now add boiled chickpeas, and mix it well.
- Now add ¼th cup water, salt to taste.Mix them nicely.
- Cook the chickpeas covered for 3 minutes.After 3 minutes, add soaked rice, 2 and ½ cup water
- Allow the rice to boil on medium flame.
- As rice begins to boil, lower the flame.
- Cover and cook the rice until it is completely cooked.
- Rice gets cooked in 10 minutes.Cooking time may vary depending upon the quality of rice and the soaking time.
- Achaari Chole Pulao can be relished with curd or raita .
Click here to watch recipe video
Click here to watch How to Make Panch Phoran
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