Chana Pulao or Chole Pulao is an interesting recipe that combines plain steamed rice with a flavorfully spiced Chole Masala. It’s a recipe that you must possess in your culinary repertoire to turn the leftover rice lying in your refrigerator into a dish to crave for.
Many a time, we find our refrigerator overstuffed with leftovers, meal from previous night often has no takers. Nobody likes to eat same food in consecutive meals. At such times, having few recipes, that turns this leftover into a tempting and delicious preparation, up your sleeves is a trait that one would like to possess. Quite often these leftovers end up in a trash bin for lack of innovation. The most common victims of this being Roti, steamed rice and Dal.
I am a strong proponent of reusing and avoiding food wastage at all cost. While I am fully aware of the ill-effects of consuming leftovers on a regular basis, this blog post is an attempt to prevent food wastage on an occasional basis.
This recipe of Chana Pulao or Chole Pulao uses leftover rice and combines cooked rice with a flavorfully spiced Chole Masala– (spiced with spice blend –Panch Poran)
Do check out our other recipes where you can use leftover rice – Phodnicha Bhat, Vegetable Fried Rice, Tawa Pulao and Lemon Rice.
Here are the easy steps to cook Chole Pulao or Chole rice:
Wash Chole in clean water. Soak overnight or for 5-6 hours (See our Tip for Power Soaking, if you want to achieve similar results in less than an hour).In a pressure cooker, put Chole with almost 2 cups of water or till the Chole gets submerged in water completely.
Pressure cook on medium flame till 3 whistles.
Let the pressure drop naturally and remove boiled Chole in a bowl and reserve its water in different bowl.
Now heat the 3-4 tablespoon oil in a wide bottom Kadhai, Add bay leaves and cumin seeds.
As cumin seeds splutter, sauté the green chilies for a second. Add the sliced onions and cook them till they get tender and then lightly brown in color.
Now add ginger-garlic paste and turmeric powder and cook until you get rid of its raw flavor. This process may take around 3 minutes if cooked on medium high flame.
Add ½ quantity of chopped coriander in this masala as I personally love the fragrance of coriander coats the entire masala which forms the base of gravy. Mix. Add chopped tomatoes and now mix them on high flame.
Reduce the flame to low and cover the tomatoes till they get completely cooked and becomes mushy. You may add little salt to speed up this cooking process.
After 8-10 min uncover the tomatoes and you would find them completely cooked. At this stage add the dry spices: red chili powder, garam masala powder and Panch Phoran powder.
Now Bhunao this masala on medium flame till its oil gets separated from the sides. Add little water in between as this masala tends to get dried due to heat. Make sure you use the water we reserved from the Chole boiling
Once the masala is cooked, add boiled chole and mix gently ensuring not to mash with ladle. Adjust salt.
Add water (almost ½ cup) and allow the gravy to simmer. As it simmers, reduce the flame and cover chole for 2-3 min.
Uncover the chole after 2-3 min, and cook for another couple of minutes if necessary to reduce its extra moisture as we need a thick gravy to coat the rice.
Now in the final step, add leftover rice and chopped coriander. Mix them with the help of 2 forks gently in the masala.
Remove from heat and cover till the serving time.
Hot chole rice is a perfect lazy weekend Comfort Lunch. You can even pack it in your lunchbox.
Relish it with a pickle, salad or raita of your choice.
Tip of the Day: Many times, we crave for eating Chole Pulao/masala but then realize we have missed soaking the Kabuli Chana. Our Tip of the day is “How to Quickly Soak Chana”. In a large vessel filled with water, put Kabuli Chana and boil it. As Kabuli Chana begins to boil, reduce heat and simmer for 2 mins. Switch off the heat, and keep Chana covered for an hour. This is a quick technique to soak Chana. Let us know what you feel of this tip in comment section below.
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 3-4
- ½ Cup=125 grams Kabuli Chana (Garbanzo Beans)
- 1 Cup=200 Grams Long Grain Basmati Rice
- 2 medium sized=100 grams Onions (sliced lengthwise)
- 2 large=180 grams tomatoes (finely chopped)
- ½ Cup fresh coriander leaves (finely chopped)
- Brown Onions for garnish (Optional)
- Cooking Oil
- 2 Bay Leaf
- 1 tsp Cumin Seeds
- 3 Green Chilies (sliced into lengths)
- 2 tbsp Ginger-Garlic Paste
- Salt to taste
- ½ tsp Turmeric Powder
- 2½ tsp Red Chili Powder (Spicy)
- 2 tsp Panch Phoran Powder (Link in description box or click on the card)
- 1½ tsp Garam Masala Powder
- Soak Chole overnight or at least for 5-6 hours. Put Chole in a pressure cooker, add 2 Cups of water and 1 tsp Salt. Stir to mix the salt. Pressure cook on medium heat until 3-4 whistles.
- After 3-4 whistles, Chole is nicely cooked. We are going to reserve the water.
- In a pan, add 3-4 tbsp Cooking Oil. Add Bay leaf, Cumin Seeds. Let Cumin Seeds splutter. Add Green Chilies and Sliced Onions. Fry until Onions become light brown in color.
- After 5-6 mins, Onions become light brown in color. Add Ginger-Garlic Paste, turmeric powder. Mix well and fry for 2 mins.
- After 2 mins, raw flavor disappears. Add Coriander Leaves (half quantity), Chopped Tomatoes. Cook tomatoes until it becomes mushy. Add salt to speed up the softening.
- Reduce the heat. Cover and cook the tomatoes. After 10 mins, tomatoes become soft and mushy.
- Add red chili powder, garam masala powder and panch phoran powder. Panch Phoran Powder makes this Chole rice aromatic and flavorful. (Link: https://youtu.be/FO4kBAvnUBA)
- Bhunao the Masala until Oil begins to ooze out from the masala paste. During Bhunao, add 2-3 tbsp water(reserved water) and continue Bhunao process
- After 6-7 mins of bhunao, Oil begins to ooze out . Onion and tomato masala paste has acquired the right consistency.
- Add Boiled Chole. Mix gently as Chole are soft and we want to maintain their texture and shape. Add Salt to taste.
- Add reserved water (about ½ cup). On medium heat, we will allow Chole to simmer. Reduce the heat and cook covered for 2-3 mins.
- Uncover after 3 mins. To get rid of excess moisture, cook uncovered for couple of mins on medium heat.
- After 2 mins of uncovered cooking, chole becomes of coating consistency. Reduce heat and add leftover rice.
- Add chopped coriander leaves. With couple of forks, mix rice with Chole. Switch off the heat and keep Chole Rice covered. Serve hot.
- Tip of the Day: Many times, we crave for eating Chole Pulao/masala but then realize we have missed soaking the Kabuli Chana. Our Tip of the day is "How to Quickly Soak Chana". In a large vessel filled with water, put Kabuli Chana and boil it. As Kabuli Chana begins to boil, reduce heat and simmer for 2 mins. Switch off the heat, and keep Chana covered for an hour. This is a quick technique to soak Chana.Let us know what you feel of this tip in comment section below.
Click to check recipe video
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