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Instant Pot Punjabi Chikar Cholay

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Chickpeas coated in a thick and flavorful sauce! There are no onions or tomatoes in this recipe, just chickpeas, spices, and oil.

Punjabi Chikar Cholay

I never met my great-grandmother. But I know how she made her cholay.

This is my great-grandmother’s recipe for Punjabi chikar cholay, as recited and passed down by memory through at least four generations. My great grandmother taught my Nani (maternal grandmother), and my Nani taught my mom. My mom taught me.

I consider this recipe unique because there’s no onion or ginger or garlic or tomatoes IN the recipe (though I do use ginger to garnish). And yet it’s extremely flavorful – in fact, I might go so far to say that it’s one of the most flavorful recipes on my blog.

“Wow! Wow! Wow! This recipe was restaurant level tasty! I ground the pomegranate powder in the Vitamix to avoid the grainy texture. I bow down to thee! It was incredibly delicious 😋 This recipe with bhaturey or puri is pure heaven!”

Amit
Punjabi Chikar Cholay

What is Chikar Cholay?

Chikar cholay (or kichad chole) is a traditional Punjabi recipe (Indian and Pakistani). This dish gets its name from its consistency; chikar translates to mushy or muddy.

It has a distinct tangy flavor thanks to the dried green mango powder (amchur powder) and dried pomegranate powder (anardana powder). It also calls for roasted cumin powder and earthy black salt (kala namak). All of the spices in this recipe are important to getting the right flavor.

“Thanks Ashley for this recipe. This is how my mom made them when I was a kid. You helped me recreate my childhood memories. And the praises that I have received every time I made them have been countless. Thanks so much and please keep doing what you do. You totally rock at it!”

Surabhi
Punjabi Chikar Cholay

The anardana powder may be new to you. You can buy this powder at your local Indian grocery store or on amazon; it’s just ground-up dried pomegranate seeds. This recipe calls for roasting the powder, which makes it very dark brown, nearly black in color. This spice, along with the roasted cumin powder, gives the chikar cholay its signature dark color and adds an incredible toasted, slightly fruity, tangy flavor.

Punjabi Chikar Cholay

Chikar cholay is different from the more popular Chana Masala in that it is only flavored with spices and oil, whereas chana masala calls for onions, ginger, garlic, and tomatoes. Both recipes call for a different blend of spices.

Some thicken this muddy chole with masoor dal (red lentils), chana dal, or with potatoes. My family’s recipe doesn’t call for any of those ingredients. We mash the chickpeas a bit, and it works great. The sauce thickens on its own after a few minutes, once the spices really soak in the oil.

Punjabi Chikar Cholay

Wait! What’s the white foamy stuff on my chickpeas?

After you pressure cook the chickpeas, you may open the lid to find white frothy stuff on top of the beans. Don’t freak out.

If you see foam on your chickpeas, it’s just aquafaba. Many vegan baked goods actually use this stuff because it’s known to be a good substitute for egg whites. You can scoop it out or keep it on – I don’t bother removing it.

Here’s how to make this simple recipe:

The first step is to cook the chickpeas:

While they’re cooking, dry roast the anardana powder on the stovetop and then mix it with the other spices. If you don’t already have roasted cumin powder on hand, now is a good time to make this as well.

Once the chickpeas are done, spread the spices in a layer overtop. Then heat oil and pour it on top of the spices. This cooks the spices and helps bring out their flavor.

Mix it all up, mashing a few chickpeas along the way, and watch as the oil soaks up the sauce and thickens. Amazing!

Some food and family history:

State: Punjab

My great-grandmother was born and raised in Sialkot, Punjab, which was part of India until the Partition of 1947, that’s when the British split India (and the state of Punjab) into two: India and Pakistan. That’s why this Punjabi chikar cholay is both an Indian and a Pakistani dish.

My great-grandma was apparently a good cook and also a traditional cook. She’d cook family meals over firewood and coal. She’d churn cream into butter (makhan) in a clay pot using a wooden stick (madani), then boil it into ghee.

She also heavily relied on home remedies, she’d cook and eat adrak lasan (ginger garlic) sabzi, which she deemed helpful for joint pain, and she taught my mom how to make this lemon pickle to help with digestion (for the record, she was definitely not in the medical field).

I sort of feel like she and I are similar in some ways – I also enjoy cooking, and I also often attempt to feed my (skeptical) family members (hi, husband) recipes that I believe will help with their ailments (like turmeric gummies and besan ka sheera).

I really wonder what she’d think of me adapting one of her traditional recipes with my instant pot. I want to think she’d think it was cool.

I wish I could share a photo of her with you, but I’ve never seen one myself. In fact, even my mom only has one photo from her own childhood in India (which is hard for me to believe as I just upgraded cloud storage because I can’t stop taking photos of my kids… man, times are different).

I didn’t know my great-grandma but cooking this dish makes me feel a little more connected to her and my family. Hopefully, when you make this recipe, you’ll feel a bit more connected to me and any others enjoying this same dish. I think that’s one of the greatest things about food – that it connects us all.

Punjabi Chikar Cholay

You can serve this dish with an Indian flatbread (naan, roti, poori, bhatura). This dish has a thick sauce, which is how my family likes it, but feel free to add more water at the end if you prefer a thinner curry. Let me know what you think of this dish!

Instant Pot Punjabi Chikar Cholay

Punjabi Chikar Cholay

Instant Pot Punjabi Chikar Cholay

4.96 from 24 reviews
Pin Recipe Print Recipe
Servings 4
Cuisine Indian

Ingredients
 

Spices

Garnish:

  • 2 small Indian green chilies slit in half
  • ¼ cup chopped cilantro
  • 1- inch ginger julienned (cut into thin strips)

Instructions
 

  • Place the dried chickpeas in a large bowl and cover with 2 inches of cold water. The chickpeas will absorb water and expand in size, so make sure to use a large bowl. Drain and rinse the beans.
  • Add the rinsed chickpeas and 2 cups of water to the instant pot and cook for 35 minutes at high pressure.
  • Naturally release pressure.
  • While waiting for the pressure to release, go ahead and roast the pomegranate powder by dry roasting it in a pan on the stovetop over medium heat. Stir-fry for 4-5 minutes, or until very dark brown (nearly black). Once it cools down, you can grind again for a finer texture if you'd like.
  • Add this roasted pomegranate powder to a bowl along with the rest of the spices and mix well.
  • Open the lid and use a spoon to sprinkle the spices on top of the chickpeas (do not mix spices with chickpeas yet! Leave spices in a layer on top of the chickpeas).
  • Heat ½ cup of oil on the stovetop and once hot, pour the oil over the spices on top of the chickpeas.
  • Mix well, mashing a few chickpeas with a spoon as you mix to help thicken the sauce. The sauce will thicken significantly after a few minutes. 
  • Top with small Indian green chilies, cilantro, and julienned ginger.
  •  

Video

Notes

  • If you can only find dried pomegranate seeds, I suggest grinding them, then roasting, and then grinding again for a finer texture.
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Punjabi Chikar Cholay

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Hi, I’m Ashley. Thanks for being here! I truly believe that food brings us closer together. Gather around a table with good food and good people, and you’ll have the ingredients you need to create some happy memories. My hope is that you find recipes here that you can’t wait to share with family and friends.

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Comments

  1. Nim says

    5 stars
    This is so beautiful, i loved reading the story of your Nani. Im from Lahore and I have the same connection to my nani. My husband is not Indian/Pakistani and it’s become his favorite dish of all time. It used to be my dad’s favorite too! Such a great recipe and so rare to find (and explain to non-Punjabis haha). Love your blog!

    Reply

  2. Liz says

    My husband is looking forward to me making this dish for him. He has a hard time eating tomatoes, onions and garlic. Needless to say most of what he eats is quite bland and he craves flavor!

    Can you suggest something to accompany this dish? Should I also prepare some rice?

    Thank you for sharing!

    Reply

  3. Chris says

    5 stars
    I m a newbie and tried this. I made some mistakes and it still came out really good.
    I have some questions

    – what is a natural oil that people use. I used the canola oil and I have some after taste.
    – if I make half the serving size does the high pressure time cooking also gets halved? Is it true for all the recipes cooked on high pressure?

    Reply

    • Ashley - My Heart Beets says

      Chris, glad you liked it! I use avocado oil for any recipes that call for neutral oil. I haven’t tried making half the recipe, but the cook time would remain the same. Typically when you half or double a recipe, the Instant Pot adjusts the time it takes to reach pressure but the actual cook time itself remains the same. I’ve found that normally most recipes are fine to halve or double outside of desserts but again, I only say for sure if I’ve tried myself which for this recipe, I haven’t.

      Reply

  5. Surabhi says

    Thanks Ashley for this recipe. This is how my mom them when I was a kid. You helped me recreate my childhood memories. And the praises that I have received every time I made them have been countless.

    Thanks so much and please keep doing what you do. You totally rock at it!

    Reply

  6. a fan says

    5 stars
    I have to admit I’m such a hater of most people trying to get this dish right. even restaurants, some of the “authentic” punjabi ones have let me down on this one. but girl, let me tell you that this recipe was 100% on point! maybe this is just the way I am used to it, but it is absolutely delicious! and to take what had taken a couple hours before down to mere minutes? sorcery!

    Reply

  7. Hillary says

    5 stars
    This recipe is amazing and unbelievably fast to put together. Thank you so much for it! Do you think this would freeze well in individual sized portions or would that be a bad idea since there isn’t really any sauce? Thank you!

    Reply

    • Ashley - My Heart Beets says

      Hillary, I’m so glad to hear that you like this so much! And yes, I think it’ll freeze well – I freeze plain chickpeas all the time, so I’m sure this will be fine too. You can always add a bit of water when defrosting if you think it needs it!

      Reply

  8. Jab says

    HI Ashley, love your recipes. They are always ON POINT! For this recipe, can I add chicken? If yes, when abouts would I do so?

    Reply

  9. Amit says

    5 stars
    Wow! Wow! Wow! This recipe was restaurant level tasty! I ground the pomegranate powder in the Vitamix to avoid the grainy texture. I bow down to thee! It was incredibly delicious 😋
    This recipe with bhaturey or puri is pure heaven!

    Reply

  11. Mike says

    This is the first one of your recipes that has not turned out great. The sauce came out gritty, with an almost sandy texture. (A big spoonful of Greek yogurt makes it more palatable, but only barely.) Did I do something wrong? I used 1/3 cup of oil because 1/2 cup seemed excessive.

    Reply

    • Ashley - My Heart Beets says

      Hi Mike, anardana powder can be a bit gritty, so it may just be that you don’t like the texture. If you decide to make it again, you can try grinding the powder so that it is finer, but I’m not sure you can do anything about it after the fact. You can try heating up oil separately and stirring it in – the oil will help absorb some of the spices, so that may help to thin out any grittiness. You can also try adding a bit of water. Please let me know if any of these things help.

      Reply

  12. Vimmi Borkar says

    My mom makes very similar chole but not in IP. I was going through the recipe and snd will of course try it. Love all your recipes. But the write up touched my heart. My grandparents from both sides were born in Lahore. They moved to Ambala after partition. And my Naniji and mom made the garlic ginger sabji with badaam and malai and I loved it. Been ages since I ate.

    Reply

    • Poonam says

      Vimmie please share garlic, ginger, badam and malai subzi recipe. These age-old traditional recipes. They will come out magical and have medicinal values

      Reply

  13. Reed says

    This looks unique and flavorful. Next time I visit my local spice shop I’ll get some of these ingredients and give this recipe a try. Thanks for sharing this and your family story Ashley.

    Reply

  16. SKN says

    5 stars
    Super recipe! Loved this so much! Extremely easy, ready in minutes (after boiling chole) and so very tasty! This dish is a bowlful of this soulful.

    Reply

  18. Neha says

    5 stars
    I made this for a quick working weekday lunch .. unbelievable how much flavor is packed into this considering no onion garlic or tomatoes.

    Reply

  19. Neil says

    I made this last night, and really.enjoyed it. I didn’t think I would given the lack of onion, tomato, ginger, and garlic. But it was chatpata and delicious. I perhaps will pressure cook the channas a bit longer to make them more mushy. Thank you.

    Reply

  21. Deepak Jolly says

    5 stars
    Ashley, you forgot to mention if we are supposed to add green or black cardamom. I know the response might be delayed so going with green for now but if my memory of India serves me right it perhaps was black. Too late anyways. Thanks Ashley.

    Reply

  22. Chitra says

    Hi Ashley

    I really enjoyed reading your family history. Recipes passed down through generations are no less than heirlooms. Your great grandma and your whole family must be so proud! Thanks for sharing this recipe. I’ll let you know when I’ll make it.

    Reply

  23. Apartment Datt says

    I have store bought dried anar Dana not the powder . These seeds are bit sticky . How do I use these for the above recipe.

    Reply

  25. Mary says

    Thanks for the recipe, pls clarify as I have a few qns.
    Is 2 cup water enough to cook 2 cup Channa.
    Is it okay to dry roast all the spices after roasting the pomegranate powder?
    Do we keep the pot on sauté mode when we add the spices followed by hot oil, if so how long?
    If not, how will it thicken up?
    Thanks again Ashley.

    Reply

    • My Heart Beets says

      Hi Mary, yes it’s enough to cook soaked chana 🙂 You only need to dry roast the pomegranate powder and roasted cumin powder, the rest of the spices will cook when you pour hot oil on top of them. No, you don’t need to use sauté mode when adding the oil – I wouldn’t do that as it may dry up the water in the pot.

      Reply

  27. Vinita says

    5 stars
    Hi Ashley, thank you so much for posting all these amazing recipes that let us pretend to be super chefs while using the uber convenient IP! I tried the chikar chole today and my husband soaked too much chickpeas. I doubled the spices and oil as a result. I also cooked the chickpeas for 55 minutes instead of the recommended 35. The doubled up recipe was still delicious but too spicy. So, I think I’ll hold off on doubling up the Kashmiri chili powder next time.

    Thanks so much for another awesome recipe!

    Reply

    • My Heart Beets says

      Hi Kay, I actually tried this with 1/4 cup of oil during recipe testing and yes, it’s still good! I just preferred the 1/2 cup version that I shared here as I think the dish needed a bit more oil to better toast all of the spices. Feel free to use less though!

      Reply

      • JS says

        5 stars
        Amazing recipe! Very reminiscent of street side chole in Delhi. I think it would be great with bhatura. I used 1/3 cup of oil and it didn’t seem oily at all. I also let it rest overnight so that the chole could absorb the flavors.

        Reply

  30. Jessica P Jocson says

    what if you don’t have time to soak the chickpeas over night? Can you put them dry with water into the instant pot for about 30-40min? then would you have to start the recipe from there?

    Reply

    • My Heart Beets says

      Hi Jessica, you can cook dried chickpeas first – I would suggest following this method and then drain the chickpeas. Add the spices and oil and then add more water at the end while stirring. Let me know how this goes if you try!

      Reply

  32. Nita says

    I am pretty sure you are the reincarnation of your great grandma…😃 Very unique take on chole… Will try very soon!

    Reply

      • Jasmine says

        Would you change the time for pressure cooking? The canned chickpeas should cook faster? How much more water would you need to add? Thanks Ashley, looking forward to giving this a try.

        Reply

        • My Heart Beets says

          Hi Jasmine, canned chickpeas are already cooked so you don’t even have to cook them – I’d just rinse them well, pour them into a large bowl/pot, sprinkle spices, and then pour hot oil overtop. Add some water as needed to thin out the sauce. Let me know how it goes if you try it this way 🙂

          Reply

      • Sadhana says

        Made this with canned chickpeas (2 cans). I like my chickpeas a bit softer, so put them in the IP with one cup water, 1 min pressure, then quick release. Added the spices and oil, and let sit, stirring every so often to thicken. Sooooo good!!

        Reply

  35. Prasad says

    Hi Ashley, it surely is a great one that I should try sooner. 1 question about the buna cheera powder (roasted cumin powder) : do I get the actual “roasted-cumin powder” from store, or can I dry-roast cumin at home and grind/blend in a mixer ?

    Thanks !
    Prasad

    Reply
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