This traditional Indian vegetarian & vegan chickpea stew comes together faster than you would believe… but still tastes like it cooked for a whole day!
So there’s a story behind this one.
Each Spring, the Indian Student group I am in has a fundraiser dinner, with all of the members bringing home cooked food for students to eat. Its strategically planned for the Monday after spring break, so we can go home and have our parents cook delicious food for us to bring back! Well, this year I forgot, oops. I mean, I remembered about the dinner, but I forgot that I actually had to cook to bring food! oops.
So when my dad dropped me off Sunday night, I had him run to the store and get some ingredients for me to cook. I came back from class at 6:30 on Monday… the dinner was at 7:00. Well, good luck to me! I started by 6:35 and was ready to leave at 7:10 ! And this year it was a combined dinner with the Asian student association, so I made two dishes, here’s how it broke down:
– preheat oven
– drain and press tofu
– put pot on to heat
– sauté onions. get out rest of ingredients.
– marinate tofu
– add tomatoes to cook
– put tofu in oven
– add chickpeas, seasonings
– clean up
– taste CHOLE AND HOLY CRAP IT WAS GOOD. like, who would’ve expected after 25 minutes of stewing, it tasted that good!
baked tofu, marinated and spiced. I had about 2 seconds to take this photo!
Of course, I’m not doubting my abilities, but I did not expect for it to taste like it had cooked for a whole day. Traditionally, you soak the dry chickpeas overnight, and cook them (I pressure cook them), so they get soft and the flavors meld. So basically, 20 minutes of cooking, and 15 minutes of stewing, and you’re good to go!
Of course, all the food was great there! But I was just 15 minutes late, and most of it was already gone
my “bowl”, I dropped off most of the channa, then piled some more food into my bowl: tofu, rajma, and some kimchee soup. along with a red bean paste bun (like my favorite thing ever!), & a 1/2 roti
I’m so making this again!
~Masala Girl
what do you deem worthy of a few days of cooking? or do you take a shortcut? I love that I know I can make it quickly, but I love taking the time to make it the traditional way!