Friday, January 30, 2009

Kulcha chana with a twist


Kulcha - chana is a favorite of my husband . For me it was a new concept becuase I had never lived in Punjab till the time I got married. Apparently it is a very popular way of eating Kabuli Chana or Chola there. Now that I know more about it , I am not surprised that it is a popular combination. The ease of preparing this complete meal alongwith the flexibility of making it as spicy or bland as per individual's preference definitely make it popular with me ;-) .

Kulcha - chana is nothing but a spicy and tangy mix of chole or chickpeas with onions, tomatoes, green chillies stuffed in flat bread known as Kulcha.

As I told you all already, my mother-in-law has been living with us for about 3 months now and so I have been treated to delicious Punjabi dishes all this time . One fine day we decided to have Kulcha chana, the chana part was easy to take care of , but where do we get the Kulchas in a foreign land . That is where the "twist" came in ....we decided to replace the Kulcha with plain buns traditionally used for burgers . Since the buns absorb the juices in the chole we added a little more liquid to it than we would have if we had been using the Kulchas. The result was a filling and satisfying meal which left us wanting for more :-)


Ingredients -
Chickpeas/ chole / kabuli chana - 1 cup ( soaked overnight and then boiled in salted water till soft)
Red onion - 1 large (finely chopped)
Tomato - 1 large (finely chopped)
Green chilli - 2-3 as per taste ( finely chopped)
Lime juice - 2 tsp (as per taste)
Tamarind pulp - 2 tsp
Black salt - as per taste
Salt - as per taste
Coriander leaves - a handful , chopped finely
Red chili powder - as per taste
Buns - 4

Cut the buns halfway through horizontally .
Mix all the ingredients together and keep aside . The fill them into the buns with the help of a spoon. Spoon a little liquid ( which gathers at the bottom of the vessel) over the chola mix and then press the buns to close them.


Serve immediately !! :)

P.S. : The chickpeas with the onions, tomatoes, etc make a lovely salad also which can be served chilled also :-) . In fact in my house , we had been having it as a salad all these years only.


This is my entry fro JFI -Chickpea being hosted by Sometime Foodie . JFI was a brainchild of Indira of Mahanandi blog.



This is also my second entry to Srivalli's My Legume Love Affair-7th helping.My Legume Love Affair was started by Susan of The Well Seasoned Cook.



This also goes to SWC- Salads under 15 minutes being hosted by my dear friend LG of Cooking station

9 comments:

Lakshmi said...

is is a nice twist N. I will try it for sure. I baked spicy buns today and they came out really nice end result R was happy :)

ms said...

Hi,
i was surprised by the tamarind in the chole twist - is it a traditional ingredient in punjabi cooking - can you ask your mil for me? Thanks for sending in this to JFI Chickpea!
best,
ms

notyet100 said...

i was searchin for koulcha nd then i read ur post,..got readymade kulchas will hve them with chola,..;-)

SPICE OF LIFE said...

great Priyanka :) .. enjoi them :-)

Poonam said...

first time here...I am drooling looks at ur pics...

Shah cooks said...

I like kulcha chana.. u don't have a recipe for kulcha ?

Srivalli said...

Thats such lovely twist!..thanks for the entry!

SPICE OF LIFE said...

hi MS,

I checked with MIL about the use of tamarind in Punjabi food and she said that it is traditionally used in moderate amounts for providing sourness to the dish. It is used only in a few dishes. The replacement is dry mango powder or amchur , but the flavor of the resulting dish is different :) and she prefers the sourness provided by tamarind

SPICE OF LIFE said...

Thanks for dropping by Poonam ... am glad you liked the photos :)... i checked out ur blog too ...u have an amazing collection of recipes ...shall keep visiting often ...:)

Srivalli ... the pleasure of sending entries is all mine :)

Mallugirl ...I shall try to blog the recipe for kulchas also soon :)