Easy Spicy Tangy Vegan GF Chickpeas

Put together a complete vegetarian or vegan meal in less than 30 minutes with minimal washing and prep, that is also tasty and can be cooked ahead? This one does all that and happens to be economical too.

If you are not inclined to chopping, mincing, slowly sautéing or frying each ingredient as it is layered over the other, then this simplified recipe is worth considering.

I am working hard at simplifying cooking as much as I can without compromising flavor—this is for my sons who do not have the time to cook much, nor are they inclined to do so, and they do not enjoy take-outs. Truthfully, I too want to eat well at home without sweating hours in the kitchen. So recipes like these take care of the needs of the young and the not-so-young!

This is a quick and yummy meal in our home made from ingredients in the pantry—except for cilantro. I always make enough for at least two meals. Some cold mornings, hot buttered toast with chickpeas makes a great breakfast before heading out in the bitter cold.

Traditional chana masala recipes involve finely chopped onions, garlic, ginger, green chili, tomatoes. Each ingredient has to be gently browned and layered—brown the onions; add ginger, garlic, chili; then let the added spices bloom; then cook the tomatoes till they fall apart and become saucy. It is delicious, requires patience, and a lot of chopping!

So in this recipe, I have eliminated the onions, garlic, ginger, tomatoes and all the chopping and mincing and browning that goes with it. Canned chickpeas are wonderful! And instead of a ton of spices—the list may still look long to people unfamiliar with Indian cooking, but bear with me as it is easy—I use Indian pickles. They are highly concentrated in flavor.

Now a word about chickpeas. These are called kabuli chana in India—not chickpeas. We have kala chana (black or brown ones), also called lal chana, and green chana (when green and fresh they are called jinjra). These seeds are smaller than the garbanzo chickpea, and are darker with rougher seed coats.

Chickpeas are not indigenous to India. They came to India from Afghanistan (Kabul) around the 18th century. And they came to Northwest India. Hence the name kabuli chana. It distinguishes them from the other chana.

Indian “chickpea” flour, besan, is not made from chickpeas! It is made from kala chana, also called yellow gram (chana dal) when the coat is removed and the seed is split—much like yellow split pea. The flavor and texture of chickpea flour is quite different from besan.

Growing up, we never had kabuli chana and none of the other Gujarati households had them. We had lal chana and they were considered highly nutritious. They were never cooked with onions, garlic, tomatoes. The only time we had North Indian chana masala was in Punjabi restaurants in Mumbai. My friend Shaila tells me that her family never had kabuli chana/chickpeas either. Nobody ate them in Maharashtra. They also had lal and green chana. Shaila never had chickpeas till she immigrated to the US—she had never even seen them. In Belgaum, Maharashtra, where she grew up and got married, there were no restaurants and so nobody ever ate out. My South Indian friends too never had chickpeas growing up. Mung, masoor, urad are higher in protein than chickpeas and kidney beans and are easier to digest—particularly mung and masoor.

Unlike the Punjabis and other North Indians, our cooking did not have the thick gravy, sauce-like base of browned onions with garlic, ginger, green chili and tomatoes. To this base, chickpeas, or kidney beans, or potatoes, or eggplant, or pumpkin and other vegetables are added. Gujarati cooking uses minimal or no onion and garlic. Strict Jains do not use any onion, garlic, potato. So this chickpea recipe works well for Jains.

However, much has changed now as we all happily enjoy each other’s cuisines at home. (Nobody ate red lentils/masoor dal in our community—my friend’s mother told her to return the bag she had bought to the store as it was “not the type of food we eat!”).

Indian restaurants are commonly Punjabi and they all have chana masala on the menu. Chana bhatura and samosa chat are popular dishes.

Pairing

How ingredients are paired in a particular dish as well as how the dish is paired with other dishes is important in an Indian diet as well as a plant-based, vegetarian, and vegan diet. It is the chemistry of the ingredients within a dish, how that dish reacts with other dishes, as well as how your individual digestive constitution receives all this. There is a lot of biochemistry!

Chickpeas are gassy and with garlic, tomatoes, onions, they will be high on the FODMAP. So to counterbalance that airiness, they are better combined with earthy foods such as breads. Here, the recipe is less gassy than traditional recipes. However, combining it with rice increases the gas (vata in Ayurveda) making it a hard combination to digest for many people. The same is true for potatoes even though a chickpea-potato combination is common. Similarly, other combinations such as aloo gobi (potato-cauliflower), cauliflower-peas, kobi-batata (cabbage-potato), kobi-vatana (cabbage and peas) are also very gassy and hard for many to digest.

We love our easy, spicy chana paired with:

1. Thick, fluffy pita; store-bought paratha; puri; naan; or sourdough bread toast.

2. Quinoa for gluten-free food.

3. With roasted root vegetables such as parsnips, carrots, sweet potatoes (skillet-roasted on the stove-top with a little oil, or roasted in the oven). Drizzle some date and lemon tahini or almond honey dressing. Also good for gluten-free.

4. Change it up with leftovers! For a wonderful, less carby take on samosa chaat, pile on some spicy chickpeas on masala veggie burger patties (we like Trader Joe’s Masala Veggie Burgers). Drizzle some cilantro chutney and store-bought date and tamarind chutney. Many like a sprinkling of minced onions, tomatoes, cilantro on top of the heap. It all comes together easily in less than 30 minutes. Serve with chikoo milkshake. Check the ingredient list for the burgers to see if they are gluten-free.

5. Roast hash brown patties in a 450 degree oven for 25-30 minutes or until the outside is golden brown and crisp—defrosting the patties for 30 minutes is helpful. Have it like rosti with chickpeas.

A salad and yogurt/lassi, or milk/almond milk round out the meal. Yogurt and lassi (not very thick), perhaps with a pinch of roasted cumin and salt, are better for digestion than regular milk, particularly in the summer.

Question: Do I have to use cilantro?

Answer: No, you don’t. The taste will change but I think it is still good and it will mean zero chopping, and shave another 5-7 minutes from the cooking and prep time. All ingredients will be our pantry ones.

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp canola/grapeseed/sunflower seed oil (not having enough oil can burn the spices and the cilantro)
• 1 tsp shahi jeera (smaller and milder than regular jeera/cumin)
• 1-2 tsp lucknowi fennel seeds (smaller, sweeter, and milder than regular fennel seeds and they are not roasted or salted), optional and to taste
• 1/4 tsp asafoetida/hing (optional)
• 1 to 2 tsp Priya red chili pickle, or another South Indian chili pickle such as Telugu (to taste), these are paste-like, similar to chipotle in adobo
• 1/4 tsp turmeric powder
• 2 tbsp tomato paste
• 2 lightly filled cups finely chopped cilantro, stems included (pick the wilted and browned leaves out, wash thoroughly and drain before chopping)
• 2 15 ounce cans of chickpeas (drain and save a cup of the aquafaba/liquid)

Method

1. Heat the oil in a large nonstick skillet or a heavy pan. Add the shahi jeera, fennel seeds, and asafoetida, if using it. Let the seeds sizzle gently for a few seconds but do not let them brown. Jeera and fennel make beans more digestible and less gassy. They also impart wonderful flavor without adding heat.
2. Add the tomato paste and stir it into the oil, blending it in as much as possible. After 30 seconds of cooking the paste, add the pickle and turmeric. Continue stirring and cooking for a couple of minutes on medium to medium low heat till there is a blended paste and the oil starts to separate.
3. Add the cilantro and continue cooking and stirring till the cilantro has completely wilted and lost its bright green color. Some oil should ooze out. This gets rid of what some people find “soapy” about cilantro.
4. Add the chickpeas and stir so that they are completely coated with the spices and oil. Cook them in the spices and oil for a couple of minutes and then add as much liquid as you like. Cover and simmer gently for 10 minutes for everything to come together—make sure to stir and check and see that they are not drying out. If you are not eating them right away, they will get drier and will need some water for reheating. Taste for seasoning and add salt and lime/lemon juice if needed. I have not added salt to the ingredients as there is salt in the canned chickpeas and plenty in the pickle.

It keeps well in the fridge for 4-5 days and reheats well in the microwave. Works well for packed lunches too.

Preparation time: 5 minutes Cooking time: 15-20 minutes

Serves 4-5