Friday, October 23, 2015

CHOLA DHABALA / CHANA BREAD CHAAT / SINDHI STREET FOOD


Chola Dhabala is a very popular Sindhi street food. Tangy chickpea curry is served on bread slices topped with onion kachumbar, mint coriander chutney and thin sev. This can be relished during any time of the day. It is quite filling and I prefer it for brunch or dinner. These days various ready masalas like chana masala and chaat masalas are available easily but our mothers and grand mothers used only home ground basic spices. The curry is made with lot of gravy which is nice and tangy. The bread slices are well soaked in the gravy and the chickpeas are spooned over the soaked slices followed by other garnishings.


Ingredients:
Chana / chickpeas .... 1 cup (soaked overnight)
Onion ................... 1 cup (sliced)
Tomato ............. 1 medium
Green chillies ... 1-2
Ginger ............ 1 tsp (grated)
Garlic ............ 1 tsp (crushed)
Tamarind juice ... 2-3 tbsps
Coriander powder .. 1 tsp
Cumin powder ...... 1 tsp
Garam masala ......... 1/2 tsp
Turmeric powder .... 1/4 tsp
Red chilli powder ... 1/4 tsp
Salt ................... to taste
Sliced bread or Pav bread .. as needed
Sev ............ for garnishing.
Mint coriander chutney ........... as needed for topping
Onion kachumbar ........... for garnishing. (soak the sliced onion in water and salt.. squeeze out and add lime juice or vinegar)
oil... 2-3 tbsps

Method:
1. Heat oil in a pan and fry the sliced onions until golden brown.
2. Add the tomato, green chillies, ginger and garlic. Saute until the tomato gets cooked.
3. Add some water and simmer. Allow it to cool and blend it using hand blender.
4. Boil the chana in a pressure cooker adding a little salt.
5. Add the boiled chana to the onion gravy. Add the mentioned spice powders, salt and tamarind.
6. Add about 3 cups water and chopped coriander leaves. Simmer for a minute or two until done.


To Serve:
Place a sliced bread or pav bread in a plate. Pour the chana and gravy over it.
Spoon some mint chutney and onion kachumbar.
Sprinkle sev, bhuna jeera powder on top. If you like it spicy you can also sprinkle a little red chilli powder. Finally garnish with some chopped coriander leaves.
Some people also like to add boiled potatoes in the curry. 

8 comments:

  1. my mum use to make chana and serve it with bread slices. How we forget some of these comfort foods till a blogger reminds us of them :) Preparation looks so good.

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    1. True Mayuri, even I see some of the dishes that remind me of childhood and wonder why I did not make them for so long.

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  2. This sounds like a really lovely dish that can be easily made to serve for lunch. I am sure I have all these ingredients in my pantry so looks like lunch is sortef.

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  3. oh wow.. Love this. Looks amazing ! Need a plate of it right now :)

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  4. What a lovely filling chaat recipe. It's easy to make when you are hungry especially if you have a can of chna and some bread.

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