Anjali Pathak’s Royal Chickpea Masala

SERVINGS

HEAT LEVEL

PREP TIME

10+ min

COOK TIME

30 min

Diwali is a magical time of year. It’s the time you have special guests coming around and you want to cook to impress. This recipe borrows an ancient royal technique of soaking chickpeas overnight in tea to enrich the flavor. This is no ordinary chickpea masala, this one is fit for royalty.

RECIPE CALLS FOR

Mild Curry Spice Paste

Ingredients

500g cooked chickpeas, rinsed in water if tinned
4 chai tea bags, or you can use black tea bags if you prefer
2 tbsp (30ml) vegetable oil
1 onion, finely chopped
4 tbsp (60g) Patak’s^® Mild Curry Spice Paste
200g cherry tomatoes, roughly chopped
2 heaped tablespoons thick Greek yogurt
½ lime, cut into wedges
Fresh chopped cilantro and naan bread/steamed rice, to serve

Instructions

Place the drained chickpeas in a bowl and pour over 400ml of cold water. Add the tea bags, cover and pop in the fridge overnight. This will increase your allocated prep time.
The next day, strain the chickpeas, discard the tea bags and reserve the tea liquor.
Gently heat the oil in a pan and add the onions. Fry for 5 minutes until softened and light golden brown.
Add Patak’s^® Mild Curry Spice Paste and a good splash of the reserved tea liquor.
Stir well and cook for 2 minutes.
Add the tomatoes, stir well and cook for a further 2 minutes.
Add the chickpeas and 100ml of the reserved tea liquor. Stir well and bring to a simmer. Cook for 10 minutes.
Turn off the heat and stir through the yogurt.
Squeeze over some lime juice and serve garnished with fresh cilantro and naan bread or rice.

Notes

Anjali’s Tip If you don’t have time to soak your chickpeas overnight, skip this step and make an extra strong cup of black tea with the tea bags and use this as your tea liquor.