10-Minute Chana Masala

Chana masala in ten minutes! It might be hard to believe, as homemade chana masala often conjures images of slowly bubbling sauces and aromatic steam wafting through the kitchen. In this recipe, I'll demonstrate how, by using ingredients wisely, a ten-minute chana masala is not only possible, but can rival the deliciousness of a longer-cooked one.

That isn't to say a longer-cooked chana masala isn't worth making. If you have the time, a slowly braised chana masala is hard to top. But when you're in a rush, this ridiculously quick recipe will not disappoint.

Here are the techniques that make it possible:

Use Canned Chickpeas, But Soften Them

I promised you a ten-minute dish, so cooking chickpeas from scratch isn't an option here. The problem with canned chickpeas is that they're usually a little too firm straight out of the can for a dish like this. This is even more true if the canned chickpeas contain calcium chloride, a firming agent. Even when they don't contain calcium chloride, though, they will usually still benefit from a brief softening step.

The trick is to simmer the canned chickpeas with baking soda for just a little more than five minutes to rapidly soften their texture. After that, they're ready for the sauce.

Thicken With Tomato Paste

Visualize a tasty curry: You're probably imagining a thick, rich sauce that clings to your bread. The most time-consuming part of making a traditional curry is evaporating moisture from diced or puréed ingredients, especially fresh tomatoes, until they become almost jam-like in consistency. But what if that step has already been done for us?

Tomato paste is exactly the time saver we need. Tomato paste is crafted from meaty Roma (plum) tomatoes that are mashed and cooked until they reduce to about one-fifth of their initial water content. What's even better is that the manufacturers remove the tomato seeds and skin, which can feel grainy when eaten. Plus, with tomato paste's 5% pectin content, it thickens the sauce, while its 3% protein content helps to emulsify the sauce. Just one tablespoon of paste is enough to reach out and grab water molecules and spices around it while dispersing the fat molecules in the cream in a stable emulsion.

The only issue with tomato paste is that it is cooked for so long that it lacks some of the bright acidic flavors we need for chana masala. To fix this, I added fresh diced tomatoes to balance the tomato paste out. 

Skip the Onions

I skip onions entirely in this recipe. The only way to properly draw out their sweet, jammy, caramelized flavor is to cook them very slowly—there are no great shortcuts, and those that exist (like cooking the onions with baking soda) still take at least ten minutes. The best option here is simply to not use them, since skipping onions is better than having half-cooked, crunchy onions in a dish like chana masala. A touch of sugar is all it takes to offer up a hint of the sweetness the onions typically add. 

I should note, in case anyone thinks this is some unacceptable transgression, that some Indian communities don't use onion or garlic in their cooking for religious reasons, and they still make delicious chana masala. This is because the tangy tomato sauce is the star of the dish, balancing out the starchy, earthy chickpeas. If we get the tomato sauce right, we'll have a good chana masala even without the onions.

Rely on Frozen Ginger-Garlic Paste

I detest peeling and grinding ginger and garlic, and yet ginger-garlic paste is integral to Indian cooking. I am not a fan of the refrigerated pastes sold in jars; they often use preservatives to maintain freshness, and do not taste good as a result.

Instead, I love using frozen ginger and garlic paste cubes, which you can buy at Indian and South Asian markets, or make your own. They're a great time-saver for making Indian gravies. One technical note: With the frozen version, I add them straight from the freezer into the cold pan with butter and then turn on the heat. If you add frozen cubes directly to a heated pan, the temperature difference will cause excess spluttering. 

Add the Spices Thoughtfully

The key to making a well-balanced Indian curry is knowing which spices to add to the oil and which to add to the more watery sauce. The sauce becomes more watery when you add the tomatoes, as they add considerable water content to the dish. Some of the spices should be added to the oil before the tomatoes go in, so that their flavor can bloom in the hot fat, while others can go into the sauce once it's become more wet.

Spices that do well when sautéed in oil include ginger-garlic paste, turmeric powder, chile flakes, and coriander powder. The high heat of the oil quickly evaporates the water in garlic and ginger pastes, removing their sharp, raw taste. If garlic isn't sautéed properly in oil, its raw bite can linger in the dish. In Indian cuisine, it's important for spices to work in harmony, with no individual spice dominating, allowing all the flavors to blend seamlessly together.

Turmeric and chile flakes also taste better when fried in oil because their key compounds, curcumin in turmeric and capsaicinoids in chile flakes, are fat-soluble. Raw coriander powder has a green, floral note, which some Indian stews incorporate directly into the broth. However, in chana masala, it is fried in oil, becoming more subtle and blending into the background. To prevent the spices from burning, maintain a low, steady heat until you add the tomatoes.

Garam masala is usually added at the end of the recipe because it primarily consists of aromatic spices like cinnamon, cloves, and cardamom, which have volatile aromatic compounds best added closer to the end of cooking so that they don't become too subtle or dull. Plus, the water content in the sauce helps release their flavors. Compounds like cinnamaldehyde from cinnamon and eugenol from cloves are carried by the steam to our orthonasal and retronasal centers, enhancing the dish's aroma and delighting our senses.

Now that we have simplified all the steps, here is the recipe.