Kala Chana Sundal | Black Chickpeas Sundal | Navarathri Recipes

Happy Navratri to all!!

Today is the first day of Navaratri and I offered kala chana sundal as prashad and I am here to share the same in my space.I love the way how my Tamilian friends pronounce it,they call it 'Konda Kadalai Chundal'.Check out the various Navarathri recipes here for various sundal, kheer, snack and rice varieties.

We always make a variety of sundal for any festival as it not only adds the number of items to the menu but also it is very easy to prepare and an absolutely guilt free snack to compensate the extra calories from the fried stuff and sweets made on festivals.Hubby is a big fan of sundal especially when made with kala chana.It is a perfect guilt free snack which can be served as a snack or as a side dish in lunch or breakfast.

Kala Chana Sundal | Konda Kadalai Sundal Recipe:
(Serves 3-4)

Ingredients:
1 cup Black Chickpeas/Kala Chana
2-3 tbsp grated fresh Coconut
3-4 Green chillies,sliced
1/2" Ginger,grated
juice of 1/2 lemon
Salt to taste

to temper:
1 tsp Urad dal
1-2 Red chillies,broken
1/2 tsp Mustard seeds
a sprig of Curry leaves
a pinch of Hing
1 tbsp Oil

Method:

• Soak Kala Chana overnight or at least for 8-9 hrs and pressure cook for 3 whistles until soft,I generally pressure cook for 2 whistles and cook on low flame for 5-6 mins for making sundal.The Chana should be soft and firm to touch and should not be either hard or mushy. You can add salt while cooking chana or add it at the time of tempering.
• Drain the chana and keep it aside,you can use this drained water to make healthy rasam.
• Grind grated coconut,ginger and green chillies to a coarse paste in whipper mode.
• Heat oil in a kadai and crackle mustard seeds and add urad dal and red chillies and let them turn slight brown.
• Add hing,curry leaves and ground coconut-green chilli-ginger paste and fry it for a minute.
• Add cooked and drained kala chana and required amount of salt and mix well and cook it on low flame for 2 mins.Do not fry them for long as it makes the sundal very dry.
• Switch off the flame and add lemon juice and mix well.

Serve them hot,warm or cold as a snack or with lunch.

Variations:

1. You can replace kala chana with white chickpeas,lobia,green gram,yellow peas or chana dal for variation or you can even use mix of these legumes to make variety sundal.
2. You can even add coriander leaves in the end.