Fresh Green Chickpeas Paneer Gravy | Chholia Paneer Curry

During winters,the Vegetable markets would be flooded with various fresh vegetables and few seasonal ingredients.I usually love to cook with the seasonal ingredients as they are not only tasty they definitely add variety to your regular cooking.Now it is the season for fresh chickpeas,fresh green peas,avarekai(hyacinth beans),methi,sarson,red carrots and many other varieties.The only drawback with all these is they are time consuming to clean and shell them but its really worth for the taste and freshness of those items.

I had bought a kilo of fresh chickpeas recently which I had used in various curries,sabzis,pulaos and even stir fries.Today's recipe is a Chhlia Paneer gravy which I adapted from one of the Nita Mehta's books.The recipe is quite similar to a Matar paneer gravy just that matar is replaced with the fresh chickpeas,the only twist in the recipe is the addition of Tandoori masala at the end which definitely takes the gravy to a different taste level.Now on to the recipe.

Hare Chana Paneer Curry | Fresh Green Garbanzo-Paneer Gravy Recipe:

(Serves 2)

Recipe Source: Nita Mehta

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups fresh green Chickpeas,shelled

3/4 cup Paneer cubes,cut into 1" pieces

2 tsp Coriander powder

3/4 tsp Red Chili powder

3/4 tsp Garam masala

1/2 tsp Turmeric powder

1 tsp Tandoori Masala

1/4 tsp Amchur(dried mango) powder

2 tbsp chopped Coriander

2 Black Cardamom

2 Cloves

1" stick Cinnamon

Salt to taste

3-4 tbsp Oil

to grind:

2 large Tomatoes

2 Onions,roughly chopped

1" Ginger

4-5 Garlic pods

Method:

• Grind Onion,tomatoes,ginger and garlic to a fine paste.
• Heat oil in a kadai and deep fry or shallow fry the paneer cubes to a nice golden brown color and drain them and drop them in a warm water until its usage.
• In a small pressure cooker pour the remaining oil and add black cardamom,cloves and cinnamon.
• Add the ground onion-tomato paste and fry until the mixture for 3-4 mins.
• Add red chili powder,amchur powder,turmeric powder,coriander powder,garam masala and salt and fry over medium flame until the mixture leaves the oil.It takes roughly 6-7 mins.
• Add shelled and washed  fresh green chickpeas and fry again for 4-5 mins.If the mixture becomes dry in between add a couple of tbsp of  water while frying,otherwise the masalas get burnt.
• Add 2 cups of water and pressure cook for 2 whistles.
• Once the pressure drops add the fried paneer cubes (squeeze slightly before adding) and tandoori masala and let it cook on low flame for 3-4 mins.
• Add chopped coriander and mix well.

Serve it hot with roti/chapati/Naan/Pulao.

Notes:

1. You can replace fresh green chickpeas with fresh peas in the recipe and follow the same process for a tasty fresh matar paneer.
2. One can even replace the paneer with potatoes in the recipe.Both tastes nice in the recipe.