The first recipe Stevens Chefs cooked together was Professor Vallabh’s chole masala, a chickpea curry recipe. This recipe relies on pantry ingredients that last a while in a cupboard or freezer, so this is a good recipe to keep the ingredients to and make when you’re in need of cooking to destress. Chopping the onion is meticulous, and much of the stove time involves waiting for the tomatoes to reduce. You may not be able to find the spices for this recipe at your typical grocery store unless they have an international section.
At The Stute general body meeting, I mentioned the recipe I was planning on printing and asked The Stute’s unofficial board of Indian culture experts to weigh in on the difference between chole and chana masala. This is Professor Vallabh’s recipe, and he calls it chole, so it was cut and dry to me. They talked about the differences in species of chickpea; chana masala uses smaller, lighter-colored chickpeas compared to chole masala. They looked at the pictures and considered the goldenness of the final product and their experiences of their mother’s cooking. The results were inconclusive, so I turned to ChatGPT for answers.
ChatGPT says that chole masala has a richer, sweeter flavor due to tomatoes and spices like cinnamon and cloves, as well as a thicker sauce consistency. Chana masala may be tangier with the use of dried mango powder or pomegranate powder. Regional differences may affect the spice blend, and the version you prepare likely will overlap with either flavor profile based on the ingredients available to you. It was an interesting cultural discussion I wasn’t exposed to before; reader, if you have any opinions you’d like to contribute, I’d be happy to listen.
