Palak Chole

Palak Chole or Chana Palak is a delicious way to incorporate greens into your meal.  This dish has the goodness of spinach, chickpeas, tomato puree – indeed one of the best palak recipes, it is!  Here is how to make it.

As Chole or Chickpeas are high in protein, then do give my other favorite Chickpea Curries too – Punjabi Chole, Chana Masala, Amritsari Chole, Achari Chole, and Chana Madra.

Jump to:

• About This Recipe
• Ingredients
• Step By Step Recipe
• Variations
• Serving Suggestions
• Storage Suggestions
• Recipe Card

About This Recipe

Looking for a new chole recipe? Then this Palak Chole is just right for you!

I have never met a person who said, they don’t like Chole Kulcha. Whenever I make a visit to Delhi, I make sure that I take out time to go and binge on this popular street food. You will find many shops selling this popular combination along with some spicy tangy green chutney and tangy sliced onions.

I do love this Punjabi Chole, and it is prepared very often at home. But then there are days when I like to experiment with Chole and make other curries too giving it a little healthy twist. So this time I prepared Palak Chole.

The goodness of iron from Spinach and protein from Chole, I feel this is a perfectly healthy meal and it tastes delicious with either Roti or even Rice. Well, I took the inspiration from Palak Paneer and changed the source of protein to Chickpeas. Interesting, right?

So if you love Palak Paneer, You will definitely love this Palak Chole. Also, this is a great dish to incorporate in your meals.

Essentially made on medium heat, this interesting spinach gravy has a nice zing of green chilies, ginger-garlic, coriander powder, garam masala, and cumin seeds, making it a nice and spicy that gets a nice bite from chickpeas.

So if you want to try a different Chickpea Curry, then do give this Palak Chole a try and I am sure you will love every bite of this goodness.

This Chole with Palak is,

• Vegan (Skip Cream)
• Gluten-Free
• Easy to make
• Rich in Iron and Protein
• Perfect for everyday meals

Ingredients

Chickpeas – Chickpeas are soaked overnight and then cooked until soft to use in this curry. Do soak it before cooking, otherwise, it might not boil well or will take a lot of time to cook. Do check out my Instant Pot Chickpeas Recipe to cook the best chickpeas.

Spinach – The base of this curry is mainly prepared with spinach. Make sure that you use fresh spinach or palak to make this curry.

Spinach is chopped, blanched and then pureed to add in the curry.

Oil – I have used vegetable oil to make this curry, but you can go ahead and use even mustard oil or ghee to prepare it. You can even try olive oil or butter, the choice is yours.

Dry Red Chillies – Dry Red Chillies when added to hot oil, adds a nice heat and flavor to the curry. So do not miss this in the tadka.

Spices – We will need some everyday spice powders such as coriander powder, red chili powder, and garam masala powder.

Tomatoes – Finely chopped tomatoes are added in the spinach curry, that gives it a subtle tangy and sweet taste, that further enhances the flavor.

Cream – To add some creaminess and richness, you can add in some fresh cream too. You can skip it too if you are making a vegan version.

Others – Apart from the above ingredients, we will need some basic ingredients such as cumin seeds, garlic, ginger, onion, salt, and lemon juice.

Step By Step Recipe

Pick the leaves from the spinach bunch and discard the stems. Heat water in a big vessel and let it come to a boil. Add 2 tsp salt and baking soda and spinach leave in the boiling water. Cook for 2 minutes.

Drain the spinach and run under ice-cold water. Blend in a blender to make a smooth paste.

Heat oil in a heavy bottom pan.

When the oil is hot, add cumin seeds and dry red chilies.

Add onion, garlic and ginger and fry till onions are slightly browned.

Now add tomatoes and fry for a minute.

Add coriander powder, red chili powder, garam masala powder, and salt, and fry for a minute. Add half a cup of water and fry for 3-4 minutes.

Add the spinach puree and a cup of water. Cook for 2-3 minutes.

Add the boiled chickpeas and salt to taste. Cook for another 2-3 minutes.

Add lemon juice and mix well. Garnish with fresh cream and serve hot.

Variations

I’ve also tried to make Methi Chole and that is also an amazing recipe. Instead of using Spinach or Palak, use Methi or Fenugreek leaves to make this delicious variation. You can also try adding some mustard leaves along with Palak leaves to make this curry.

You can skip onion and garlic and follow the same steps to make a No Onion No Garlic Palak Chole.

You can substitute Chickpeas with Paneer, Tofu, Soy Granules, Baby Corn, Corn Kernels, Mushrooms, Chicken, or even Green Peas.

If you do not mind the chunky and coarse texture in the curry, you can use chopped spinach too. In this case, just finely chop the spinach and use it in the curry.

But if you prefer a smooth texture in the curry, blanch and puree the spinach and then use it in the curry.

Serving Suggestions

This Palak Chole tastes great with almost all the Indian Bread such as Phulka, Tawa Paratha, Laccha Paratha, Punjabi Missi Roti, Naan, or any other bread that you prefer to make for your everyday meals.

It also tastes great with Steamed Rice, Jeera Rice, Matar Pulao, Bagara Rice, or any other lightly spiced Pulao.

Storage Suggestions

You can store this delicious Palak Chole for about 2 to 3 days in an airtight container, in the fridge. If you are planning on storing it, avoid adding fresh cream. It can be added while reheating the same.

Reheat the Palak Chole Curry in a pan or microwave. If you feel it has become a little dry, then add in a little water and reheat until nice and warm.

Recipe Card