Aloo Chole

Aloo Chole is a fantastic easy chickpeas curry made with potato chunks & a few handy spices in Indian style. Cook it in an Instant Pot & save yourself some serious cooking time. This Instant Pot Chana aloo is mildly spiced, Vegan, Gluten free, packs huge flavors & a hearty addition to any savory meal. Don't miss the recipe video, the amazing tips & the stove-top method!

Watch how to make it

Aloo Chole in Instant Pot

If you love easy, fast recipes & potatoes than grab this Aloo Chole recipe instantly.

This is a delicious Indian curry made with garbanzo beans, potato chunks, onion, tomatoes & a few spices.

The star spice mix in this recipe is my homemade Chana Masala Powder recipe that I shared previously.

This homemade spice mix is made specially for chole recipes or chickpea recipes & it's a fantastic flavoring agent. Don't miss it out!

Instant Pot Aloo Chole will save you some serious cooking time.

You'll not be bowled with over powering spices in this recipe.

And you can still taste the protein rich garbanzo beans in the curry.

This Instant Pot Aloo Chole is a simple Indian Vegetarian dish that you can make easily, quickly, with zero cooking experience.

It packs such great flavors!

If you are a spice lover just increase the amount of spices & sprinkle some more chili powder.

And it tastes awesome with boiled rice, tortillas, Chapathis or on a bed of quinoa.

You can even add a little more water & keep a little more gravy. We prefer not much gravy in this recipe & that's how I made it today without much gravy.

Easy recipes are such life saviors during the busy weeknights & today's recipe exactly fits the bill.

It won't take much of your time, you can set dinner within 30 mins & it's huge on flavors.

You can also store the leftovers for the rest of the week. This Aloo Chana recipe preserves very well in the fridge.

What is Aloo Chole?

Aloo Chole is an easy & delicious Indian style Chole recipe that's made with garbanzo beans or chickpeas, potatoes, a few spices in an onion tomato based gravy.

Aloo = Potato

Chole = Garbanzo beans or Chickpeas.

This Aloo Chole recipe is vegetarian as well as Vegan.

You can enjoy it with hot chapathis, rice or Quinoa.

Aloo Chole Recipe Ingredients

This easy delicious, healthy & very filling recipe of aloo chole demands just a few ingredients from your pantry.

I would highly recommend that you stock on the homemade Chana Masala Powder that I made just a few days back. You can make a variety of quick chickpea dishes with that spice mix.

1. Garbanzo beans or Chole or Chana: Soaked over night & pressure cooked. You can prepare the garbanzo beans days earlier & store them in an air tight container in the fridge. Check the tips below how to cook garbanzo beans in Instant Pot.
2. Potatoes: Cut them into chunks & deep fry them. I love to fry the potatoes in lots of oil but you may just shallow fry them to cut back the calories.
3. Onion: Made into a paste along with the dry pomegranate seeds (paste not shown in the ingredients photo but you can find it in the video). You may use either red onion or white onion. Both taste good.
4. Ginger Garlic paste: I have an incredible homemade ginger garlic paste recipe for you on the blog. It'll last you up to 6 months without turning green. Don't miss it!
5. Tomatoes: Dice them into squares.
6. Spices: Garam masala powder, Red chili powder & the special homemade Chana Masala Powder. It's extremely fragrant & you can use it to cook several other Indian style chickpea dishes. Don't miss the recipe.
7. Green chilies: You can skip using them if you do not prefer the heat.
8. Whole spices: Cumin seeds for tempering. A wonderful spice that aids in digestion & lends the dish a lovely sweet aroma. You can find it in any Indian grocery store or even in American stores.
9. A very special ingredient: Dry pomegranate seeds. Use this along with the onion & grind both into a fine paste. The dry pomegranate seeds goes extremely well with chickpeas dishes. It lends a tang & dark color to the gravy. If you do not manage to find it omit from the recipe.

Pro Tip: A decent alternative of dry pomegranate seeds is lemon juice. It will add only the sourness but not the gorgeous dark color. If you use pomegranate seeds do not use much. The tiny seeds are very potent with tons of tang! So beware. Less is more here.

Tips to pressure cook the Garbanzo beans in Instant Pot

Cooking Chole or garbanzo beans or Chana in Instant Pot or a regular pressure cooker is very easy.

You have to first soak the beans over night & than cook them with salt, enough water & a special ingredient which is tea leaves.

Throw a bag or two of black tea bags or your regular English breakfast tea bags in the Instant pot along with the garbanzo beans, water & salt & than pressure cook until tender.

This amazing trick will make the chickpea broth dark & the chickpeas dark too.

That's exactly what we want in today's recipe & that's why we did what we did - used a temporary linen pouch filled with black tea leaves 😀

I ran out of the regular tea bags. You can do this too if you don't have tea bags lying at home.

Dry pomegranate seeds also solve this exact same purpose. You can use them instead of black tea leaves.

Pro Tip: Use 1-2 black tea bags or dry pomegranate seeds along with the soaked garbanzo beans & than pressure cook them. Fish out the tea bag later without squeezing it. You may even make a temporary tea bag pouch with linen.

6 Tips to make the Best Aloo Chole

1. Soak & pressure cook the Chickpeas: Pressure cook the garbanzo beans until tender. They should break easily when you press them in between fingers. Under cooked chana does not taste good in this recipe.
2. The homemade Chana Masala Powder is where the maximum taste lies: Do not skip using this masala powder ever! Stock on this homemade spice blend before beginning this recipe. You can use it in several other recipes too.
3. Use the dry pomegranate seeds if you can: These little seeds when made into a paste along with the onion lends a subtle tang to this Aloo chole recipe. It also makes the gravy dark in color. I always love the aloo chole that contains pomegranate seeds paste.
4. Save the chickpea stock: Use it to make the gravy. The stock has all the nutrients + the deliciousness of the chickpeas. So, use it in place of normal water to cook the aloo chana curry.
5. Stir fry the ingredients very well: Fry the onion paste + the dry spices until the raw smell completely disappears & oil begins to leave the sides of the pot. The technique of Bhuna or frying always elevates the taste of a dish.
6. Mix in the potatoes & chunky tomatoes & don't cook much: We don't want the tomatoes to turn mushy. We want them to just soften up a bit. After adding these ingredients to the gravy the trick is to simmer for just 1-2 mins until they soak up the juices.

Pro Tip: You can add more chickpea stock & make the aloo chana with little more gravy or you may use less stock & keep it less soupy. We love it less soupy & that's how I cooked it.

Is Aloo Chole vegan?

Yes, today's recipe of aloo chole is completely vegan.

What goes with Aloo Chole?

You can serve Aloo Chole with the following:

1. Chapathi.
2. Paratha.
3. Kulcha.
4. Bhatura.
5. Poori.
6. Rice.
7. Even Naan!

How long can you store Aloo Chole in the fridge?

You can store Aloo Chole for 5 days in the fridge in an air tight container.

Can you freeze the Aloo Chole Curry?

Yes, you can freeze the Aloo Chole curry for up to 1 month.

Freeze the gravy without the chunky tomatoes in individual portion size freezer safe containers or bags.

You can always add the diced tomatoes while re-heating the gravy.

Reheating Tips

There are a few simple things to keep in mind when you reheat aloo chole from the fridge or from the freezer. Let's check them out:

1. When stored in fridge: You can heat the curry in the micro wave oven or in a skillet on the stove top. Sprinkle some water & reheat. Do not cover, the tomatoes & the potatoes might turn mushy.
2. Did you freeze the Aloo Chole Gravy? Do this: You may re-thaw the gravy over night in the fridge. You may skip this step as well. In that case, heat the curry in heavy bottomed saucepan. Add about ¼ cup water for each serving size, cover & simmer on low flame. Add fresh diced tomatoes once the frozen blob of curry comes to gravy consistency. Garnish with chopped cilantro, squeeze a few drops of lemon juice & serve right away.

Tips to use the left over Aloo Chole gravy

Sometimes we lose interest & don't like eating the same thing every weeknight for dinner or lunch.

If you happen to cook a huge batch of Aloo Chole & don't want to eat it past 3-4 days. This is what you can do. This is exactly what I do when I've tons of left over 😀

1. Heat the gravy until the moisture evaporates & you have a dry consistency. Mash a few chickpeas with the back of a spoon, add finely chopped onion, chilies, cilantro, lemon juice, chaat masala & mix. Slather two breads with generous amount of green chutney layer this mixture, sprinkle some sev or bhujiyas & make a fantastic sandwich. You can aslo make it more fancy by adding sliced avocados etc. Go wild 😀
2. Heat the left over aloo chole gravy. Add some more water to make it into a runny consistency. Fish out the chuny tomatoes. And enjoy it over Aloo Tikkis or Aloo patties just like you enjoy Ragda Patties. Add onions, bhujiyas, cilantro chilies, chutneys & enjoy!

We love eating over extra left over aloo chole gravy the above two ways & we never fill bored 🙂 Hope you will love the ideas too 😉

Check out these Instant Pot awesomeness from Foodies Terminal.

How to make Aloo Chole in Instant Pot? Step by Step

Steps in words below pictures

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