Chana Masala: Indian Chickpea Curry

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Chana masala is a classic Indian curry and can probably be found in every Indian restaurant on the planet.

The real star is not the chickpeas, but the combination of spiciness and acidity. The list of spices used is correspondingly long, but you should be able to find them all in a well-stocked store.

• If garam masala is difficult to find, you can replace it with 2 parts pepper, 2 parts cloves, 1 part cinnamon, and 1 part cardamom.
• Tamarind paste provides a very pleasant sour note. Unfortunately, it is not easy to find everywhere; if necessary, you can replace it with lemon juice.

You can also serve naan instead of rice.

The recipe here is based on recipes from Cook with Manali and Felicity Cloake for the Guardian.

Recipe #

Chana Masala

40 minutes

2 portions

Ingredients #

• 15 g ginger
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1 red onion
• 30 g neutral oil, e.g. rapeseed oil
• 1 teaspoon crushed chilies
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon cardamom powder
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 1 tin of tomatoes (400 g)
• 1 tin of chickpeas (250 g)
• 1 teaspoon coriander powder
• 1 teaspoon cumin powder
• 1 teaspoon paprika powder
• 1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
• 1/2 teaspoon garam masala
• 1 teaspoon tamarind paste
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 5 g fresh coriander
• as a side dish: about 120 g rice

Directions #

1. Peel and finely dice the ginger, garlic, and onion or process into a fine paste.
2. Heat a little oil in a pan. First, fry the chilies, cinnamon, cardamom powder, and bay leaf in it for about 30 seconds, then reduce the heat to about two-thirds and add the diced onion, garlic, and ginger. Fry for a few minutes until the onions are translucent, then add the tomato paste and fry for another 1-2 minutes.
3. Deglaze with the tinned tomatoes. Then rinse out the tin with water and add the remaining tomato liquid to the pan. Now add the chickpeas and the remaining spices (coriander, cumin, paprika, turmeric, garam masala, tamarind paste) and salt, and stir well. The curry should not be soupy: if it is, cook without the lid until enough liquid has evaporated. Otherwise, put the lid on the pan and cook over low heat for about 15 minutes until the sauce has absorbed the spices well.
4. While the chana masala is cooking, prepare the rice: wash and cook in double the amount of liquid with the lid on until the rice has absorbed the liquid.
5. Wash and freshly chop the coriander. At the end of the cooking time, season the chana masala to taste.
6. Serve the chana masala with rice and sprinkle with coriander to taste.

Carbon Footprint #

In total, two portions of chana masala have an estimated carbon footprint of 1724 g.

This ranks it number 36 out of 57 recipes published on the blog so far in terms of estimated carbon footprint.

The carbon footprint of the recipe is therefore slightly higher than the average of the other recipes here on the blog: At least 50% of the recipes cause less emissions, but it is not yet in the worst third of the recipes. 🤨

When it comes to the individual ingredients, chickpeas and rice stand out in particular. Chickpeas account for 27% of the weight of the ingredients, but only 19% of the climate footprint. Conversely, rice is about 13% of the ingredient weight, but 22% of the estimated CO₂ emissions.

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