A night before- clean, wash and soak chole overnight.

Soaked chole all puffed up.

Assemble: all the ingredients needed to boil chole.

Drain soaked chole water and wash it under clean tap water.

Add chole to a pressure cooker and add all the ingredients one by one.

Pressure cook for nearly 20 minutes or until chole are soft and tender.

Keep it aside.

I prefer to discard boiled whole spices, mushy garlic and tea bags from the boiled chole.

Assemble: all the chana masala ingredients.

Leave these four out - black salt, red chili powder, cinnamon powder and roasted cumin seeds....

Transfer all the spices to a pan and on a low flame dry roast all of the spices till they start omitting their aroma. Be careful not to burn the spices. Keep them aside.

Final step is to assemble the chole.

In a kadhai heat oil, add onions, ginger and saute for 2 minutes on a medium flame. Mix in chopped tomatoes, salt and mix till they are fully blended.

Cover and cook for 2-3 minutes till tomatoes are soft and tender.

They will look like this - all mushy.

Mix in the roasted dry spices and the left out 4 dry spices - black salt, red chili powder, cinnamon powder and roasted cumin seeds....

And give it a good mix.

Add 1/4 cup water and bring it to a boil.

As the oil starts to separate..

Mix in boiled chole...

And cook for another 4-5 minutes on a medium flame.

Bring it to a boil, add chopped cilantro leaves and mix..

Delicious and mildly flavored chole are ready.

Clean and wash green chilies.

Slit them lengthwise.

In a pan heat oil, add powdered mustard seeds, salt and green chilies.

Cover and cook for 2-3 minutes on a medium low flame. Enjoy!!