Kala Chana Curry

Kala chana or black chick peas, is an Indian curry dish. These  nutritious legumes are packed with nutritional protein.They can be cooked out of a can or soaked overnight. If you plan to use the can beans ,try to use the less salt ones as the salted ones are too high in sodium.
1 cup of cooked chana gives 15 gm protein and 13 gm of fibre, these chana's and other types of beans, legumes, vegetables, nuts are all excellent source of fibre.
 These can be prepared dry or with a curry, the recipe below is the Indian curry Kala chana, that is a famous dish in Northern part of India.

Ingredients
500 gm uncooked chana
2 cups water to soak chana overnight
4 cups water to pressure cook soaked chana
1/2 cup ready curry paste (recipe available in Flavors of India book) or instead use grated onion, and tomato as shown below
1 medium size red onion grated
1 medium size tomato pureed
2 to 3 cloves
1 inch stick cinnamon
1 small bay leaf
1/4 tspn cumin seeds
1 tspn turmeric
1 tspn red chilli powder
2 tspn salt or as per taste
1 tspn ginger ,garlic paste
3 to 4 green chillies
1 tspn grated ginger
Vegetable Oil

Kala Chana 

Method 1.Rinse and soak the channa  overnight. Next day pressure cook the chana's in 2 cup of water. Add 1 tspn salt, 1 tspn grated ginger. Pressure cook for about 20 to 30 minutes, later check to see if the chana are cooked properly, strain and keep aside.
2.In a pan heat oil,add cumin seeds, cloves,bay leaf,cinnamon stick and add ginger garlic paste and green chillies .
3.Add in  onions, allow to turn golden in colour, add in tomatoes and stir together allowing the tomatoes to soften and add in salt, red chilli powder, turmeric, coriander powder, mix to form a curry paste.
4.Next add in the strained chana  to prepared curry and after stirring for about 3 to 4 minutes, add in 1 cup water and cook covered on low to medium heat another about 10 minutes. serve hot with rice or roti.