Chana Sundal is a simple South Indian stir fry made with chickpeas or kondakadalai . Chickpeas is also known as kabuli chana or white chana. Chana Sundal is a savoury snack traditionally made for Ganesh Chaturthi. It is a protein rich snack that you can pack for your kids snackbox as well.
Chana Sundal Recipe with step by step pictures and video. An easy and quick yet healthy sundal made with chickpeas or kondakadalai in tamil. Sundal varieties are very healthy and I make it a point to include it atleast once a week.
About Chana Sundal Recipe
This chana sundal recipe is simple and healthy too, makes it a perfect mid morning snack. Since it is very quick and easy to prepare you can make it as a sidedish for lunch when you have a crunch of time.This is a no onion no garlic recipe as we are making it for pooja.
Ganesh chaturthi / Vinayagar chaturthi is around this week so thought to post this easy sundal recipe. You can make chana sundal either with black chana or white chana. Generally for Ganesh chaturthi white chana is used for this sundal. We usually call it kondakadalai sundal.
My experiences
We usually make sweet modakam, poorana kozhukattai, savoury kozhukattai, chana sundal and ellu urundai For Ganesh Chaturthi. The internet at home is flucatuating for the past 2 days and am feeling sick, just came to a near by browsing center to post this. Hopefully my net should be back to form atleast for the next post, keeping fingers crossed.
When I saw these thonais(the cup holding the sundal) at Nilgiris the first thing that striked me was to make chana sundal and click with it. Sometimes yes the props hold more attention than the main dish to me. I am sure most food bloggers will agree with me.
Methods to Cook Chana
There are 3 methods to cook chana: All the three methods need pre soaking. If you forget to soak chana please check the FAQ’s section for tips.
- Pressure cooking : This is the best and quickest method popularly followed in every household.
- Open pot method : This takes time atleas t30 mins to cook chana in open pot method. So I dont prefer this method.
- Instant pot : This is my goto method these days as I use instant pot a lot.
Other Channa Sundal Recipes
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Chana Sundal
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup white chana
- 3 to 4 tbsp grated coconut
- water as needed
- salt to taste
To temper:
- 2 tsp oil
- 1/2 tsp mustard seeds
- 1/2 tsp urad dal
- 1 small red chilli
- 1/8 tsp asafoetida
- few curry leaves
Instructions
- Soak chana the previous night itself. Rinse it well twice at least. I soaked more than 1/2 cup as I wanted it for kids lunchbox too, incase if you are wondering why it is more.
- Add to cooker along with salt and add water till immersing level. Do not add more water.
- Pressure cook for 4-5 whistles. Let pressure release naturally. Check by pressing the chana. Set aside.
- To a pan - heat oil then add items listed under to temper. Let it splutter.
- Let the dal turn brown.
- Add cooked chana along with water. If water is more add very little and discard the rest. Give a good toss.
- Add coconut to it.
- Toss well and Switch off. Flavourful chana sundal is ready.
Video
Notes
- You can even boil the chana instead of pressure cooking but it takes too long in open pot method.So I prefer the pressure cooking way.
- While pressure cooking chana adding salt helps to get cooked chana more soft.
- You can use the same method for cooking green gram,mocha kottai or even channa dal which makes a variety for navaratri sundal recipes.
Chana Sundal Step by Step
1.Soak chana the previous night itself. Rinse it well twice atleast.I soaked more than 1/2 cup as I wanted it for kids lunchbox too, incase if you are wondering why it is more.
2.Add to cooker along with salt ad water till immersing level. Do not add more water.
3.Pressure cook for 4-5 whistles. Let pressure release naturally. Check by pressing the chana.Seta side.
4.To a pan – heat oil then add items listed under to temper. Let it splutter.
5.Let the dal turn brown.
6.Add cooked chana along with water. If water is more add very little and discard the rest.Give a good toss.
7.Add coconut to it.
8.Toss well and Switch off.Flavourfu; chana sundal is ready.
Expert Tips
- You can even boil the chana instead of pressure cooking but it takes too long in open pot method.So I prefer the pressure cooking way.
- While pressure cooking chana adding salt helps to get cooked chana more soft.
- You can use the same method for cooking green gram,mocha kottai or even channa dhal which makes a variety for navaratri sundal recipes.
FAQs
1.How to cook chana perfectly?
Soaking chana previous night or minimum 8 hours is the key to get chana cook soft. I usually add salt while cooking as my mother does it. But have seen my friends cooking chana without salt too.
2.How many whistles for cooking chana?
It actually depends on the quality and size of chana. But usually it takes around 5-6 whistles in low medium flame. But presoaking is a must.
3.How to soak chana quickly? Forgot to soak previous night?
You can soak chana in hot water along with water inside a hot box for an hour. Soaked chana is ready rinse it well then pressure cook for 6-8 whistles.
4.How to cook chana without presoaking?
Another method without soaking is to pressure cook chana along with cooking soda and water for atleast 8-10 whistles. Cooking along with 1/4 tsp soda for 1 cup helps to make chana soft while cooking.
5.What oil to use for tempering?
I use normal cooking oil which is ground out oil in our case. But you can use your preferred – cooking oil options are gingelly oil, groundnut oil or refined oil.
Evgururajan
Thanks.e.v.gururajan.