Chana Matar - Chickpeas with Green Peas

A delicious new recipe of chickpeas with green peas. Ideal for every meal that needs a saucy component and also perfect just as a satisfying meal on its own.

Last week we tried something new: we mixed chickpeas with green peas. We were very happy about the result, as the peas make a nice gravy-like base for the chickpeas. It is a very nice dish and so I want to share its recipe with you.

Chana Matar - Chickpeas with Green Peas

A delicious new recipe of chickpeas with green peas. Ideal for every meal that needs a saucy component and also perfect just as a satisfying meal on its own.

How to cook Chana Matar

You need to wash and soak both, the chickpeas and green peas about four hours before you want to cook them. If you want to make them for lunch, you can also soak them the night before, then you don’t need to do it early in the morning.

Put the chickpeas and the peas in a pot with 10 cups water, add some salt and let it boil with the lid on the pot. It will take the mix about 40 minutes to get soft. In the meantime you can wash and cut the tomatoes into small pieces. Stir from time to time and see whether the chickpeas are soft already.

The green peas will be the first to get soft and they will mash and mix with the water. The chickpeas need longer, so how it will look like in the end is that the whole chickpeas lie in a gravy of green peas. When the chickpeas are soft, you can take the pot off the heat.

Now we will prepare the tadka. Heat up oil in a pan and when it is hot, turn the heat a bit lower before you add the bay leaf, cloves, cumin, garam masala, mace, nutmeg, coriander and turmeric. Finally you put the washed curry leaves into the pan, too, and stir the spices well.

When the spices are nicely roasted, you can add the tomatoes and mix them well with the spices. Let them get cooked and, if you want to, you can even mash them a bit with your cooking spoon. It is up to you and your taste, how much you want to mash them.

When the tadka is ready, you can put it into the pot of peas, stir well and proudly serve it.

Ayurvedic Values

Chickpeas and green peas are both full of proteins and thus are a good part of a healthy nutrition especially for vegetarians who wonder where they should get their proteins from. Both also aid your digestion through the fiber they contain. Additionally this is a good dish for those who take care to eat a diet with low cholesterol.

While chickpeas increase vata, the green peas balance it. The green peas balance kapha, too. It is a dish that is healthy in every way.