Chana Masala
Servings 4 pint jars
Ingredients
- 4 pint jars sanitized, with lids and rings
- 2 cups dried chickpeas
- 2 tbsp baking soda
- 1 (16-ounce) can crushed tomatoes
- 1 (2-inch) piece peeled fresh ginger
- 1 medium yellow onion quartered
- 4 cloves garlic
- 1-3 serrano chiles stemmed and seeded
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
- 1 tsp salt to taste
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- 2 cups boiling water or vegetable stock
Spices
- 4 dried bay leaves
- 1 tsp cumin seeds
- 2 tsp coriander seeds
- 1 tsp whole cloves
- 2 tsp garam masala
- 1 tsp ground turmeric
- 1 tsp chili powder
- 1 tsp ground coriander
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1/2 tsp amchur powder optional
- 1 1/2 tsp anardana powder optional
- 1 pinch asafoetida powder optional
Instructions
Soak the chickpeas
- Place the chickpeas in a large bowl
- Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of baking soda over the chickpeas
- Add water to sufficiently cover the chickpeas, considering they will roughly double in size as they absorb water
- After soaking for 24 hours, drain and rinse and repeat the steps of this section with the remaining baking soda
- After 48 hours, drain and rinse the chickpeas again and set aside – in a pinch these steps can be abbreviated to soaking the night before with one portion of baking soda but note that the chickpeas may expand in size further when processing
Toast and grind the whole spices
- Separately for each portion of cloves, cumin, and coriander, toast the spices over a medium flame until fragrant
- Grind the spices to a medium to fine coarseness in a food processor
- Set spices aside for later
Combine the vegetables into a paste
- In the food processor, add the onion, ginger, garlic, and peppers
- Process to a paste in the food processor
Prepare the jars for canning
- Set up the four pint jars near the cooking area with their lids and rings handy
- Heat the vegetable oil in a medium stock pot over medium heat
- Using tongs, fry the bay leaves briefly in the oil
- In the bottom of each jar, place one of the bay leaves
Bringing it all together
- Add the separated toasted and ground spices to the oil
- Add the paste and cook for two to three minutes until the mixture is golden brown, adding additional oil as necessary
- Add the tomatoes and lemon juice and stir
- Add the remaining ground spices and season to taste
- Add the chickpeas and mix thoroughly, reduce heat to simmer
Canning the Chana Masala
- Add canning rack to the instant pot and fill with ~2 inches of water
- Bring the 2 cups water to boil
- Distribute the chana evenly among the pint jars, being careful not to fill more the jars more than 3/4ths to account for additional chickpea expansion
- Cover the chana masala in each jar with the boiling water up to 1/2 inch headspace
- Wipe the rims of the jars clean as necessary
- Apply lids and screw the bands to finger tightness on the jars
- Using the jar lifter, lower the jars in to the instant pot
- Secure the lid of the instant pot and make sure the pressure valve is set
- Program the instant pot to cook under high pressure for 1 hour and 15 minutes, and make sure to disable the Keep Warm setting
Wrapping up the process
- After the instant pot has finished cooking, be sure to let it come down to ambient pressure using the natural release cycle, do not try to do the quick release cycle as this can cause liquid to be forced out of the jars and potentially break the seals
- Once the instant pot is safe to open, open it and use the jar lifter to pull the jars out and place on a towel too dry and cool down
- If the rings on the jars are loose, they can be finger tightened again, carefully
- Leave the jars to cool, you should hear the lids popping as the pressure creates a seal on the jars
- After the jars have cooled, the rings can be removed and the jars are now shelf-stable and safe to store in a pantry to be eaten later
- If any jar failed to seal, it is safe to either eat immediately or reprocess in the instant pot, though you may need to replace the lid since it did not seal properly