Palak Chole

Palak chole is a delicious North Indian curry made with fresh spinach leaves and chickpeas. It is hearty, vegan, gluten-free and very nutritious. Palak chole is very similar to palak paneer, however I don't add any dairy to it. With autumn on its way, with a warm bowl of cumin rice or rotes, it makes for a warming dinner.

During winters, a ton of greens were harvested from the vegetable garden at my grandma and I grew up eating palak paneer or palak rotis every other day. Spinach sauces are my favorite and when my kids were babies, I started making them often for their high nutritious value. Palak chole wasn't a frequent from my childhood years but since both my kids love the spinach sauce, I add different proteins other than paneer to change up the taste.

Making palak chole is really simple and you can prepare ahead like boiling the chickpeas or blanching and pureeing the spinach a day ahead. And yes! you can totally use canned chickpeas! For the curry, simply make a onion-tomato- ginger masala base with a few whole spices and cook the spinach and chickpeas in it.

How to make Palak Chole?

The process starts with making spinach puree and boiling the chickpeas. Thereafter make a masala base and cook the spinach and chickpeas together for about 20-30 minutes.

1- Spinach:- For making palak chole, I choose cooking spinach variety. The leaves of cooking spinach are much broader and thick as compared to baby spinach. It is easily available in the greens aisle of the store and is usually sold as a bunch.(I have seen bagged ones too) You can choose baby spinach as well but I personally feel that the thicker stems and the large cooking spinach leaves are much flavorful and can stand up to the sautéing.

2- Chickpeas:- Soaking and boiling the raw chickpeas gives the best broth which makes this curry so delicious, however if you want, you can used canned chickpeas as well.

3:- Masala Base:- The curry uses a simple North Indian onion tomato masala base with a few whole spices thrown in, similar how what I have shared many times in recipes on the blog. Most North Indian curries have a starting point as onion-tomato-ginger-garlic base comparable to a sofrito. In this recipe I add, cinnamon, cloves and few pods of green cardamom to add warmth to the spinach sauce.

4:- The secret ingredient :- A few florets of broccoli. I like adding a few, just 3 or4 florets of broccoli to the spinach sauce, you won't taste it, I promise. You can boil the broccoli along with the spinach and puree them together. I feel it adds a very nice texture and robustness to the sauce. Again it is optional and you can skip broccoli.

5. Consistency :- The stock from boiling the chickpeas is very delicious and I use it up for blending the spinach as well as to thin out the sauce. You can make the sauce as runny or thick as you like.

6. Green color of Spinach Sauce :- Over the years, I have seen many discussions about the color of spinach sauce and read many articles on how to preserve it etc etc. If you ask me, there is no right or wrong. The color of the sauce is simply dependent on how long you sauté the spinach puree with the masala base. I personally like the sauce to be well sautéed and even though it loses the bright green color in the process, I love the deep smoky flavor that comes along.

This is a healthy and nutritious dish due to combination of spinach greens and chickpeas and with rice or rotis, it is an enjoyable dinner. As with most curries, the spinach sauce tastes very good next day because the flavors get a chance to absorb as the curry rests overnight. Since I keep the consistency of palak chole curry on a thick side, it can be used to make wraps or easily packed in lunch boxes.

Other Spinach Recipes to check out :-

Palak Paneer

Spinach Chicken /Murgh Saagwala

Tandoori Palak Roti