Ghugni in Bengali Style

Ghugni is an iconic snack popular in West Bengal, Assam, Bihar and Odisha. Ghugni is made with either kalachana (black gram), yellow peas or kabulichana (chickpeas). It is either served with muri(puffed rice) or luchi. There are meat versions of the ghugni too but what I present here is niramish ghugni which is perfect when you plan to eat vegetarian at home.

Course: Snacks

Cuisine: Indian

Preparation time: 10 mins

Cook time: 30 minutes

Servings: 4

Ingredients

  • 1 cup of yellow peas/kabulichana(chickpeas)
  • 2 onions roughly chopped
  • 1 tomato roughly chopped
  • 1 inch ginger
  • 6-7 garlic cloves
  • 2-3 bay leaves
  • 1 inch cinnamon stick
  • 4-5 pods of cardamom
  • 8-10 pepper corns
  • 4 cloves
  • 2 tablespoons of oil
  • ¼  teaspoon of whole cumin seeds
  • 3-4 green chilies slit
  • 1 potato cut into cubes
  • ½ teaspoon of sugar
  • 1 teaspoon of turmeric powder
  • 1 teaspoon of cumin powder
  • 1 teaspoon of coriander powder
  • 1 teaspoon of red chili powder
  • 1 teaspoon of garam masala powder
  • ¼ cup of chopped coriander leaves

Directions

  1. Soak the yellow peas or kabulichana for 6 hours to overnight.
  2. Pressure cook the yellow peas or kabulichana till they are cooked properly.
  3. Make a paste of onion, ginger, garlic and tomato.
  4. In a kadai/pan add oil. Once the oil is hot add, bay leaves, cinnamon stick, cardamom pods, pepper corns, cloves, whole cumin seeds and sugar. The sugar starts caramelizing which imparts beautiful colour to the gravy.Be careful not to burn the sugar.
  5. Add the cubed potatoes and saute them till the edges brown.
  6. Now add the onion mixture paste and green chilies to the kadai and saute for 2 minutes.
  7. Add the turmeric powder, cumin powder, coriander powder, red chili powder, salt and ¼ cup of water.
  8. Continue cooking the spices and the potatoes till the potatoes are cooked and you see oil leaving the sides of the pan. Add water if necessary.
  9. Now, add the cooked yellow peas or kabulichana to the pan along with 1 cup of water.
  10.  Continue cooking till you achieve the required consistency.
  11. Add the garam masala and the chopped coriander leaves.
  12. Serve hot with phulko luchi or as it is.


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