Everyday meals
Chora: Spiced Black-Eyed Peas
Earthy, sweet and warming, with only a handful of ingredients.
- Soak
- Overnight
- Cook
- About 35 minutes
This dish is a perfect example of the simplicity and complexity of Gujarati food. There are very few core ingredients, yet it is earthy, sweet, spicy and hearty all at once.
Ayurveda considers black-eyed peas harder to digest than mung beans or pigeon peas, so soak them overnight before cooking.
Ingredients
For the chora- About 1 cup dried black-eyed peas
- 4 cups water
- 1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
- 1/2 teaspoon red chili powder
- 1 teaspoon dhana jeeru (ground coriander and cumin)
- 1 teaspoon ginger and green chili paste (optional)
- 1 teaspoon jaggery
- Juice of 1/2 lemon
- Kosher salt, to taste
- Chopped fresh cilantro, to taste
- 1 tablespoon oil (safflower, avocado or pure olive)
- 1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
- 1/2 teaspoon black mustard seeds
- 1/4 teaspoon Indian celery seeds
- A pinch of asafoetida (hing)
Method
- 1Soak the black-eyed peas overnight in cold water, covered by about three inches. In the morning, drain and discard the soaking water.
- 2Bring the peas and 4 cups of water to a boil over high heat, then reduce to a simmer for about 20 minutes, until tender. They will take longer at high altitude.
- 3Stir in the turmeric, red chili powder, dhana jeeru, ginger-chili paste, jaggery and lemon juice.
- 4For the vaghaar, heat the oil in a small pan over high heat until it shimmers but does not smoke.
- 5Add the cumin, mustard and celery seeds and cook for about 30 seconds, until they pop and smell fragrant. Do not let them burn.
- 6Lower the heat, add the asafoetida, and cook for about a minute, until it stops sizzling.
- 7Pour the vaghaar into the peas, stir, and simmer on medium-low for about 10 minutes.
- 8Just before serving, season with salt and garnish with cilantro.
Notes from my kitchen
My mother freezes a flat batch of ground ginger and seeded green chilies and breaks off what she needs. Canned black-eyed peas work fine, French celery seeds can replace Indian celery seeds, brown or yellow mustard seeds can replace black, and molasses can stand in for jaggery.
