Dishes · A classic of Punjabi

Chole bhature

Also Chana bhatura

Chickpeas cooked dark, sharp and spicy, with bhature — big, puffed breads of soured dough, deep-fried.

Chole bhature

What makes it chole bhature

  • Chickpeas cooked soft, dark and tangy.
  • Bhature: a dough soured with yoghurt, rolled and fried until it balloons.
  • Raw onion, green chilli and pickle alongside.

Where it comes from

The Punjabi weekend breakfast, and a Delhi obsession: the city's chole bhature stalls draw queues by mid-morning. It's usually said to have come to Delhi with the Punjabis who settled there after Partition.

The chole are cooked until they're almost black — often with tea leaves or dried amla in the pot for colour — and soured with dried pomegranate seeds or mango powder.

How it varies

Pindi chole
From Rawalpindi: drier, darker and sharper, with little onion or tomato.
Amritsari chole kulche
The same chickpeas, with stuffed breads baked in the tandoor.

Be the first here

Start your own chole bhature
No one here has made chole bhature yet. Start it as v1, and every version after is an experiment the next cook can learn from.

Near it