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