Chana Gassi /Ghassi – Mangalorean Coconut Onion sauce with Chickpeas. Simplified adaptation of Regional Indian Curry from Coastal Karnataka. Vegan Gluten-free Soy-free Nut-free Recipe
I remember trying a version of Kori Gassi which is a popular chicken curry from Mangalorean cuisine (coastal region in Karnataka state) way back when. The Sauce is made with a few ingredients but packs an amazing complex flavor. This coconut onion sauce can be used with veggies and tofu as well. I use chickpeas with it and served it with tomato rice. Dried chickpeas that are soaked for a few hours and pressure cooked in a pressure cooker/Instant Pot. You can also make it in a saucepan, see recipe notes.
The sauce cooks and caramelizes under pressure with the chickpeas, it it does not need to be pre-roasted. If however you are using cooked chickpeas or veggies, cook the sauce until the onion doesn’t smell raw, then add the veggies/chickpeas and simmer. Just when you thought we cant have more chickpea curries :). There are many sauces and curries across regional Indian cuisines that use various ingredients and spices very different from each other and often paired with meats, paneer or legumes. The different flavors, textures, spices all work equally beautifully with the different beans and pulses, seitan/chikin subs, and tofu. Its all about the sauce. Lets make this Mangalorean Chana Ghassi!
More Instant Pot Recipes
- Instant Pot Vegan Butter Chickin(soycurls). GF
- Lentil Veggie Dhansak – Lentil Veggie Stew in IP. GF
- Kohlapuri Veggies – Veggies in sesame coconut sauce GF
- Lentil Sweet Potato Curry GF
- Aloo Palak Dal- Potato Spinach Lentils in IP. GF
- Chana Saag – Chickpea Spinach Curry GF
Try this sauce with chikin substitutes for variation like soycurls, seitan, jackfruit etc. Like regional Indian recipes like these? Try some from my first book Vegan Richa’s Indian Kitchen!
Then fragrant spices and coconut
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Chana Gassi /Ghassi - Mangalorean Coconut Onion sauce with Chickpeas.
Ingredients
- ¾ cup (150 g) dried chickpeas soaked for atleast 4 hours
- 2 dried red chilies (I use 1 hot cayenne/thai and 1 bydagi/guajillo, use any mild or moderately hot red chilies), these get blended and hence will release all the heat, so choose accordingly.
- 2 tsp coriander seeds
- ¼ tsp (0.25 tsp) black peppercorns less for less heat
- ⅓ cup (26.67 g) shredded coconut , dried or fresh/frozen
- 5 cloves garlic
- ½ (0.5) medium onion , roughly chopped
- ⅛ tsp (0.13 tsp) cinnamon
- ½ cup (125 ml) water to blend
- ½ tsp (0.5 tsp) turmeric
- ¾ tsp (0.75 tsp) salt divided
- 1 cup (250 ml) water
- ½ to 1 tsp tamarind paste
- Lemon and cayenne for garnish.
Termpering:
- 1 tsp oil , organic safflower or other neutral oil
- ½ tsp (0.5 tsp) mustard seeds
- ⅛ tsp (0.13 tsp) fenugreek seeds
- 8 to 10 curry leaves
Instructions
- Soak the chickpeas if you havent already, See notes for making with cooked chickpeas. Heat a skillet over medium heat. Toast the coriander seeds, chilies and black pepper until the seeds start changing color. Add coconut and mix in. Roast for half a minute or until coconut starts to get golden.
- Transfer to a blender. Add onion, garlic, cinnamon, water and blend until the coconut breaks down. *(Some onion and garlic can turn bitter on blending for long. When in doubt, blend the coconut,water and spices, then add onion and garlic and blend in short pulses till a coarse mixture, or use finely chopped onion and garlic instead of blended).
- Add the blended mixture to Instant pot or pressure cooker. Add turmeric and ½ tsp salt and mix in.
- Drain and wash the chickpeas, add to the pot with 1 cup water and mix in. Cook on Manual (hi) for 35 to 40 minutes. Release the pressure after 10 mins.
- Add in the tamarind, lemon, and additional salt if needed. Add cayenne if needed and mix in.
- Make the tempering. Heat oil in a skillet over medium heat. When hot, add mustard seeds, fenugreek seeds and cook until the mustard seeds splutter. Add curry leaves carefully. Take off heat and mix into the chickpeas. Serve hot with rice or flatbread.
Notes
Nutrition
Saankhya
Absolutely delicious! I just made it and am eating it right now. Both the tomato rice and the curry. I will try to sub the rice with quinoa next time to make it more healthy (not like it isn’t healthy already). Thank you so much for posting your recipes are always a hit
Molly Wellers
This is delicious. I used large flakes of coconut and my Vita-mix did not emulsify the coconut, as I believe it would had I used grated coconut. Nonetheless, the flavor is wonderful and I will make this often. Very easy, and fast as long as you have all the spices measured and ready to go.
Vegan Richa Support
Thank you Molly =)
Shere Khan
I made this tonight with pre cooked chickpeas and I was a bit lazy so I fried the mustard seeds and fenugreek in the pot first of all and omitted the tempering. It was still utterly delicious! That toasted coconut and spices was crazy good. I added minced keffir lime leaves and a little rice flour at the end for thickening. Thank you so much Richa, I really enjoy your recipes!!
Richa
Thanks!
NT
So… I live in Ecuador, where getting things shipped is hard (people sometimes request visiting Americans to bring things that they bought on Amazon and pay them!), and there is nary an Indian grocery store in sight. How critical is the tempering process for this recipe? I can get the ingredients for the “main” ingredient list relatively easily, but fenugreek, curry leaves, and mustard seeds – I didn’t think to pack some dried kasuri methi/curry, or bring mustard seeds and am regretting it. (Though I suppose, if you haven’t tried it without tempering, I’ll take one for the team and let you know!)
Richa
it should be flavorful without too. I try to keep the recipes as close to traditional as possible with some simplified steeps and ingredients. There are layers of flavors. You can probably use just cumin seeds in the tempering if you have some, or add a 1/4 tsp ground mustard to the simmering sauce instead.
Yuri Wolf
Dear Richa,
Thanks for sharing another beautiful recipe!
What could substitute curry leaves?
Thanks a million =)
Richa
You can just leave them out. If you an find some fresh, you can freeze them for upto a year and use directly from the freezer. they add a fantastic flavor.
Shilpa
This recipe was very spicy and felt extremely heavy for a vegan entrée. I ate it with the tomato rice and both dishes tasted slightly sour. Next time I might omit the lemon or add some coconut milk to the channa to help mellow the overpowering spice. I used one can of chickpeas and this would not make enough to feed 4 people. My dish also did not have the beautiful orange-brown color pictured, it was just dark brown.
Richa
I am so sorry it didnt turn out. The heat depends on the red chilies. I use a combination of very mild and regular indian chiles as the indian chilies can get very hot as they are blended.
I am not sure why the sauce was sour or too dark. With 1/2 tsp tamarind paste, its just a mild sour flavor addition. Maybe the onions browned too much for the color? Which method of cooking did you use?
The serving size is for dry chickpeas which expand to 2+ cups on soaking. Canned usually contain 1.25 to 1.5 cups. i’ll add that to the recipe as 2 to 4 serves depending on the ingredients and how it is served. Let me know if you can pinpoint what happened sow e can troubleshoot further.
Shilpa
Thanks for the tips! I definitely think using more chickpeas next time would balance the spice. I did use the Indian red chilies and also used the stovetop cooking method and added more than 1/2 tsp tamarind so I will cut back next time.
Richa
great! yes use atleast 1.5 cans and adjust the heat and flavor while everything is simmering. Add more coconut to reduce heat, more chickpeas and so on.
Robyn
Richa, thank you for this recipe! It was delicious. I have some questions, though, since mine did not come out as expected (flavors were gorgeous, but the texture was off).
Since I had a can of chickpeas, I followed your saucepan notes. I also used desiccated coconut. My dish was much drier than expected — I would not call it a sauce at all. The end result, when mixed with rice, was more of a biryani (not that I am complaining…). Should I have added more water to the blender for the coconut mixture? Should I have used a food processor instead? I noticed that the desiccated coconut was pulsed upward and wouldn’t blend. I did add 1/2 cup of water to the blender, but I’m thinking more would have been appropriate. Also, for the saucepan, should I have added more/another liquid?
Thanks again, and I’m looking forward to your advice!
Richa
You can add more water while it is simmering. The evaporation will depend on the pan and the stove. so if the sauce is evaporating and thickening too much, just add more water during simmering time and ensure that it comes to a boil. You can also add more water for blending the coconut. It depends n the blender and you do want to bread the shreds down to very small pieces so that the coconut is not mouthy in the sauce. Hope this helps!
Robyn
Thank you, Richa! I will try out more water next time and let you know. It was delicious either way.
Nicky
Hi – I have just tried this but my chickpeas burned (and i checked them 10 mins before the time was up). There just didn’t seem to be enough liquid to cook the chickpeas in.
Richa
Did you cook them in the instant pot or saucepan? The saucepan instructions are for already cooked chickpeas and they need less water to just simmer for a while. If using dried chickpeas in the saucepan, you would need about 3 cups of water and cook for 40 minutes or so
Brendan
Ooops, I meant to say, I had the grated coconut in the freezer. I sourced it at a Sri Lankan grocery store not far from me. Cheers! Brendan
Brendan
This recipe is stellar! I doubled it and have been having some for lunch for a few days now, with basmati rice, some raw onion and sliced yellow pepper, and some good quality ranch sauce. I had everything I needed: the grated onion and curry leaves in the freezer. I used my pressure cooker to cook the beans (soaked overnight), and used the cooking water in the recipe (an extra hit of flavour). I made the sauce, then added it to the cooked chickpeas and cooked for a while to incorporate. I used my mortar and pestle to crack the peppercorns, since I don’t like biting into a whole peppercorn. Voila! Thanks again. Now, that recipe with the peanut sauce baked onto the cauliflower has me salivating too. Nice work once again, Richa! Brendan in wintery Toronto, Canada
Richa
AWesome!! Fresh coconut is definitely fabulous in this recipe.
Kat
Hi Richa, this sounds lovely. I LOVE chickpeas. Could this be made without the tamarind paste do you think? I haven’t gotten around to buying any yet and am hesitant to do so as it is described as sour and bitter. Hm….
Richa
Sure, add some lemon instead. Tamarind is sweet and sour and should not be bitter. The concentrate in larger amounts may taste bitter depending on the brand and type.
trsja
3/4 of one cup of chickpeas.. for the entire dish, which is listed as being 4 servings in the nutritional information? Is this a typo? 3/4 of one cup, spread across 4 servings, seems awfully small.
Richa
3/4 cup dried chickpeas when cooked will yield about 2 cups, so 1/2 cup cooked chickpeas per serving of a meal when served with rice/grains, flatbread, maybe a side veg stir fry or side salad. You can adjust the serving size to preference.
Brenda
Could I make this with lentils? If so, would I cook them first?
Richa
Yes, cook them to al dente, and then follow the instructions in the Recipe notes for Saucepan.
Heidi
Hi,
I might have missed this from one of your other postings, but I curious as to where you source your fresh curry leaves?
Patricia Duncan
I have just made this with dried curry leaves. I added one or two extra small ones. I put them in a cup with hot water for a couple of minutes, pat dry and use. The flavour is fine.
Go steady with your chillies. For this quantity, with mine, one would have been enough!
Richa
Awesome! use the milder chile like guajillo or similar, so you can adjust the heat later with cayenne if needed. Guajillo is very mild and adds color and flavor. The thai or indian red chilies can get hot.
Heidi
Patricia- Thanks for this suggestion, I hadn’t thought about treating the dry leaves like that!!!!
Richa
Indian stores, you can find some close to you in the US here thokalath.com/grocery/ , or you can get some fresh or dried curry leaves on amazon.
Heidi
Thanks!! I will give Amazon a shot as unfortunately I’m not close to any good ethnic grocery stores. ☺
Emily
Made this, loved it! I also threw in some spinach and roasted sweet potatoes. So Good!
Richa
Awesome!
Shuchi
Hello! I love your recipes and recently gifted my aunt and uncle your book for Christmas. Thanks for your work! However, this recipe didn’t turn out great for me. The dish smells and tastes somewhat pungent and I’m not sure what might have caused that. Maybe my garlic cloves were too big? I added coconut milk, and more tamarind to temper it and mask the pungency a little. Wonder if you have thoughts or suggestions o what might have caused this? And also what I might do to salvage it? Thanks a lot.
Richa
I suspect garlic as well. Sometimes garlic gets pungent or bitter on blending, if blended for too long or if the garlic was old or something. Use minced garlic instead when you try it again. You might have to cook the sauce longer to roast the taste out and maybe add other contrasting flavors such as tomato puree. I am sorry about that. The garlic issue has happened with me as well and usually it is one of the above issues. Once i got pungent garlic when I chopped in a processor. The taste worked out though by roasting it for much longer to a good golden overall color. Let me know if it works out. I’ll add a note to mince the garlic if unsure about the age.
Shuchi
Thanks! Your reply and this article convinced me that it was the blending that might have caused the pungency: https://www.seriouseats.com/2015/01/how-to-mince-chop-garlic-microplane-vs-garlic-press.html I added tomato puree as you suggested, some more lime, and coconut milk. It’s definitely a lot better but I’m looking forward to making this again with minced garlic!
Richa
Awesome! I think it also happens when garlic is paired with similar pungent ingredients like onion. I blend garlic often but most mixes have tomato and other non pungent ingredients and those mixes have not turned out bitter. The times i remember were bitter were in an onion based sauce and once when it was just garlic and some spices. You can also lightly cook the garlic and then blend.
Rhiannon
If you don’t have an instant pot or pressure cooker can this just be made in the hob?
Thanks!
Richa
Whats a hob? I have saucepan instructions in the notes
Allison
A “Hob” is a stove top
Richa
See recipe notes for saucepan on stove top instructions.
Mia
This looks amazing Richa! How do you keep on doing it?? I think I will make this one this week.
Richa
Awesome!! Thanks Mia,, Happy new Year!
Mia
Thank you, Happy New Year to you too!