Even when the man is at home, I am always looking for ways to cut down the cooking. So when the man is not in town, you bet that the cooking is minimal.

For luring the kid, I give nutella sandwiches, peanut butter dosa, marmalade idli and what not!

And for dinner, it’s these quick to make ‘chundal’ varieties. I don’t even know whether it qualifies as a chundal as it doesn’t have coconut. But I call it chundal anyway.

Scroll down for the recipe if you are also looking for a short cut curry for dinner!

Serves 2-3 as a side dish

Ingredients:

• Whole chana/chickpeas         :             1 cup
• Sambar powder                        :              1 tsp (or per your taste)
• Salt, per taste
• Oil
• Mustard seeds                           :               1 tsp, optional
• Red Chillies                                :               1, optional

Method:

1. Wash, clean and soak chana overnight. Pressure cook with salt the next morning for 5-6 whistles or until its cooked fully.
2. Once the pressure is released, drain and keep the chana aside.
3. In a kadai, heat oil. Add the mustard seeds and red chillies, if using. Add sambar powder after the mustard crackles and saute for 20-30 seconds. Once the powder starts turning brown, add the chickpeas. You need to switch on the chimney before adding the sambar powder, else it will smoke and you will end up coughing!
4. Mix the chickpeas well, taste test and add salt, if required. Cook for 3-4 minutes and take off the heat. Serve as such or as a side dish for rice.

Note:  I always soak and cook a whole batch of chana. After taking out what I need, I deep freeze the rest. That way, you don’t have to go through the soaking and cooking process again making life really easy.