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Channa Dhal

A chickpea curry served over rice, garnished with cucumber, onion, and yogurt.

From the Recipes Wiki (Fandom) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and garlic match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 29,058 recipes. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. The science ↓

Channa Dhal

Ingredients

Directions

Make the curry

  1. Heat oil in skillet.

  2. Add onion and jalapenos and cook until onion is tender but not browned.

  3. Stir in curry powder.

  4. Add garbanzos and water; simmer 5 minutes.

  5. Cover and refrigerate overnight to blend flavors.

Reheat and serve

  1. Reheat with garlic.

  2. Serve over rice.

  3. Garnish with cucumber and onion and top with yogurt.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

506Calories
24 gProtein
15 gFat
68 gCarbs

Counts 8 of 9 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 8 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Rice1 cup cooked (158g) white206
Olive Oil1 tbsp (14g)119
Yogurt170g plain Greek100
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Cucumber1/2 cup sliced (52g)16
Turmeric1 tsp ground (3g)9
Chili1 tsp (2.7g)8
Garlic1 clove (3g)4
Waternot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  2. Garlic + cucumbertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,556 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  3. Rice + cucumbertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together734 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Jalapeno + garlictop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,700 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Onion + cucumbertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,050 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Garbanzos
Provide the bulk and creamy, starchy body of the dish.
Onion
Softens and sweetens as it cooks, forming the base flavor of the curry.
Curry powder
Supplies the spiced aroma that defines the dish.
Jalapeno chiles
Add heat and a fresh, sharp note to the sauce.
Yogurt
Adds cooling creaminess that balances the heat of the chiles.

The step that matters

Cook the onion until tender but not browned. Browning the onion turns its sugars bitter and darkens the sauce, while cooking it gently until soft releases its sweetness and builds a mellow base for the spices.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, jalapeno, garlic, rice, cucumber, yogurt):

  1. Cuminfits better
  2. Corianderfits better
  3. Turmericfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, jalapeno, garlic, rice, cucumber, yogurt. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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