Palak poori and chole

Poori and chole in Indian cooking has always been a winner combination. You can checkout my recipe for authentic punjabi chole/channa masala here. The chole I made this time is a simpler and quicker version and tasted great too.
And the pooris, this time I decided to incorporate some palak/spinach for the spicier and healthy touch and of course for a change from the usual pooris. I will also try to give some tips to make soft and puffy pooris which I learned from my friends and of course from practice. The dough for making pooris should be softer and a little loose compared to that for making phulkas or chapatis. And the kneaded dough should not kept for a longer time because the longer you keep it, more the oil will be absorbed while deep frying them. So below are the ingredients for poori and chole.

Pooris
Ingredients
Wheat flour- 1 cup
Palak /spinach- 1cup
Salt to taste
Green chillies- 1or 2 chopped
Oil for deep frying

Method
Chop the spinach and boil them in a cup of water till it becomes tender. Drain the water. Add the green chillies to the spinach and grind them. Add this paste to the wheat flour along with the
salt and knead it to a soft dough.Make small balls of the dough. Heat the oil for deep frying.
Roll the balls to small circles and deep fry them.
Other tips- 1. Add a tablespoon of rava/semolina for crispiness.
2. Dip the balls in the hot oil before rolling them into circles. This ways the pooris will puff up.

Chole
Ingredients
Kabuli channa/white chick peas- 1 cup
Tea powder- 1tsp
Onion- 1 finely chopped
Tomato - 1 chopped
Potatoes- 1 cut to small pieces and cooked.
Ginger garlic green chilly paste- 2tsp
Turmeric powder- 1tsp
Red chilly powder- 1tsp
Coriander powder- 1tsp
Garam masala- 1tsp
Salt to taste
Oil- 1tsp

Method
Soak the chick peas in water overnight. Alternately you can soak them in hot water for 3 to 4 hours. Then pressure cook the chick peas adding the tea powder along with it. The chick peas should be very soft at this stage. It should get mashed when you press a pea between your fingers. Drain the water by putting them in a colander so that the tea powder gets removed along with the water.
Grind the onions and tomatoes along with the ginger garlic green chillies paste to a smooth paste. Heat a teaspoon of oil in a pan. Add the ground paste. Add the turmeric powder, red chilly powder ,coriander powder and garam masala along with salt and stir till everything gets mixed well. Now add the cooked chick peas and potatoes. Add a cup of water. Mix well and cover the pan. Allow to cook for around 10 minutes till the gravy thickens.
Serve hot with hot pooris.

I am sending this to Rathna of Asvadha who is hosting the "made for each other event".