Chana & Kala Chana: The Chickpea Guide

Chana is the Hindi and Nepali word for chickpea, but it is not one single thing. It is a whole family: the small dark bean called kala chana, the split and skinned version called chana dal, the flour called besan, and the pale round chickpea most Canadians already know from hummus, which we call kabuli chana or white chickpea.

If you have shopped at a mainstream grocery store and only ever seen the pale round chickpea, kala chana will look like a completely different bean. It is smaller, darker, and has a thicker skin, and it behaves differently in the pot too.

This guide focuses on the chana side of the family: kala chana, chana dal and besan, plus the chana masala spice blend that turns any of them into dinner. For the wider world of dal, our Indian dal and lentils guide covers toor, moong, masoor and rajma too, and if you are still getting oriented in a Nepali or Indian kitchen, the Indian grocery store guide is the best starting point on the whole site.

Kala chana (also spelled kaalo chana) is a small, dark brown chickpea with a much firmer bite than its pale cousin. It is grown widely across Nepal and South Asia and is a staple in both everyday cooking and festival food.

Nutritionally it punches above its weight: high in fibre, high in plant protein, and slow-digesting, which is why it shows up in fasting-day meals and post-workout dals alike. It sits comfortably alongside rajma and the other dals on our dal and lentils protein guide as one of the better plant-protein options in the pantry.

Our kaalo chana needs an overnight soak (8 to 12 hours) before cooking. Skipping the soak means a much longer boil and a less even texture, so plan ahead the night before you want kala chana curry or chole.

Chana dal is not a different bean, it is chana that has been split and had its skin removed, which is why it cooks faster and looks completely different (small, yellow, and lentil-like) from whole kala chana.

Our chana daal cooks up soft and slightly sweet, closer in texture to toor dal than to the firmer kala chana. It is the dal you want for a quick weeknight tadka dal, not for chole, which really wants the whole bean.

Grind chana dal fine enough and you get besan, or gram flour, the base of pakoras, dhokla, and countless Indian sweets. Our besan (chana flour) lives in the rice & flour aisle rather than with the dals, and the differences between besan, maida and rice flour are worth knowing if you bake or fry regularly, which we break down in besan vs maida vs rice flour.

Chole (also called chana masala) is the classic Punjabi chickpea curry, usually made with the pale kabuli chana rather than kala chana, though a kala chana version exists too and has an earthier, nuttier flavour.

The shortcut most home cooks use is a pre-mixed spice blend. Our MDH chana masala has the full lineup of amchur, coriander, cumin and dried pomegranate seed already balanced, so you just fry onion-tomato masala, add the boiled chana, stir in the spice packet, and simmer.

If you would rather build your own spice base from the spices & masala shelf, our garam masala and everyday Indian spices guide walks through what actually goes into a chana masala from scratch.

Not all chana ends up in a curry pot. Roasted chana, dry-roasted whole kala chana with a light salt or spice coating, is one of the most common snacks in Nepali and Indian households, eaten by the handful with tea or packed for a long bus ride.

Our roasted chana needs no cooking or soaking, straight from the bag to your mouth, and it sits in the same snacks aisle as our namkeen mixes. If you are choosing between crunchy snack options, aloo bhujia vs dalmoth covers the other big namkeen category.

Kala chana, chana dal and besan are not hard to find once you know a Nepali or Indian grocer, but they can be genuinely difficult to source at a mainstream supermarket, especially outside a major city.

We ship kala chana, chana dal, besan and chana masala from our Vancouver shop to all 10 provinces and the territories: standard delivery runs $5 to $10 and is free on orders over $35 in central Metro Vancouver, with 5 to 10 business days for the rest of the country. Metro Vancouver customers can also call 236-471-5891 for same-day delivery.

If rajma and other beans are on your shopping list too, our rajma (kidney beans) guide covers that bean the same way this one covers chana, and our Nepali and Indian grocery delivery across Canada page has the full picture of how shipping works nationwide.