Rinse garbanzo beans in cold water and drain. In a saucepan, "fry" cumin seeds (I skipped this step since I had powdered cumin). Add onions, (cumin), and fry until they turn brown (translucent). Lower heat and add coriander, tumeric, garam masala, salt, ginger, and garlic. Mix and cook for 30 seconds, stirring all the time. Add 1 cup water, tomato paste, and pureed tomatoes. Mix and bring to a boil. Add garbanzo beans, lemon juice, and red chili powder. Mix well, cover and cook over medium heat for 15 minutes, or until garbanzo beans are soft. Stir occasionally. If the mixture gets too dry, add a little water. Serve garnished with green chilies, onions, tomatoes or cilantro.

I left the garnish off and ate the mixture over rice. It was an excellent chana masala. Flavorful and slightly spicy. I just purchased some cumin seeds so next time, I make this recipe (some time this week), I'm going to try the cumin seeds at the beginning. I'm thinking of "frying" the cumin seeds in a few drops of water or broth.

I found this recipe in the book "Indian Recipes for a Healthy Heart." The author is Mrs. Lakhani and she boasts 140 low-fat, low-sodium, low-cholesterol dishes with 104 vegetarian recipes. I've made five recipes in this book and I'm quite impressed. She does recommend frying onions or spices, but I just leave out the oil. She has a nonfat paneer recipe for making mutter paneer and other recipes. I'm going to try it this week and I'll let you know the results (paneer recipe and the mutter paneer recipe).