This is a highly seasoned soup. Essentially, I see just how many spices I can possibly fit into one dish. Don't let the length of the ingredient list frighten you away. I just use whatever 'sweet spices' (like those used in pumpkin pie) I can lay my hands on, as well as the standard curry spices.

Chola can also be prepared as a dry vegetable by not adding as much water during the preparation and keeping the chola on the hard side. In this case, you would be best to prepare the chola one day, undercooking it and then letting the flavors mature overnight and serving the next day.

Ingredients:
    1 large can of chick peas (1 lb. or so)
    1 large onion
    1 large tomato + 1 heaping tbl. of tomato paste
    1 inch of fresh ginger
    1 or 2 fresh garlic cloves
    1 or 2 small, hot (Thai) peppers
    1 tea. cumin powder
    1 tbl. coriander powder
    1 tea. turmeric
    1 tea. salt or to taste
    1 tea. or 1/2 stick cinnamon
    1 tea. cloves or 5 or so whole cloves
    1 tea. nutmeg
    1 tea. cardamom or 5 or so whole cardamoms
    1 tea. garam masala
    1 or 2 tbl. oil
    water (wet, soup like: around 4 cups water)
         (dry subgee: 1 cup water)

Procedure:
Open the chick peas, drain and rinse, set aside. Chop the onions into crescents. Saut� slowly until golden brown. As the onions are browning, chop tomatoes into quarters, ginger and peppers. Set aside. On a plate, assemble all of the spices.

Once the onions have browned, throw in the ginger, peppers, garlic and all the spices. Stir, brown slightly, then throw in the tomatoes and cook until the tomatoes have softened slightly. Throw in the chick peas and stir well into the spice mix. Add water, bring to a boil then cover and let simmer low for 1 hour or so. The soup version is about the consistency of minestrone soup, the dry version barely moist. Cook slowly to allow the spices to mellow and loose that harsh, raw taste. Like any soup, its even better the second day than the first.