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lol I did not mean to color-coordinate my plate but it's fun when it happens. Chana masala from indianhealthyrecipes (backup) and carrot roti from Meena Pathak (for 8: 1.5c wheat flour, plus some for dusting. 1/2tsp salt. 2/3c grated carrots. 1tbs (veg) oil. ghee or butter for the griddle. nb to let the dough rest an hour before dividing). The roti are fine, a mild base for whatever you please -- M had it plain with yogurt, why not. I'm most excited about the chana masala, because we've tried a few recipes and I think this is the most interesting by far. I followed it fairly closely, leaving off the cloves because I don't like them as much, and substituting gochujaru for kashmiri chili powder and sumac for amchoor because that's what we have, and just left off the methi because I don't have it lol. Also nb that our garam masala rn is apparently more Chennai style, which def worked for a good dish but is probs a different slant than the recipe originally meant!

Thoughts as to why this recipe worked better than the others we've done:

better spice profile in the first place. one of them was also a slow cooker recipe, which I assume can work, but I'm very <.< about singeing the spices, so I feel much better about the hands-on process to begin with.
pureeing at the tomato-onion-spice step. I like the gravy not to fall off, so homogenise the thing, yeah! I may have added too much chickpea to the pureeing step lol because it has a biiiit much chickpea taste itself, but it serves well. I blitz down the palak for paneer but hadn't tried it outside of that before.
use the aquafaba in the 'add water' step. of course, remember to get chickpeas with as little salt added as possible, but then that's a known starch carrier and will help the consistency too. and less waste anyway!