I never used to eat curry until I got pregnant with my baby girl in 2019 and then all of a sudden, I wanted mum’s spicy chicken curry all the time! However, chicken curry is not the healthiest dish to eat all the time, so I changed it up and made a quick chickpea curry at home, packed full of punch. The curry I made was born out of having very few ingredients in the cupboard thanks to the COVID lockdown (if you’re reading this recipe far into the future, in 2020 we had to quarantine thanks to the coronavirus epidemic COVID-19 and we are now in our 9th week. (There has been many a time I’ve wanted to throw myself out of the window)). I found some going off carrots, sweet potatoes, chickpeas and rice. I had a few jars of brown rice to hand, so I thought, why not? Let’s see what happens here. But could I make a chickpea curry without coconut milk? I had oat milk, which I figured would make a healthy alternative and I needed to come up with an easy dinner recipe pronto, so this would have to do!
A little history about curry
The term ‘curry’ is coined to a variety of dishes in India where the dish uses a range of herbs or spices like turmeric, ginger, cumin and coriander. Curry is prepared as a sauce and then are added to dishes with fish, lentils, meat, rice and/or vegetables. Curry powder is generally a mix of spices, and something I would have used in this dish. But I love curry powder so much I ran out of it. So, the mix I have in my dish is widely curry-related and work well as substitutes.
I’m not sure how to make chickpea curry the authentic way as the Indians do it, but it’s an easy chickpea curry to make and the boys are getting quite good at trying out new types of food. So what better way than to mix up my healthy recipes with some SPICE!
So, I present to you my quick chickpea curry, which is one of my easier recipes on Five for a Fiver!
Here are the ingredients:
This is a vegetarian chickpea curry, and the recipe is perfect for the family, as well as absolutely delicious too! You can also call this recipe a chickpea and vegetable curry or a sweet potato chickpea curry as I have included sweet potatoes in it, but you can add pretty much any vegetable you want. Also, if you don’t have garlic cloves, use garlic paste, which is a simpler way to add garlic. I also have ginger paste and lemongrass paste, which is great to include in these kinds of recipes. I wish I had some spinach because I would have definitely added spinach to the recipe. This simple chickpea curry only takes around 40 minutes from scratch to plate, so it’s a perfect vegan curry for weeknight dinners.
Normally my mum makes her curries with white rice, which I love, but I’m trying to stay away from refined white foods like pasta, rice and potatoes and go for the wholewheat/healthier version like brown rice, and sweet potatoes. And chickpeas add a real protein kick to the dish, keeping you full for longer. It’s easy to digest so the boys don’t go to bed on a heavy stomach and this dish releases energy slowly therefore you won’t see kids bouncing off the walls after dinner.
If you like my vegan chickpea curry, here is a link to my 5-ingredient Spinach Rice Recipe
Quick chickpea curry
4
servings10
minutes30
minutes40
minutesIf you fancy something quick but full of flavour, this Quick Chickpea Curry recipe is perfect for when you have little time to cook and not much left in the pantry!
Ingredients
2 tins of chickpeas 340g each (140g drained)
2 carrots
2 sweet potatoes
2 cups brown rice
2 cups of oat milk
- For the seasoning:
1 tsp salt
½ tsp black pepper
½ tsp turmeric
1 tbsp white wine vinegar
½ tsp ginger
½ tsp garlic paste
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 tbsp maple syrup
1 veg stock cube
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp Nutritional Yeast (optional)
Directions
- Put the rice to boil (I will include an article on here on how to boil rice soon!)
- Add stock to the pan along with 4 cups of boiling water and 2 cups of washed rice.
- Cover with the lid and simmer for around 20 minutes until the rice has cooked through and the water has evaporated.
- While the rice is cooking, chop all the vegetables up
- Add a little olive oil to the pan and fry the carrots and sweet potatoes with the seasoning for a few minutes before you add the milk.
- Cook for a few more minutes until boiling then add the chickpeas with 1 cup of water. Cook for another few minutes until everything has mixed well and the veg are soft.
- Simmer until the rice is cooked and the milk doesn’t congeal or break apart – it will take around 20 minutes
- Add the chickpea mix to the rice and serve!
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