This Chickpea Curry is such an easy, healthy weeknight dinner idea! It’s a cheap, healthy, vegan meal that comes together in a half an hour. The creamy coconut milk makes it rich and luxurious with a slightly sweet flavor, and the tomatoes and lime juice add bright acidity to round it out. Taking an extra few minutes to slightly caramelize the onions and garlic add so much flavor to this simple recipe, along with the curry powder, cinnamon, and cumin.
This chickpea curry may be vegan, but even meat lovers will love it for its heartiness and flavor. There are so many reasons to eat more plants and many people have been opting to eat a plant-based diet for a few reasons – health, environmental, and cost.
Chickpeas are a healthy, CHEAP plant-based protein that are a crowd pleaser. My kids ate this up so fast! The flavors in this chickpea curry work so well together, with the unique spice blend that includes cinnamon, and slightly caramelized onions and garlic that lend sweetness to the whole thing.
And I love that the bulk of this recipe uses pantry ingredients – a can of chickpeas, a can of diced tomatoes, a can of coconut milk, and rice for serving if you want.
Don’t skip adding fresh lime juice at the end – it adds a little something something that you’re going to love! Let’s get to it.
Ingredients and Substitutions
- Chickpeas – I used canned, but you can cook your own from dry if you want (here’s how to cook dried chickpeas).
- Diced tomatoes – I used canned here, but fresh will also work (they may take a bit more time to cook).
- Coconut milk – the canned kind you find with the other Asian ingredients at your grocery store (NOT the milk substitute you’d find in the dairy section). I recommend full-fat here instead of light.
- Onion and Garlic
- Spices: Curry Powder, Cumin, and Cinnamon – you can use just curry powder if you like, and you can add other spices to the mix such as garam masala.
- Coconut Oil – you can use another oil like canola or olive if you like, but coconut adds a nice coconut flavor to the curry.
- Fresh lime juice – skip if you must, but I definitely recommend it! Add a little bit of vinegar, like apple cider vinegar, for acidity in place of it if you don’t have fresh lime juice.
- Cilantro – optional. Omit if you prefer.
- Brown sugar – or white sugar or honey, for a sweeter flavor and to help caramelize the onions and garlic.
How to make Chickpea Curry
- First, lightly caramelize the onions and garlic in coconut oil with some brown sugar. Use a large deep skillet for this. Cook them over medium or medium low heat, stirring frequently, until they are softened an have developed a light brown color.
- Then, add the chickpeas and spices. Stir around and continue to cook so the spices toast a bit.
- Pour in the diced tomatoes and the juices, scraping up any brown bits from the bottom of the skillet with a wooden spoon.
- Add the coconut milk and continue heating until it’s simmering.
- Finally, turn off the heat and add the lime juice and cilantro. At this point, season to taste with salt and pepper. You’re ready to serve on top of a pile of fluffy basmati rice and/or with naan bread!
Tips and Tricks
- Speed up caramelizing the onions and garlic by adding tablespoon of brown sugar to them. The result will be a deeper darker brown color and a sweeter flavor profile, mimicking caramelized onions that have been cooking for much longer.
- Don’t skip the lime juice! It adds some much needed acidity to the curry. If you like, you can add the lime zest as well with the other spices.
- Do make sure you wait until the end to salt the curry. Depending on the brand you use, the chickpeas and tomatoes will already have some salt, and adding lime juice also brings out other flavors in a similar way to salt so you may find you need less. I used about 1 teaspoon kosher salt in mine, with about 1/4 teaspoon pepper.
- For a thicker curry, you can stir in a cornstarch slurry. But I found it was already plenty thick without it, especially when mashing some of the chickpeas.
Other Canned Chickpea Recipes
- Crispy Roasted Chickpeas
- Za’atar Roasted Chickpea Salad
- Quick and Easy Classic Hummus
- Moroccan Butternut Squash and Chickpea Stew
- Mediterranean Chickpea Orzo Pasta Salad
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Chickpea Curry with Coconut Milk and Tomato
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon coconut oil (or other oil of choice)
- 1 yellow onion (quartered and thinly sliced)
- 3 cloves garlic (minced)
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar (optional, or white sugar or honey, see notes)
- 30 oz. canned chickpeas (or two standard cans, drained and rinsed, or 3-4 cups cooked chickpeas)
- 1 ½ tablespoons curry powder
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 15 oz. canned diced tomatoes (see notes)
- 1 can coconut milk (about 1⅔ cups, see notes)
- juice of one lime (about 2 tablespoons)
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro (or other herbs, like chives or basil)
- salt and black pepper (to taste, see notes)
- cooked rice and/or naan bread (for serving, optional)
- extra cilantro and lime wedges (for serving, optional)
Instructions
- In a large pot or deep skillet, heat the 1 tablespoon coconut oil over medium heat until it melts. Add the sliced 1 yellow onion slivered 3 cloves garlic, and 1 tablespoon brown sugar and cook over medium or medium-low heat until deeply browned and slightly caramelized, stirring occasionally, about 10-15 minutes (tip: use this time to prep the remaining ingredients, cook rice, etc.). Adjust the heat if needed to not burn the garlic.
- Add the drained and rinsed 30 oz. canned chickpeas, the 1 ½ tablespoons curry powder, 1 teaspoon ground cumin, and 1 teaspoon cinnamon) and stir to coat everything in the spices. Turn up the heat to medium-high or high. Allow to cook for 1 more minute, stirring frequently, to bring out the flavor of the spices.
- Add the 15 oz. canned diced tomatoes. Continue to heat, stirring frequently, until some of the juices reduce, scraping up any stuck on brown bits as you stir (about 2 minutes).
- Add the 1 can coconut milk. Stir together, continuing to heat until it starts to bubble. Use a potato masher to mash a few of the chickpeas, leaving most of them intact. Turn the heat to low and continue to simmer, uncovered, for about 5-10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until curry has reduced and thickened a bit (see notes).
- Turn off the heat. Stir in the juice of one lime and the 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro. Taste and season with salt and black pepper as needed. Serve over cooked rice and/or naan bread, or on its own, garnished with extra cilantro and lime wedges if desired.
Notes
- The tomatoes are flexible here. You can use crushed, diced, fire roasted, whole and mash them up, or even fresh diced tomatoes. Different kinds may have more or less liquid so you may need to let them cook for a little more or less time.
- Canned coconut milk can usually be found in the grocery section with other Asian ingredients. I recommend whole coconut milk instead of light – it’s just not as tasty or rich. Be sure to get unsweetened coconut milk. And be aware that this is different than the coconut milk you’d find in the dairy section as an alternative to milk, as that is much more watered down. Here’s the kind I use.
- For added salt, I usually like to specify a certain amount, but this will vary based on the chickpeas used. Different brands have different sodium in them. In addition, adding lime juice will help bring out some of the flavors in a similar way to salt so you may find you need less than you’d expect. Just taste and add as much as you think. If it helps, I added about 1 teaspoon kosher salt and 1/4 teaspoon black pepper.
- Draining and rinsing the chickpeas is important because it helps rinse off some of the indigestible fibers of the chickpeas (which are the things that cause gas in legumes). It also helps reduce the added sodium to the recipe. (But you can save the chickpea liquid, also called aquafaba, for another recipe if you want to.).
- For a thicker curry, you can stir in a cornstarch slurry (about 2 teaspoons cornstarch mixed with 1 tablespoon water) to the curry toward the end.
- For a spicier version, add some cayenne pepper, crushed red pepper, Aleppo pepper, or your favorite spicy pepper or hot sauce to the spice mix.
Nutrition
Nutrition Information Disclaimer
The provided nutrition information is my best estimate and reflects one serving of the recipe (total servings indicated at top of recipe card). It does not include any added sodium from seasoning to taste, any optional ingredients, and it does not take brands into account. I use an automatic API to calculate this information. Feel free to calculate it yourself using one of these tools:
S Munoz
Great recipe, thank you for sharing it! Everyone loved it, glad I made a double recipe! :)
Elizabeth Lindemann
So glad you liked it!
Priscilla D Crush
Was this supposed to serve 4? I had a friend over and we ate the whole thing and felt a little guilty afterward…DEE-LISH-US!!!! Hot sauce kicked it up a notch and made us both grin with delight!
Elizabeth Lindemann
Oh you shouldn’t feel guilty about that at ALL, I easily take down half of this. I usually make it stretch to four servings for my family with an ample amount of rice to serve it with, and two kids that don’t eat huge portions. It can easily be two portions! Also, feel free to use two cans of chickpeas next time to make the servings larger. SO glad you liked it!
Oliver
Really tasty, my family loved it.
Elizabeth Lindemann
So glad you all liked it!
Nikki
Bland
Elizabeth Lindemann
You probably needed more salt and/or lime juice – those ingredients help bring out all the other flavors! Hope that helps for if you give it another go.
Jules
What can I sub for the coconut-based ingredients? I can’t eat coconut.
Elizabeth Lindemann
I haven’t tried this myself, but I think cashew milk, or a combination of cashew cream and water, would work well! Or if you don’t have any aversions to dairy, you can use some whole milk, half and half, or even heavy cream as an alternative. Hope that helps, and hope you like it!
Amy
Yuuuuummmmm! I was already halfway through making dinner when I found this recipe (you know how it is!) so mine already had a chopped carrot, mustard seeds, ground coriander, and garam masala instead of curry powder, but otherwise I made it as per the recipe and looooooved it.
Elizabeth Lindemann
So glad you liked it!
Teresa
Delicious! Made tonight with some leftover crushed and diced tomatoes and both my husband and I loved this. I did add a bit of red pepper flakes because we like spicy.
Bookmark this recipe!
Elizabeth Lindemann
So glad you liked it! I always add red pepper flakes to mine as well – working on getting my kids to enjoy spicy foods :-)
Jessica
My 6 year old son told me he doesn’t like chickpeas, but he tried this and asked for a second helping! My whole family loved it.
Elizabeth Lindemann
So glad you and your family liked it! My kids take this down every time I make it!
Pamela
Do you think this would freeze well?
Elizabeth Lindemann
Yes! It would freeze very well.
Carole Wilson
We loved this curry, even the 18 year old fussy eater. We did add a cut up carrot after the onions had browned and a cup of frozen peas with the chickpeas to add more vegetables and some color. We did not need to thicken it, and it was delicious over brown rice.
Elizabeth Lindemann
So glad you liked it! Love the idea of adding more veggies.
Tracy
Thank you for this recipe! I love Indian food but don’t get to indulge much as my husband is extremely picky, not to mention he things water is spicy. This was amazing although next time I will add some heat to it. It was great for lunch the next day as well.
Elizabeth Lindemann
So glad you liked it! I made it mild for my kiddos but I love spicy – I think when I make it next time I’ll add some cayenne pepper or chili garlic paste to it!
Toni
Very tasty! This will become apart of the recipe rotation in my household! Thank you for the simple enough recipe/directions for a non-cooker!
Elizabeth Lindemann
So glad you liked it!