This easy chickpea curry recipe features slow-cooked onions and garlic, warm spices including curry powder, cumin, and cinnamon, chickpeas, and diced tomatoes, all simmered in coconut milk and finished with fresh lime juice and herbs. You'll love this easy plant-based recipe!
extra cilantro and lime wedges(for serving, optional)
Instructions
In a large pot or deep skillet, heat the 1 tablespoon coconut oilover 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.