Chickpea Potato Curry (Chana Aloo)

Vegan chickpea potato curry or Indian chana aloo curry from scratch in 30 minutes. You do not need any special or unusual ingredients here.

This hearty and robust curry is so easy to make, delicious with naan or rice and one of the quickest vegan curry recipes for you.

Best Vegan Curry Recipe

This vegan chickpea potato curry recipe is for all curry lovers out there. If you love flavorful hearty curry from takeouts, this recipe is for you!

With some chickpea, few potatoes and basic spice powders like garam masala powder and may be some curry powder, this recipe gets done in flat 30 minutes.

It gets ready in even lesser time if you use canned chickpeas.

Popularly known as chana aloo in Indian, this is one of the most favorite recipes we make with chana or chickpea. If you love chickpeas in curry you gotta checkout and try easy punjabi chole, spinach chickpea curry or amritsari chole or this paneer chole.

Potatoes are another favorite and cooked in one or the other form very often at home. Curries with potato like aloo paneer, aloo jhol, potato masala, dubki aloo are few things we love.

Now this recipe is all about chickpeas and potatoes. Two of my favorite ingredients 🙂

Whenever I make chickpea curry, I try to add something like paneer , potatoes or sometimes fistful of mixed veggies to make it more substantial.

I make this chickpea potato curry in many ways. Sometimes I add yogurt or cream but this is vegan chana aloo recipe. Also you do not need coconut milk or cashew paste.

The base of this curry is chopped onions and tomatoes. It is a no grind recipe and you do not need any curry paste here.

The main flavor of this curry comes from minced ginger, onion and garlic along with green chilies. I also like to add some garam masala, curry powder, ground cumin, ground turmeric and some red chili powder.

You can also add cayenne pepper instead of chili powder.

One ingredient I feel is a must for this chana aloo recipe is kasuri methi. It is dried fenugreek leaves and imparts such an authentic north Indian taste and flavor to this curry.

If kasuri methi is not available you can still make a delicious chickpea potato curry, just add chopped cilantro leaves instead.

Serve vegan chickpea potato curry warm or hot. It freezes very well and there are more so many ways you can enjoy this curry. Check out serving suggestions at the end.

This Vegan Chickpea Potato Curry Is

Robust, hearty and wholesome recipe

no grind easy weeknight curry

delicious, flavorful & better than takeouts

gluten free recipe

No special spices required

easy to make recipe in 30 minutes!

As I have mentioned many times I am fan of quick and simple recipes that do not call for a million ingredients. I of course do make elaborate recipes but for everyday cooking I sought out to easy ones.

Less ingredients or time does not mean less flavors and taste though. Take aloo chana curry, here we are using very less but flavorful ingredients to make the curry shine.

All the quantity of spices and seasoning I have mentioned are alterable. This recipes makes a mildly spiced curry. You can vary the proportions and make super spicy curry too.

Let’s quickly go through the breakdown of ingredients for chana aloo.

Ingredients For Aloo Chana Curry

Chickpeas– White chickpeas or kabuli chana is what are using here. You can also use kala chana, taste will be good and cooking method remains the same.

As always, I have soaked, drained and cooked dried chickpeas. You can also use canned ones. Just drain and add to the cooked masala, more details in the notes.

Potato– There are many ways you can add potato in this curry. You can boil, cube and use or saute them or fry them like I have done. We love fried potato in this curry. You can also use sweet potatoes instead.

Onions– 1 large onion diced or sliced for favor. As we are using any whole spices or curry paste, adding onion yields a nice flavor.

Tomato- Tomatoes along with onions form the base of thiscurry ue plump ripe and red tomatoes for best flavor. instead of fresh tomatoes you can also use canned tomatoes or pureed ones.

Spice powders– Garam masala powder, red chili powder or cayenne pepper, gourn cumin, ground turmeric and curry powder. Curry powder is optional and you can totally make a good curry with out it.

Tips & Notes

If using canned chickpeas, drain thoroughly rinse well and add in the curry.

For making a creamy curry you can stir in some coconut milk or cashew paste.

You can double the recipe.

Instead of frying the potatoes, you can boil, steam or even roast in the oven. Sweet potatoes or yam or mushrooms can be added.

Adjust the quantity of spice powders as per liking.

Serving Suggestions

This is a very versatil curry that you can serve in many ways.

Serve as side dish with steamed basmati rice , naan, tandoori roti, plain paratha or aloo paratha.

Use a filling for sandwich (absolutely delicious in grilled or toasted chickpea sandwich)

Use for making aloo tikki chole

Tastes great as filing in wrap or frankie.

How To Make Chickpea Potato Curry

Preparing chickpeas

These steps are applicable if you are using dried chickpeas. If using canned ones, just drain thoroughly and proceed with the recipe.

Pick, rinse and soak dried chickpeas in plenty of water for 8-12 hours.

Drain, rinse thoroughly to remove the white liquid accumulated on top. Rinse multiple times with clear water.

Add chickpeas and 3 cups water in a pot. Cook until soft using a pressure cooker or instant pot or stove top.

Making the curry

Rinse, scrub or peel the potatoes. Dice them into squares.

Par boil potatoes in salted water for 5-6 minutes. Drain and rinse thoroughly under cold water.

Add 2 teaspoons rice flour to hem and toss well.

Heat 3 tablespoons oil in a heavy pan.

Add the flour tossed potatoes and fry until golden and crispy in medium high heat. Set aside.

Remove about 1 tablespoon oil from the pan and retain the rest.

Heat the oil again. Add cumin seeds, slit green chilies and minced ginger garlic. Saute in medium high for a minute.

Add diced onions and saute in medium high heat for a minute.

Next add chopped tomatoes and saute for 2 minutes.

Now in goes all the spices powders.

Saute very well in medium heat for 2-3 minutes. This is our base masala for this vegan curry.

Add 2 cups water and bring to a boil. Simmer or 5-6 minutes.

Now add cooked chickpeas and salt to taste.

Mix well and mash the chickpeas here and there. Mashing is optional but it makes the chickpea curry thicker and drier.

Cook in medium flame for 2-3 minutes.

If the consistency of the curry is very thick to your liking, add some water and simmer.

Throw in the fried potatoes. Mix well.

Finally add kasuri methi and chopped cilantro leaves, mix well, remove from flame and squeeze in the lemon juice.

Serve potato chickpea curry warm.

I hope you will try this easy to follow vegan chickpea potato curry recipe and enjoy as much as we did. Do snap a pic and share on Instagram with hashtag #cookclickndevou and please give a star rating ★ in the recipe card below. Follow us on Pinterest , Instagram, Facebook   for more recipes and ideas.

Recipe