Chickpea Spinach Curry (Palak Chana)

Last updated on July 15th, 2020

This chickpea spinach curry has everything you for in a curry 🙂 It is quick, easy to make, perfect for weeknight, wholesome and packed with protein and outright delicious. This curry is so rich and creamy without added cream or yogurt. Do try out this vegan and gluten free curry known as palak chana masala too.

Spinach and chickpeas both are my favorite ingredients to experiment. I have a real liking for spinach leaves.

Their nutrition is a given and I always try to add them in our menu in various forms like

aloo palak,

spinach dal,

spinach pasta,

palak paratha,

palak pulao

Chickpea or chana is another favorite that I often serve as vegan chickpea curry, classic pindi chole, roasted chickpeas, paneer chole.

Now pairing these two you get an incredibly good and flavorful curry. Made easily without any cream or yogurt, this vegan curry comes together in less than 30 minutes.

You need very few basic pantry staple ingredients for this recipe. The base is made with tomato puree and a there is a small amount of cashew paste for creaminess and richness.

Perfectly cooked chickpeas simmered in a delicious gravy of tomato-cashews, bold flavor of garam masala and with  chopped spinach for texture, this curry is a total winner.

Serve it with freshly steamed basmati rice for wonderful lunch or soft butter naan, roti or paratha for a comforting dinner. Add some salad or raita or perhaps lassi for a satiating Indian meal, better than takeaways any day!

With some little prep ahead like soaking chickpeas and cleaning the spinach leaves beforehand, this curry is one the easiest one to make. If you want to further speed up the coking, you can easily use canned chickpeas.

Try out this super easy yet delicious and flavorful palak chana masala and enjoy!

This Chickpea Spinach Curry Recipe Is

Wholesome, nutritious & hearty

vegan & gluten free

tastes excellent and flavorful

rich, creamy

versatile, goes well with rice and flatbread

healthy choice for kids.

Ingredients For Palak Chana

To make this super easy chickpea spinach curry you will need

chickpeas- white chickpeas or kabuli chana is what we use in this recipe. You can soak dry chickpeas overnight or just use canned ones. I always soak dry chickpeas for my chickpeas recipes.

You can also make this recipe with black chickpeas or kala chana.

spinach– Use fresh and tender leaves for better flavor. You can increase or decrease the quantity of spinach as per liking. You can easily use other greens also like methi, amaranth or even kale in this recipe.

Tomatoes- tomatoes form the base of this curry as puree. We are also add a small amount of chopped tomatoes to give this some texture. While I prefer to add tomatoes in both forms, you can choose either one of you prefer. just increase the quantity appropriately.

Cashews- cashews give this vegan spinach chickpea curry a wonderful creamy texture, rich taste and also a mild color. As this is a vegan curry and we are adding any cream or yogurt, I suggest you don’t leave out cashews. If you don’t prefer to use cashews you can use almond paste or coconut milk. See notes for more variations.

Spices & flavorings– your usual suspects here 🙂 A dash of garam masala, some red chili powder, ground turmeric, onion, garlic and all.

Cilantro– finely chopped fresh cilantro adds a wonderful flavor and is also a pretty garnish. You can also add some kasuri methi.

How To Make Chickpea Spinach Curry

Prepping and cooking chickpeas

Pick, rinse and add dried chickpeas into a bowl and cover with plenty of water.

Let the chickpeas soak in water for 8-12 hours. After 12 hours they will double in size.

Now drain the water thoroughly and rinse multiple times.

Add drained chickpeas to a pan of boiling water or pressure cooker with a pinch of salt.

Cook until completely soft. If using a pressure cooker cook for 20-25 minutes or up to 6-7 whistles. On stove top in a pan it may take 45-50 minutes.

Drain excess water and set the cooked chickpeas aside.

If using canned chickpeas you can directly go to making of the palak chana curry.

Making Cashew Paste

Soak 8 whole cashews in warm water for 15 minutes.

Drain, add 2 teaspoons water and grind to a very smooth paste.

Making spinach chickpea curry

Thoroughly rinse and finely chop the spinach leaves.

Peel 3 garlic cloves, 1 inch ginger piece and chop 2 green chilies. Mince and pound them together using a mortar and pestle.

heat 2 tablespoons oil in a pan. Temper with cumin seeds. Add the minced ginger-garlic-chilies and fry for a minute.

Add the chopped spinach leaves.

and saute till the wilt.

Now add chopped onions.

Mix well and saute for a minute.

Next add the chopped tomatoes and mix.

Now add pureed tomatoes.

Mix well and add spice powders, ie garam masala powder, turmeric powder and red chili powder.

Mix thoroughly and cook in medium flame for 5-6 minutes.

Now add cashew paste and mix well. Season with salt.

Mix and cook in medium flame for 5 more minutes.

Add cooked chickpeas and simmer for 3-4 minutes.

Add chopped cilantro leaves, mix well and remove from flame.

Serve chickpea spinach curry warm with rice or roti.

Tips And Notes

If you want to avoid cashews in this palak chana recipe you can easily soaked blanched almonds paste.

You can also add 1 cup thick coconut milk or almond milk and simmer the curry for just 2 minutes.

Along with spinach you can add any greens of your choice.

You can add boiled potatoes instead of chickpeas.

Here I have used fresh tomato puree, you can use canned tomatoes, just crush them and add.

Serving Suggestions

This chickpea spinach curry in a mild curry with subtle flavors. This goes very well any pilaf like peas pulao, coconut milk pulao, jeera rice or plain basmati rice.

This palak chana goes perfectly well with warm butter naan, roti, paratha.

We love to eat this curry with warm toasts too topped with freshly chopped raw onions. Bread chana is a popular street food here.

One more way we enjoy this curry is as pasta. I add few handfuls of al dente pasta just before removing the curry from flame. Curried spinach pasta tastes absolutely yum.

I hope you will try this palak chana or spinach chickpea 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.