Looking for easy meals with pantry staples? This easy vegan chickpea curry could be your best bet. With very few ingredients, this yummy curry can be made in less 30 minutes. Serve with rice, roti or stuff between bread for a wonderful healthy meal!
Quick & Comforting Vegan Chickpea Curry
Chickpeas or channa is a very common and popular ingredient in Indian cooking. While punjabi chole masala is the most well know Indian chickpea curry, there are many more variations to it too. I have already shared few chickpea curry recipes like methi chole, paneeer chole, pesahwari chole, amritsari chole, chickpea spinach curry etc.
This vegan chickpea curry I am sharing here is a easy one where you do not need many special ingredients. You don’t even whole spices, coconut or coconut milk for this recipe.
This curry is amazing creamy, thanks to cashews and has a nice tangy taste and flavor to it. What’s more this curry is very versatile that you can make many meals out of it.
This recipe is mix of what my mom does along with few changes I have made over the years. This curry pairs perfectly with poori but that’s not all. As I said above it is a very versatile one, read through for serving suggestions.
So go ahead and make this super easy and delicious curry, all you need are chickpeas and few very basic staples.
This Chickpea Curry Recipe Is
Vegan & gluten free
Made from pantry staples
Easy & quick, less than 30 minutes
Delicious & flavorful
Amazing creamy, no coconut milk
Versatile semi dry curry
Ingredients You Will Need
Chickpeas- I usually use white chickpeas or kabuli channa here but you can very well use black channa too. If you are dried chickpeas, soak well in plenty of water, drain and cook the chickpeas first. If using canned chickpeas drain thoroughly and follow the steps for making curry.
Tomatoes- Tomatoes and onions form the base of this curry. If you prefer you can use tomato puree instead of chopped tomatoes. If fresh tomatoes are not available you can easily canned tomatoes, diced.
Cashews- Cashews provide a rich creamy texture and also balance of taste in this curry. Adding cashew paste makes the curry mild and delicious. For low cal option on you can use blanched almond paste. Instead of cashews or almonds you can also use 1/2 cup thick coconut milk.
Spice powders- Very commonly used Indian spice powders like turmeric powder, chili powder and garam masala powder.
Step by Step Method
Cooking chickpeas
Follow these steps if you are using dry chickpeas. If you have canned chickpeas just skip thee steps and make the curry.
Rinse and soak chickpeas in plenty of water for 8-12 hours. Drain and cook until soft. If using pressure cooker cook for up to 6-7 whistles or 20 minutes.
Drain excess water and set aside.
Making vegan chickpea curry
Soak 15 whole cashews in warm water for 15 minutes. Add little water and grind to a very fine paste.
Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a pan.
Temper with cumin seeds and saute well. Add sliced onions and saute until soft. Next add minced ginger-garlic-chili and saute till raw smell goes off.
Once done, add chopped tomatoes and mix well. Saute for 2-3 minutes.
Add turmeric powder, chili powder and garam masala powder. Mix well and saute till oil leaves the sides of the pan.
Now add the cashew paste and 1/2 cup water to adjust the gravy consistency. Also season with salt to taste.
Cover the pan and simmer for 5-6 minutes.
Open the pan, add cooked chickpeas
and mix well. Simmer for 2 minutes.
Garnish with chopped cilantro leaves and mix well. Serve vegan chickpea curry with rice or flatbread.
Serving Suggestions & Tips
This vegan chickpea curry can be served as
- Side dish with rice or flatbread
- Used as filling for taco or sandwich
- leftover thick curry can be quickly tossed with cooked rice.
- leftover curry can be used as stuffing for paratha like aloo paratha
Variations With Recipe
If you don’t prefer adding cashews you can add 1/2 cup thick coconut milk and simmer for just a minute before removing from flame. Do not cook coconut milk for long time
Instead of chickpeas you can use cooked kidney beans (rajma) or black gram (sabut urad)
Vegan Chickpea Curry
1 CUP = 250 ml
Ingredients
- 1 cup dried white chickpeas or 2 cups cooked chickpeas
- 2 tablespoons oil
- 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
- 1 big onion, sliced
- 2 green chilies
- 1 teaspoon minced ginger-garlic
- 3 big tomatoes, chopped
- 1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
- 1 teaspoon` red chili powder
- 1 teaspoon garam masala powder
- 15 cashews soaked and made into a fine paste with water
- salt to taste
- 2 tablespoons chopped cilantro leaves
Instructions
Cooking chickpeas
- Follow these steps if you are using dry chickpeas. If you have canned chickpeas just skip thee steps and make the curry.
- Rinse and soak chickpeas in plenty of water for 8-12 hours. Drain and cook until soft. If using pressure cooker cook for up to 6-7 whistles or 20 minutes.
- Drain excess water and set aside.
Making vegan chickpea curry
- Soak 15 whole cashews in warm water for 15 minutes. Add little water and grind to a very fine paste.
- Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a pan.
- Temper with cumin seeds and saute well. Add sliced onions and saute until soft. Next add minced ginger-garlic-chili and saute till raw smell goes off.
- Once done, add chopped tomatoes and mix well. Saute for 2-3 minutes.
- Add turmeric powder, chili powder and garam masala powder. Mix well and saute till oil leaves the sides of the pan.
- Now add the cashew paste and 1/2 cup water to adjust the gravy consistency. Also season with salt to taste.
- Cover the pan and simmer for 5-6 minutes.
- Open the pan, add cooked chickpeas
- and mix well. Simmer for 2 minutes.
- Garnish with chopped cilantro leaves and mix well. Serve vegan chickpea curry with rice or flatbread.
Marlene says
Your recipes look delicious