When I went vegan in January 2020 I was slightly worried I’d have to miss out on the dishes I loved, one of them being a good old curry. I needn’t have worried because this Indian chickpea curry recipe is packed full of flavour and you can adapt it to make it as spicy as you like. Chickpeas are full of nutrients and protein so are a great addition to any vegan diet.
You can also add coconut milk to make it more creamy, basically you can do anything you like with it and it’ll still taste great! If you’re thinking about going vegan but don’t know where to start have a read of this article.
You know I love a quick and easy recipe as well and this can be ready in about 30 minutes so is perfect for any day of the week. It can be served with rice, quinoa or naan bread. Or even both if you want a proper treat. The measurements in the recipe are for one serving so it uses 1/2 a can of chickpeas and 1/2 a can of tinned tomatoes. It freezes well so what I do is double up on the ingredients (what am I gonna do with 1/2 cans of leftover stuff anyway!?) and freeze half for another time.
Protein, fibre & carbs
This Indian chickpea curry recipe is high in protein at 17.1g (21.5g if served with rice instead of quinoa) and fibre at 16.8g. It’s also not too bad on the carbs (52.7g) considering it’s a main meal. For me I should be eating 225 – 250g of carbs per day so 52.7g is pretty good as I tend to eat my biggest meal of the day at dinner time. To work out how many carbs a day you should be eating firstly you need to know how many calories you need to eat in a day (your maintenance calories). To work out how many calories you need in a day use this calculator.
Cut this number in half and that’s how many calories a day you should be getting from carbs. 1g of carbs is 4 calories so divided this number by 4 and you’ve got your total carbs for the day. So for me I need 1,800 – 2,000 calories per day (depending if I’m lifting weights or not). Let’s say 2,000 to make it easier to work out. Half of 2,000 is 1,000. This is how many calories from carbs I should be eating per day. 1,000 divided by 4 is 250. So 250g of carbs per day for me. Anyway, on to the recipe…
Ingredients – Indian chickpea curry recipe
Makes 1 serving
Prep time – 10 minutes
Cooking time – 20 minutes
- 1/2 400g can chickpeas
- 1/2 brown onion diced
- 1/2 400g can tinned tomatoes or 100g cherry tomatoes/ plum tomatoes
- 1 teaspoon curry powder
- 1 clove garlic or 1/2 teaspoon of easy garlic
- 1/4 – 1/2 red chilli or 1/4 teaspoon of easy chilli
- Up to 200ml of vegan vegetable stock
- Handful of coriander chopped (optional)
- Brown rice or quinoa to serve
- Spinach to serve
Equipment
I find a saucepan is better than a frying pan for this because you don’t lose as much of the liquid. You don’t want your chickpea curry drying out!
How to make your Indian chickpea curry
- If you’re serving with quinoa start cooking this first as it takes about 30 minutes in total including the standing time. Check the packet instructions before cooking just to make sure. 30g is usually one serving.
- Chop your onion and prepare your other ingredients.
- Sauté the onion in a little of the stock until soft and translucent, about 5 minutes. You want enough stock that the onion isn’t sticking to the bottom of the pan but not so much it’s covered by the stock.
- Add the curry powder, garlic and chilli to the pan. Cook for 1-2 minutes until it smells fragrant
- Add tomatoes, stock and chickpeas. You want enough liquid to cover the chickpeas so they don’t dry out whilst cooking but not so much that they’re drowning.
- Bring to the boil then simmer for 10 minutes. Add more stock or water if it dries out during cooking.
- Your quinoa should be done by now so take it off the heat and allow it to stand for 10 minutes.
- Top your Indian chickpea curry with the coriander and serve with quinoa and spinach on the side.
- Enjoy!
Nutrition – Indian chickpea curry
Approximate nutritional values served with 30g of quinoa and 20g of spinach.
| Calories – 366 | Protein – 17.1g |
| Fat – 6.8g | Fibre – 16.8g |
| Carbs – 52.7g | Sugars – 13g |
Alternatives
If you wanted to add coconut milk to the curry add it after you’ve added the tomatoes and chickpeas. I use fresh coconut milk because it’s fewer calories than the canned type. Check out the benefits of coconut milk here.
Serving with 75g of brown rice instead of quinoa (113 calories) would be 364 calories, so the total for the whole dish would be 617 calories.
To make it more spicy add 1/2 teaspoon more of curry powder or more chilli, or both if you’re feeling daring! If you don’t have any curry powder to hand you could use a combination of spices like cumin, garam masala, coriander and chilli powder along with spices like nutmeg, cinnamon and turmeric.
How do you like your Indian chickpea curry?
This Indian chickpea curry recipe can be adapted to suit all tastes. Make it more spicy, less spicy or more creamy. And serve it with whatever you like – quinoa, rice, bulgar wheat or vegan naan bread. I’ve even put the spinach in the curry instead of serving it on the side. But I prefer the taste and texture or raw spinach so have gone back to serving it on the side.
For more great recipes click here.
If you make this recipe let me know how you get on with it by commenting below. What changes did you make? Is there anything you think I should add to the recipe? I’d love to hear from you so get in touch.
Until next time
Katie
