Easy, Tasty Chickpea Curry
Here’s a simple curry that can stay vegetarian (vegan even) or, with the simple addition of some shrimp or chicken, make a fine dish for the carnivore. The most important thing is that this delicious curry is built largely from your canned goods stash: coconut milk, tinned chickpeas and tomatoes. Just add a few fresh veg, some spices and Bob’s your uncle!
Ingredients
Ingredients
- 1 clove of garlic
- 1/2 teaspoon peppercorns
- 1/2 teaspoon coriander seeds
- 2 tablespoons oil
- 1 tablespoon curry powder
- 2 cups stock (chicken or vegetable)
- 2 cups sliced potatoes
- 2 cups sliced carrots
- 2 cups cauliflower florets
- 1 (14-ounce) can chopped tomatoes
- 1 (14-ounce) can coconut milk
- 1 (14-ounce) can chickpeas
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon fish sauce (or vegan fish sauce)
- 1 tablespoon honey (or agave syrup, for a vegan adaptation)
- 1/4 cup slivered basil leaves, plus small whole leaves for garnish
Instructions
- In a mortar, grind the garlic, peppercorns and coriander seeds into a paste. (Alternatively, finely chop the garlic with ground versions of the peppercorns and coriander.)
- Heat the oil in a Dutch oven. Fry garlic mixture until fragrant. Add curry powder and fry a little longer to release flavors.
- Add stock, potatoes and carrots and bring to a gentle simmer. After about five minutes, add the cauliflower, tomatoes, coconut milk, chickpeas, soy and fish sauces and honey. Bring to a gentle simmer and continue cooking until the vegetables are done and the sauce has begun to thicken.
- Taste for seasonings and add additional soy sauce or honey as needed. You may want to add more heat via hot chile paste if your curry powder wasn't hot enough.
- Remove from heat and stir in the basil. Serve over rice with the additional basil on top as a garnish.
Recipe Notes
This recipe came to my family over 20 years ago from a Zen farm in Marin County, CA. You can't get much more hippie than that