Vegan Chickpea Curry

This healthy vegan chickpea curry is a 5 star plant based dinner recipe! It’s ready in 20 minutes and so tasty you’ll immediately want seconds.

Oh hi! We’re Sonja and Alex, and we love eating plant based meals. And this vegan chickpea curry? Well, it hits all the checkboxes for plant based dinner perfection. It’s full of plant based protein, so it will keep you full for hours. It’s full of nutrients, and it takes only 20 minutes to make. Twenty minutes! That’s speed demon dinner, right there. And then the flavor of this vegan chickpea curry hits it out of the park. Really, every person who thinks plant based eating is bland should make this STAT. Ready to get started?

Another great vegan curry? Quick Vegan Curry, Vegetable Curry or Butternut Squash Curry.

Why make this vegan chickpea curry?

The virtues of this vegan chickpea curry are many. Let’s get into the details:

• It’s ridiculously flavorful. Onion, garlic and fresh ginger bring aromatics to the fire-roasted tomato sauce, then cumin, coriander and curry powder round it out. Swirl in coconut milk at the end for the perfect shot of creamy.
• It’s incredibly healthy. You can’t get much better than this. Chickpeas bring in plant based protein and spinach adds tons of nutrients.
• It’s so fast. Really, there aren’t many plant based dinner recipes that are this quick to make! Often our fast dinners rely on cheese or dairy for quick flavor. But in this one, veggies take up the heavy lifting in just 20 minutes.

Make it a meal! How to serve vegan chickpea curry

So, did we convince you? I hope so. If you’re loading up your shopping list now, there are a few ways to make this vegan chickpea curry into a full meal.

• Basmati rice: A traditional Indian way to serve curry is with long-grain basmati recipe. Here’s our method for a life-changing way to cook it perfectly ever time! White takes about 15 minutes total and brown takes about 20 to 25 minutes. (That’s almost half the time of the traditional stovetop method for brown rice!) You can also make Instant Pot Basmati Rice.
• Naan bread: If you’re in a rush, store-bought naan bread is a great quick side dish for this chickpea curry. Make sure that the package is labeled vegan naan, since naan is typically made with dairy. Or, try our homemade Vegan Naan!

A vegan Indian curry, made for weeknights

This vegan chickpea curry is actually similar to chana masala, the traditional Indian curried chickpeas. This isn’t a 100% authentic Indian curry recipe. However, it uses the flavors of Indian cuisine to make a fast weeknight dinner.

If you’d like a more authentic Indian dinner recipe, head to our Masoor Dal (Indian Red Lentils). This recipe was shared with us directly from Asma Khan, an Indian chef with a popular restaurant in London.

A note on curry powder

All curry powders are not created equal! Curry powder blends sold in stores all over the world, but each recipe varies. So it’s important to find a curry powder that you like the taste of for this chickpea curry. The quality of the curry powder matters. Find the highest quality that you can for this recipe. Try experimenting with different brands available at your grocery until you find one you love. Here’s a curry powder that we enjoy.

How to cook dry chickpeas

This chickpea curry is one of our favorite recipes with these protein-packed legumes (here are 24 more recipes with chickpeas!). Is it better to cook chickpeas than use canned chickpeas? You can definitely use both! When we find time, we like cooking chickpeas from dry because the texture is a little firmer and the flavor a little better. However, we often use canned as well! Our favorite way to cook chickpeas is with our Instant Pot: the dry chickpeas cook in just 1 hour! If you don’t have an Instant Pot, you can use our Dutch oven method.

• Method 1: How to Cook Chickpeas in an Instant Pot
• Method 2: How to Cook Dried Beans in a Dutch Oven

Want more plant based recipes and resources?

Maybe you eat vegan all the time, or maybe just looking to incorporate more whole food plant based recipes in your diet! Well, you’ve come to the right place! Not only is this chickpea curry the perfect place to start, we have lots of other resources for plant based eating. Here are a few more of our vegan and plant based recipes:

• Plant Based Diet for Beginners: Lots more recipes for making every part of the day full of vegan and plant based foods.
• 28 Day Plant Based Diet Meal Plan: A monthly meal plan to make things easy: includes a meal planning spreadsheet!
• 28 Day Vegan Meal Plan: Same as above, but vegan!
• 12 Plant Based Recipes Perfect for Dinner More vegan dinner ideas.

This vegan chickpea curry recipe is…

Vegetarian, gluten-free, vegan, plant-based, and dairy-free.
(PS Need a substitute for coconut milk in this curry?)

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