Cooking an Epic Vegan Chickpea Curry – Hot Food for Cold British Winters!
You might find it amusing that learnt to cook this chickpea curry not in India but here in the Britain. No one I know back in north-India cooks their chickpea curry with spinach and squash!
Residing here in the UK, when I am discussing food with people, I am often asked about the authentic Indian way to make a “curry.” The first time I was asked this question, I was at a loss of words and so I blurted out “Indians don’t make curry, Thais make curry.”
I was naïve back then, wasn’t I?
But the truth is that I never really thought of the food that I have been eating my whole life as a “curry.” Growing up in Delhi, my mum will cook us sabzi and this sabzi might be with gravy or without, but we would still call it sabzi. When we ate lentils, we called it daal and when we ate chickpeas or beans, we called them by their names.
“Curry” was a term that we would only use for what was served in Thai restaurants. Back then, if a shrink subjected me to a free-association test and mentioned the word “curry,” I would have responded by saying “green” or probably “lemongrass.”
Lucky for me, I am worldlier now. Since then, I’ve learnt about curries and cooked a whole lot of them. Ask me about which curry astonishes me and I’ll tell you about an Indian courgette curry which has all but 5 ingredients or the Moroccan apricot and honey vegetable tagine which has more than an endless list of ingredients. Ask me which curry do I suggest trying and I’ll gladly share the south-Indian salan recipe which I cook in north-Indian style or this vegan chickpea curry recipe which is my favourite British curry.
(Do you love chickpeas?! Here’s a quick chickpea hummus recipe for you to make and a spinach-chickpea stir fry that vegans/vegetarians love in Spain.)
Vegan Chickpea Curry with Squash and Spinach
I found out about this chickpea curry with spinach and squash one fine day in perhaps 2017 while browsing through BBC Good Food. I was intrigued by the combination of squash, spinach and chickpea which is unheard of in north-Indian kitchens. The curry looked appetizing and I am a sucker for hearty nutrition-packed meals and hence I decided to give the recipe a go that same week.
Three years later and several tweaks later, this chickpea curry has become a regular in my dinner service. I’ve served it with rice or chapati and have even eaten the curry as a stew, unaccompanied by anything else.
I love the fact that this particular recipe is quite forgiving. You can substitute some of the ingredients according to what’s available in your pantry and still get palatable results.
Substitutions that I have tried that give good results –
– I usually add fenugreek seeds to the recipe because I feel it goes well with squash; however, you can replace them with mustard seeds or even fennel seeds.
– I have tried this chickpea curry with vegetable stock as well as coconut milk and was happy with both of the results.
– Instead of the combination of garam masala, coriander powder and chilli powder, you can use store-bought curry powder.
– I understand that tamarind paste might not be easily available to everyone and hence it can be substituted with lime juice.
Vegan Chickpea Curry with Squash and Spinach Recipe
Serving Size
Serves 4 people when accompanied with chapati or rice
You Will Need
1 butternut squash – peeled, gutted and diced into 2 cm-thick pieces
Cooking oil (whichever you prefer)
Optional (for non-vegans) – 1 tbsp ghee or clarified butter
1tsp cumin seeds
1tsp fenugreek seeds (or black mustard seeds)
1 medium onion – diced
Thumb-sized ginger – finely chopped
2-3 garlic cloves – finely chopped
3 medium tomatoes – diced
3 large handfuls of fresh spinach (or around 4 cubes of frozen spinach)
400g canned chickpeas – drained and rinsed
1tsp garam masala
1tsp turmeric powder
1tsp coriander powder
1tsp red chilli powder
1 Vegetable stock pot or stock cube (sufficient enough for 500 ml liquid) – Vegetable stockpot can be replaced with 1 can of coconut milk
500ml-1 litre warm water (maybe even more based on your preference)
2tbsp tamarind paste (or 2tbsp lime juice)
5-10 sprigs of coriander (chopped and rinsed)
Salt to taste
How to Go About It
Preheat oven to 200C. Spread diced butternut squash on a large baking tray. Drizzle generously with oil and salt and place in the middle of the oven for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, give the squash pieces a quick toss and then put them back in the oven for 10 more minutes. After the squash has been cooked for a total of 25 minutes, the chunks would be soft through with slightly brown edges. Take out of the oven and keep aside.
Alternatively, if you do not have an oven, you can cook/roast squash over the gas. Place diced squash in a wide pan (preferably a flat pan) and cook them on medium-high heat with a generous drizzle of oil. Gently flip them once every 5 minutes or so. They should get cooked in 15-20 minutes.
Let’s start with the ‘curry’ portion of the recipe. I follow almost the same process here that I do for all the regular Indian curries that I cook.
Heat about 2 tbsp oil (or 1 tbsp oil and 1tbsp ghee if you aren’t vegan) in a large pan at medium heat. Give it a minute or so to heat up and then add cumin seeds. They should start sizzling right away.
Add in fenugreek seeds and let the seeds roast in the oil for about 2 minutes.
It’s time for the chopped onion to go in the pan. Let the onion fry in the oil till it gets lumpy and develops a golden shine.
Once onion look done, add in diced tomatoes, chopped ginger and garlic and let them cook for about 5 minutes. You should be able to see ‘curry’-like texture in the pan.
Add in drained chickpea and spinach. After that, add the dry spices (turmeric, garam masala, coriander powder, red chilli powder) along with salt. Mix everything well and cook and cover for about 5 minutes.
Add in a stock cube and 500 ml of warm water and cover and cook for another 2 minutes or until the stock cube gets dissolved.
Add in the roasted squash and gently fold it in the curry. Vigorous mixing will squash the squash and we don’t want mushy curry, do we? 🙂
Go ahead and add in more warm water to adjust the consistency of the curry according to your preference.
Crank up the heat to high and let the curry come to a boil. As the curry starts boiling, cover the pan, bring down the heat to low medium and let the curry simmer for 10 minutes.
Uncover the pan and mix in tamarind paste in the curry. Cover and simmer for 5 more minutes.
Turn the gas off. Stir the curry and add in additional salt, chilli powder or tamarind paste according to your taste buds. Sprinkle with chopped coriander leaves and serve!
I love having this chickpea curry with a steaming bowl of rice. That’s the soul food for winters for me! If I have any leftover, I enjoy it with lachha parantha (layered and flaky pan-fried parantha).
What food do you enjoy feasting on when the weather gets cold?
Along with this vegan chickpea curry, I love drinking Sbiten, a type of Russian tea and Ratatouille. Have a look at their recipes here –
Do you like curries? Which one is your favourite? Share it in the comments down below!