This delicious chickpea and spinach curry is loaded with flavor and comes together in a flash! The perfect meal for busy weeknights!
This curry is officially my new favorite weeknight dinner. We all know how much I love a good curry, not just because they're delicious, but also because they're often pretty easy to whip up.
Well, I think this chickpea and spinach curry is just about the easiest curry ever. This recipe essentially my spin in chana saag, a traditional Indian dish, but with some shortcuts and modifications to make the dish totally vegan. It can be on the table in under 30 minutes and requires minimal prep work!
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Ingredients You'll Need
- Canola oil. Feel free to substitute your favorite high-heat oil, such as avocado, coconut, or corn oil.
- Onion.
- Garlic.
- Ginger.
- Spices. This recipe calls for whole cumin seeds, garam masala, and ground turmeric.
- Diced tomatoes. We're using diced canned tomatoes. This is one of our shortcuts to make the recipe easy.
- Canned chickpeas.
- Coconut milk. The recipe calls for full-fat coconut milk of the canned variety. You can substitute with light coconut milk if you'd like to reduce the fat content of the dish, but the sauce won't be quite as creamy.
- Frozen spinach. This is another shortcut. Frozen spinach works really well in a dish like this one! If you prefer to use fresh, be my guest. Chop it up very finely and keep in mind that you'll probably need to add it to the curry in batches, because ten ounces of fresh spinach takes up a lot of volume. You also may need to let it simmer a little longer to fully cook.
- Salt & pepper.
- Fresh cilantro. This is totally optional, but adds a nice burst of flavor when sprinkled on top of the curry.
- Accompaniments. Serve your curry with some cooked rice or vegan naan.
How It's Made
Below is a detailed photo tutorial on how to make this dish. Scroll all the way down if you'd like to skip right to the recipe!
- Heat the oil in a medium skillet, then add diced onion. Sweat the onion for a few minutes, stirring frequently, until it starts to soften up.
- Add your aromatics and spices: garlic, ginger, cumin seeds, garam masala, and turmeric. Cook everything very briefly, just until the mixture becomes very fragrant. Stir the mixture constantly and keep a close eye on it to prevent burning.
- Stir in the diced tomatoes, chickpeas and coconut milk. Bring everything up to a simmer and let it cook for about 10 minutes, just long enough for the sauce to thicken slightly and the flavors to meld.
- Add the spinach. Make sure you've thawed it out and squeezed it a bit to remove any excess water, otherwise it will make your curry runny!
- Let the chickpea spinach curry simmer for about 5 minutes more.
- Take the skillet off of the burner and season the curry with some salt and pepper.
- Serve your curry with some basmati rice or naan. Or both!
Leftovers & Storage
Leftover chickpea and spinach curry will keep in an airtight container in the refrigerator for about 4 days, or in the freezer for about 3 months.
Frequently Asked Questions
It is!
It's very mild! If you'd prefer some heat, add a bit of cayenne pepper or your favorite hot sauce.
You can, but you won't get the same results. Whole cumin seeds add a bit of texture and have a slightly different flavor from ground cumin. They make a wonderful addition to lots of curries, so it's worth making a trip to the Indian market to pick some up!
More Spinach Curry Recipes
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📖 Recipe
Easy Chickpea & Spinach Curry
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon canola oil
- 1 medium onion, diced
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 2 teaspoons freshly grated ginger
- 1 teaspoon whole cumin seeds
- 1 teaspoon garam masala
- ½ teaspoon ground turmeric
- 1 (15 ounce or 400 gram) can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
- 1 cup canned diced tomatoes in juice
- ¾ cup full fat coconut milk (from a can)
- 1 (10 ounce or 283 gram) package chopped frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed to remove excess water
- ½ teaspoon salt, or to taste
- Black pepper, to taste
- Chopped fresh cilantro, for serving (optional)
- Cooked basmati rice or naan, for serving
Instructions
- Coat the bottom of a medium skillet with the oil and place it over medium heat.
- Once the oil is hot, add the onion. Sweat the onion for about 5 minutes, stirring frequently, until it becomes soft and translucent.
- Stir in the garlic, ginger, cumin, garam masala, and turmeric. Cook the mixture for about 1 minute, stirring constantly, until it becomes very fragrant.
- Stir in the chickpeas, tomatoes and coconut milk. Raise the heat and bring the sauce to a simmer. Lower the heat and allow the mixture to cook for 8 to 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until thickened slightly.
- Stir in the spinach and let the mixture simmer for about 5 minutes more, stirring occasionally.
- Remove the skillet from heat and season the curry with salt and pepper.
- Serve (optionally) with a sprinkle of cilantro and basmati rice or naan.
Notes
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Really delicious! I enjoyed this a lot and will be making again and again. Thank you, Alissa, for ANOTHER fabulous recipe!
Let me start by saying I have cooked more than a few of your recipes, and find them delicious! However, I must have done something wrong, because I found this dish to be rather sour tasting. I ended up stirring in powdered ginger (I had added the 2 tsps the recipe requires - in fact, I added more than 2 tsps because I like ginger). I also added probably another tsp of curry powder. These additions helped. I'm wondering if it was the tomatoes. I used a can of "fire roasted" and thought perhaps that did something to make it acidic.
BTW, I am a personal in-home chef. Any thoughts?
I'm glad you're enjoying the recipes! It does sound like something went wrong, because this one isn't typically very sour. I don't think the additional spices would make the dish sour. It could have been the fire roasted tomatoes - I find that these vary in flavor quite a bit depending on the brand, and some are quite sour. If that's the issue, you should be able to balance the flavor by adding a bit of sugar. The only other thing that comes to mind would be the coconut milk - it can get to be sour tasting when it starts going bad.
Such an easy, beautiful and super tasty meal! Thank you!
This looks so good! I must try! I love ALL of your recipes. Thank you for sharing.
This recipe is so fast and easy to prepare,and delicious. I didn’t have to worry about storing leftovers because there weren’t any! I look forward to trying your other recipes as well.. Thank you for tonight’s dinner inspiration!
Delicious