This easy vegan chickpea curry is quick and simple, yet packed with so much flavorful. You’ll be amazed at how good it is!
Curry is the one of the easiest and most flavorful dinners that you can make and this easy vegan chickpea curry is no exception.
Coming up with vegan dinners that can serve a crowd that has a variety of food preferences can be difficult. However, curry is a universal dish that most people seem to love no matter their dietary choices.
While I grew up eating strictly Jamaican curry recipes, as an adult I’ve eaten curry from a variety of cultures and even played around with some of my own easy curry recipes.
This recipe is more of a fusion recipes between what I grew up with plus what I’ve grown to love from other cultures. I hope you love this spin on maybe your traditional curry recipe.
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Why you’ll love chickpea curry
Made in one pot
One pot meals are so satisfying because it means less dishes! It’s already hard enough trying to think of the ideas every night, so being able to have an easy meal with easy clean up is always a win!
30 Minute Meal
What’s even better than one pot, is when it’s also quick. This recipe takes about 30 minutes to make from start to finish which is wonderful when you need to get a meal on the table fast
Loaded with Flavor
Often times when you have one pot or quick meals you may feel like you sacrifice flavor; however, there’s none of that with this recipe and you’ll love how great the flavors burst with each bite
Easy Chickpea Curry Ingredients:
Below are notes about the ingredients before we get into the full recipe located lower in this post on how to make this easy coconut curry recipe:
- Yellow Onion – For the base of our recipe we are starting with yellow onions.
- Garlic – Another aromatic to start the base of our curry dish, garlic is a wonderful way to add in base level flavors.
- Thyme – we are using fresh thyme for it’s depth of flavor and fragrant fresh herbs
- Ginger – one of the most fresh aromatics to add depth to any dish is ginger. It’s slightly sweet and peppery and gives a lot of flavor with a tiny bit added
- Globe Tomatoes – your standard store tomatoes work just fine for this recipe. Smaller on the vine tomatoes or roma tomatoes are best.
- Tomato Paste – a little goes a long way and you just need a bit, but the concentration of flavor in tomato paste help add to the taste.
- Curry Powder – We start building our curry flavor profile more with the addition of curry powder. You can find curry powder in the same aisle as spices in most stores; however, if it’s not there, you can typically find in the international section.
- Spices – we are adding other spices like allspice, ginger, and cumin. Because most store bought curry powders are slightly lacking in strong flavors, we use these individual spices to build the flavor profile that we are looking for
- Coconut Milk – Full fat canned coconut milk is what we are using in this recipe for flavor and creaminess
- Vegetable Stock – Helps with the texture consistency of the dish as well as adding more flavor than water would
- Chickpeas – We are adding a simple plant based protein with chickpeas that are neutral in flavor but take on the flavor of the curry dish so nicely
- Spinach – just adding a bit more nutrition and leafy green, spinach compliments this dish nicely
Substitutions and Variations:
- Yellow Onion – white onions can also be substituted
- Thyme – dried thyme could be substituted, but will change the flavor
- Ginger – ground ginger could be used, but we do recommend using fresh preferably
- Globe Tomatoes – canned diced tomatoes work well in this recipe
- Red Pepper Flakes – can be omitted or increased depending on spice tolerance
- Coconut Milk – if you cannot have coconut milk, we’d recommend another creamy non-dairy milk like soy or a creamy oat milk
- Veggie Stock – water could be used in place but will change come of the flavor
- Chickpeas – neutral foods like cauliflower, tofu, and white beans would be a good substitute for chickpeas
- Spinach – kale could also be a good replacement for spinach
Step by Step Instructions:
To start the recipes you’re going to saute onions until softened and then add in garlic, fresh thyme, and ginger.
Then add your tomatoes and break apart into smaller pieces. Cook for a few minutes.
Add in tomato paste plus all your spices and stir to combine.
Then, add in coconut milk and vegetable stock and stir until well combined.
Next, add in your chickpeas and stir well. Let your mixture then simmer for 20-25 minutes. It will reduce down and become creamy.
Finally, add in your spinach in the last few minutes to wilt down.
Serve your dish over rice with naan or switch up rice for quinoa. Top with red or green onions and more red flakes if desired.
Frequently Asked Questions:
The only Top 9 allergen in this recipe is coconut milk. In order to make this dish top 9 free, you can replace coconut milk with an alternative non-dairy milk. We’d recommend a creamy oat milk first. You may need to let it simmer a bit longer for desired consistency.
Yes. Make and let cool completely. Then you can store in an air tight container for 3-5 days in the fridge. To heat up you can use the microwave or stove until desired temperature.
Yes, you can double all the ingredients with no other changes to make more for this recipe.
Chickpea curry is great served over rice with naan. You can use our vegan naan recipe. Quinoa is another alternative to rice.
What other vegan one pot meal ideas could I make?
- Vegan Swedish Meatballs
- Vegan Chili Mac and Cheese
- Vegan Cheesy Cauliflower Taco Casserole
- Easy Vegan Broccoli and Pepper Ramen
Check out even more one pot vegan dinner ideas.
Pin this easy vegan coconut curry for later!
Easy Vegan Chickpea Curry
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 yellow onion, diced
- 5 cloves garlic, minced
- 4 fresh thyme sprigs
- 1 inch fresh ginger, minced or grated
- 3 medium globe tomatoes, rough chop
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste + 1 tablespoon water
- 2 tablespoon curry powder
- 1 teaspoon salt, more or less to taste
- ½ teaspoon all spice
- ½ teaspoon ground ginger
- ½ teaspoon ground cumin
- ½ teaspoon garam masala
- ¼ teaspoon turmeric
- ⅛ teaspoon red pepper flakes, more or less to taste
- 15 oz can coconut milk, full fat (400ml)
- ½ cup vegetable stock (120ml)
- 29 oz chickpeas, rinsed and drained (878g)
- 2-3 cups fresh spinach, packed, chopped
Instructions
- In a large skillet with high walls, over medium heat, add oil. Add onion and cook until softened. Toss in garlic, thyme and ginger to cook for an additional minute.
- Next, add in your chopped tomatoes and cook for a few minutes to soften. Push down on tomatoes to help fall apart.
- In a small bowl, whisk together tomato paste and water. Add it into the skillet, along with all the spices (from curry powder to red pepper flakes), then stir to combine. Add a little oil if needed to help create paste like mixture.
- Stir in coconut milk and stock until mixture is well combined. Add in chickpeas and bring to a simmer. Allow curry to simmer for 20-25 minutes to reduce and become creamy.
- Stir in your spinach to wilt and gently cook until ready 1 – 2 minutes.
- Serve with rice, naan, quinoa, etc. then top with fresh red or green onions, additional red flakes, and more! Enjoy!
Video
Nutrition
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Did you make and love this recipe?
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Patricia
Love, love this dish! So easy to make and holy cow is it flavorful. I am a yellow curry girl and this hits the spot 1000%. I subbed Rotel for the tomaotes (didn’t have time to run to the store) and omitted the paste as it gives me heart burn. Reheats great and so good with rice. To lower carbs I am gonna try it with cauliflower rice next time. I am your newest fan 🙂
Larisha Bernard
Yay! So happy that you loved it
Betsi Romero
I can already smell all the wonderful aromatics in this dish and can’t wait to give it a shot on my next kitchen experiment session!
The only limitation for me is that I’m, unfortunately, allergic to coconut.
Do you happen to know about any substitutions I could use?
Thank you so much!
Larisha Bernard
Hi Betsi! No worries. We can definitely help there. You can do a cashew cream (which is just blending up cashews and water to make a cream – 1 cup raw cashews to 1/2 cup water). This would be a 1:1 replacement. Or another non-dairy milk that’s fairly thick and somewhat fatty Cashew milk, soy milk, etc. but that will need to simmer a bit longer. If you can only do like a thinner non-dairy milk (almond for example), we’d recommend mixing with a little cornstarch (about 1 tsp) prior to adding and again may need a little more simmering to thicken. Hope this helps!
Betsi Romero
Thank you so much for all these suggestions!
I happen to have cashews on hand and will use them as you instructed for our dinner tonight!
I’m truly looking forward to putting on my apron and getting this show on the road for my family to enjoy ♡
Larisha Bernard
Hope you love it!
Betsi Romero
Oh my goodness! thank you so much for your suggestions!
Made this last night using cashews in place of the coconut cream and it turned out delicious! creamy, spicy, and just perfect for this cold weather!
It was such a hit (wish we had leftovers, hahaha.)
I will, absolutely be making this more often!
Larisha Bernard
yay! You’ll have to double it up next time! 😉
Jennifer
This dish is outrageously delicious!! The flavors come together beautifully! We ate it for dinner, I dreamt about it, and then I ate it for breakfast the next morning! I making a double batch today so I can share with a friend. Seriously one of the best recipes I’ve tried in a while. Thank you for sharing it with us!
Larisha Bernard
HAHAH I love this so much!
AD
Absolutely delicious!! I even went for seconds! 🤣 I’m new to trying plant based recipes and decided to give this recipe a try. This was very straightforward and easy to make. I paired it with rice the first round and naan bread the second round! Soo good!
Larisha Bernard
so happy that you loved it so much!
Michelle
I love this recipe! It’s easy and delicious, perfect for someone who is trying to eat less meat. I serve it with rice and garnish it with cilantro.
Larisha Bernard
Glad you enjoyed!
Bill Ward
Made this. Loved it. Lots of flavor but nicely balanced. Added cauliflower and a few gold potatoes. Used about 1.5 cups of stock to account for the extra volume of ingredients.
Larisha Bernard
Wonderful!
Raven
love this dish. You know its good when it reminds you of your gma chicken curry. great recipe!
Larisha Bernard
Huge compliment! Thanks!
Cecilia
in the recipe I made the tomatoe paste with spices but it doesn’t tell me when to add it. I watched the video but it showed loose spices added after tomatoes broken down. can you clarify when to add the paste?
Larisha Bernard
Sorry if that step is confusing, but it’s saying mix it with the water and then add it into the skillet with the spices. I will update to clarify some more.
Kat
Tik Tok brought me here for the curry, I looked around and found the biryani – needless to say, I’ma be staying here a while. Everything’s been damn delicious. This curry’s a 10 for damn sure.
Larisha Bernard
so glad to hear that!