A creamy, delicately spiced vegan curry. Tender sweet potato, chickpeas and courgette in a coconut and ginger sauce, finished with desiccated coconut and a squeeze of lime. This sweet potato and chickpea curry is full of plant based goodness making it a great addition to your healthy dinner repertoire.
How to make a creamy curry
The coconut milk base gives this curry a luxurious, creamy quality. I’ve used reduced fat coconut milk which still contains just enough fat to make a silky, great tasting sauce. As well as being lower in saturated fat when compared to the traditional ghee laden concoctions, this vegan curry is also lower in sodium. The final result is a nutritious, healthy dinner that doesn’t compromise on taste.
The ingredients
To achieve a healthy yet great tasting curry I’ve used deeply flavourful ingredients including ginger, garlic, cumin and coriander. This isn’t the most authentic of curries, but do curries always need to be? This easy vegetable curry is a marriage of sweet and sour, and like all great unions, it just simply works.
This sweet potato and chickpea curry is wonderfully fragrant thanks to the cumin, coriander and coconut milk. The lime and ginger add a delicate tanginess which is balanced by the rich coconut milk. I find cream based curries can occasionally be too rich (yes you can have too much of a good thing). Selecting earthier spices such as cumin and turmeric balances out the more cloying elements of the dish.
The method
Fry the onions until they are soft and have turned a rusty golden-brown colour. This is known as the maillard reaction, the browning of foods achieved through cooking, which gives food its intense, robust flavour.
Reduce the heat to its lowest ember and gently fry the spices. Cooking spices in oil helps give new life to old musty spices, creating a bolder flavour as well as producing a deeply earthy aroma. I often think of a phoenix rising from the ash when I’m scraping the spices around the pan; somewhat hyperbolic I know, but for me, frying spices is one of the best parts of cooking.
Bring the sauce to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Keep the lid on to allow the sweet potatoes to soften. Then for the final 10 minutes, add the chickpeas and courgette and simmer with the lid off to allow the sauce to thicken.
Leave a comment and let me know how you get on making this sweet potato and chickpea curry. I’d love to see your creations over on instagram!
Looking to use up your seasonal veggies? Give these recipes a try:
Shepherd’s pie with sweet potato mash
Roasted butternut squash and quinoa salad
Sweet potato and chickpea curry
Ingredients
- 300 g easy cook brown rice well rinsed
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 1 medium onion finely chopped
- 3 large garlic cloves finely chopped
- 2 cm piece of ginger washed, peeled and finely chopped
- 2 teaspoons ground cumin
- 1.5 teaspoons ground coriander
- 1 teaspoon hot chilli powder
- 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
- 400 g tinned plum tomatoes chopped into chunks using scissors
- 400 mls tinned light / reduced fat coconut milk
- 100 mls cold water
- 800 g sweet potato peeled and chopped into 3 cm chunks
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 400 g tinned chickpeas drained and rinsed
- 1 courgette weighing approximately 250g, cut into half moons
- 1/4 lime freshly squeezed
Instructions
- Add the rice to a saucepan with 900mls water. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and cover. Cook for 30 minutes and then check to see the water has all been absorbed. Remove from heat and leave to rest, covered for 10 minutes.
- While the rice is cooking make a start on the curry. In a large saucepan heat the oil over a medium heat. Add the onion and gently fry for 6-8 minutes until softened and lightly browned.
- Add the garlic and ginger and gently fry for a minute.
- Reduce the heat until barely lit, then stir in the spices The spices should darken and release a wonderful aroma. After roughly a minute, pour in the tomatoes, coconut milk, water and sweet potato. Season with a teaspoon of salt. Stir well, increase the heat and wait for the curry to vigorously bubble. Then reduce the heat, cover with the lid and simmer for 10 minutes.
- Once the sweet potatoes have started to soften, add in the chickpeas and courgette. Give the curry another good stir and leave to simmer uncovered for 10 minutes, allowing the sauce to thicken.
- Turn off the heat and add a squeeze of lime. Serve alongside the nutty brown rice and if you desire, sprinkle over some desiccated coconut.
Made for my flatmates, as someone that can’t cook this turned out really well. Recipe easy to follow. Clean plates all round. Big thumbs up