Bethany's Vegan Kitchen

This whole food plant based curry combines chickpeas, mushrooms and spinach in flavourful curry sauce. You could serve this with rice, dairy free naan bread and any side dishes you like. This curry is really easy to make, and you can customise the heat to suit you. If you prefer a mild curry, use a mild curry powder, but if you prefer a bit more warmth, use a medium or hot curry powder

Yield; Four servings Cook time; 45 minutes

You’ll need;

1. One tablespoon of oil
2. One large red onion, finely diced
3. Two cloves of garlic, minced
4. 300g white closed cup mushrooms, chopped
5. Two tablespoons of tomato puree
6. Spice mix; Two tablespoons of curry powder (use whichever strength you prefer) two teaspoons of smoked paprika, one teaspoon of ground cumin, one teaspoon of ground turmeric, black pepper to taste
7. One 400g tin of tomatoes, blended until smooth
8. 200ml of hot vegetable stock
9. 275g chickpeas, this is the cooked weight of 125g of dried chickpeas. Alternatively use a 400g tin of chickpeas that have been drained and thoroughly rinsed
10. 130g baby leaf spinach, chopped

Method;

• Start by heating the oil in a large frying pan over a medium heat. Once it’s warmed up, add in the red onion and cook for five minutes. Then add the garlic and fry for a couple of minutes, or until it becomes fragrant
• Next, add in the mushrooms and stir them through the onion and garlic mixture. Give them five minutes to cook and start to release their liquid
• Then add in the spice mix and the tomato puree, and mix them through the vegetables. Give the spices three or four minutes to cook off
• Now add the blended tomatoes and hot vegetable stock, stir them through the pan to lift off anything stuck to the bottom. Reduce the heat to medium low, pop a lid on the pan and leave it to cook for 15 minutes
• After 15 minutes check the sauce and add more salt and pepper if needed. Then add in the chickpeas and spinach, give the curry a good stir to wilt the spinach
• Give the chickpeas and spinach another 10 or so minutes to heat through in the curry, then it’s ready to serve

This would be ideal serve with rice or chips, along with some naan, chapati or roti to scoop up the sauce with. If you have any leftovers, they freeze very well. Just make sure to freeze them in an airtight container and defrost in the fridge before reheating

If you’d like to make this using dried chickpeas as opposed to tinned, this is how I cook mine

Cooking Dried Chickpeas

You’ll need;

1. 125g dried chickpeas
2. Half a teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda
3. Plenty of cold water

Method;

• Start by weighing out the chickpeas into a bowl. Sprinkle over the bicarbonate of soda and fill the bowl up with cold water. Leave the chickpeas to soak for 8 hours, or overnight
• Once you’re ready to cook the chickpeas, drain away the soaking water and give them a good rinse
• Then bring a pan of water to a boil, add the chickpeas, cover with a lid, and immediately reduce the heat to the lowest setting
• Give the chickpeas 15 minutes to simmer until they’re cooked. Once they’re done, drain away the water and rinse the chickpeas in cold water to stop the cooking process