Silke's Chickpea Curry
dinner, goto, vegan, vegetarian
Ingredients
Easy Chickpea & Potato Curry (Chana Aloo Curry)
Prep
10 mins
Cook
20 mins
Total
30 mins
A Caribbean curry from Trinidad that tastes very similar to tomato based Indian vegetable curries. This curry has incredible flavour, and is one of the easiest real curries because you won't need to trek to the speciality store for the spices, you can get everything from the supermarket. This recipe is slightly modified from the Curry Channa and Aloo recipe from Immaculate Bites, a fantastic African/Caribbean food site.
SPICE LEVEL: If you use a mild rather than super hot curry powder, this recipe has a medium level of curry because then the spiciness is coming from the cayenne and white pepper. If you are concerned about the spiciness, mix the spices together using just part of the cayenne pepper then do a taste test before adding into the pot.
Course: Curry, Dinner
Cuisine: Caribbean, Trinidad
Servings: 4
Calories: 540 kcal
Author: Nagi | RecipeTin Eats
Ingredients
3 tbsp cooking oil (I used vegetable)
Flavour Base
1 large onion , diced (brown, white, yellow)
2 large garlic cloves , minced
2 tbsp curry powder (Note 5)
1 tsp All Spice powder
1 tsp nutmeg powder (or 1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg) (Note 1)
1 1/2 tsp smoked paprika (can substitute with sweet or ordinary paprika)
2 tsp dried thyme leaves (or 3 tsp fresh thyme leaves)
1 tsp cumin powder
3/4 tsp cayenne pepper (Note 2)
1 tsp white pepper (or 1/2 tsp black pepper)
Curry
1 1/2 cups potatoes , cut into 1.2cm / 1/2" cubes
28 oz / 800g canned chickpeas (2 x 14oz/400g) , drained
14 oz / 400g canned diced tomatoes (Note 3)
2 cups vegetable or chicken broth/stock
2 scallion/shallot stems , sliced (green & white part)
2 tbsp fresh parsley , finely chopped (plus more for garnish) (Note 4)
Salt to taste
Description
Heat oil in a large pot or very deep skillet over medium high heat.
Add the Flavour Base ingredients and cook for 3 minutes until the onion is translucent.
Add the potatoes and cook for a further 2 minutes. If the spices start to stick to the bottom of the pot, add a tiny splash of water.
Add the chickpeas, tomatoes and vegetable or chicken broth. Bring to simmer then turn down the heat to medium and simmer for 15 minutes, or until the potatoes are cooked and the sauce has thickened.
Adjust salt to taste, stir through scallions/shallots and parsley.
Serve with rice.
Notes
1. I omitted Nutmeg once and the flavour was still lovely. Could not actually tell it was missing.
2. The original recipe called for 1 scotch bonnet or habanero pepper, finely chopped, to be added to the curry once the liquids have been added. I don't know where to get these chilis where I live (Sydney, Australia) so I just used cayenne pepper instead for heat. I doubt that the flavour has been impacted very much.
3. The original recipe did not call for canned tomatoes. Some Trinidad Chana Aloo Curry recipes do. I added it to create a slightly thicker sauce.
4. Though the original recipe calls for parsley, I often make this with coriander (fresh) because it goes so well with curry!
5. This can be made with any curry powder you have / want. Curry powders differ in spiciness so if you are using a spicy one, adjust the quantity to taste! I use Clives of Indian Curry Powder (sold at Woolworths and Coles in Australia) which is quite mild. I do also use the Clives of India Hot Madras Curry Powder - when I feel like making it extra spicy!! Adjust the curry powder to your taste depending on how spicy you like your curries!