Vegetable curry with chickpeas & coconut milk

Make this easy chickpea curry in a soupy coconut broth and serve it with rice or flatbread for your busy weekday dinners or relaxing weekend lunches. This flavorful mixed vegetable chickpea curry recipe is vegan, gluten-free, and protein-rich.

Curry is an integral part of our meal, and when curry has protein, all we need is just this veggie curry and basmati rice. This curry with rice is a simple and comforting meal for any day and every day.

I make this basic curry with seasonal veggies, and you can use the veggies of your choice. Okay, let's see what all went into this veggie curry.

Ingredients:

Veggies: I used bell pepper, zucchini, and cauliflower to make this recipe. But you can use any veggies of your choice. Some of the vegetables that go very well in this curry are

• Potato
• Carrot
• Green beans
• Cauliflower
• Brocolli
• Zucchini
• Squash
• Peas
• Sweet potato
• Red pepper
• Yellow bell pepper

You can even use leafy veggies like spinach, collard greens, kale.

Curry powder and spices:  This curry has basic spices like ground cumin, ground coriander, turmeric powder. And I have used curry powder that has red chili in it. So I skipped red chili powder. But you can use red chili powder or cayenne pepper powder to make this curry spicy.

Coconut milk: Full-fat coconut milk makes this curry rich and gives it a nutty flavor. You can use light coconut milk or any other plant-based milk to make this curry. Or replace it with just plain water.

Chickpeas: I used home-cooked chickpeas in this recipe. You can use canned chickpeas. Make sure to drain the water from it completely. Chickpeas are optional in this curry, and you can skip them.

Instant pot vegetable curry:

Though I cook this curry on a stovetop, I love electric pressure cooker as it is quick and handsfree.

• Chop the veggies and keep them aside.
• Start the Instant pot in saute mode. Once it is hot, add oil, bay leaves, chopped onion, and chopped ginger. Cook this mixture for 3 to 4 minutes until onions turn translucent.

• Add chopped tomatoes and let it cook for a further 3 to 4 minutes.

• It's time to add chopped veggies. Stir them well and let them roast for a couple of minutes.

• Add spice powders (curry powder, coriander powder, cumin powder, turmeric powder, garam masala powder) and salt. Mix everything so that these spice powders are coated well with the veggies.

• Now add cooked chickpeas and stir it once.

• Add coconut milk to the curry and stir it well. Deglaze the pot if required to avoid the burn signal.

• Close the Instant pot with its lid. Stop the saute mode and start the Instant pot in manual or pressure cook mode. Select 2 minutes on HIGH pressure and let it cook.
• Once the Instant pot turns off, wait for 5 minutes and manually release the pressure. Then, give everything a good fix. Delicious and easy one pot vegetable curry is ready to serve with basmati rice, naan bread, or your favorite side dish.

Stovetop instructions:

• Chop the veggies and keep them aside. I usually chop veggies into small cubes when cooking using the stovetop method. In this way, veggies will cook quickly.
• Heat a thick-bottomed cooking pot or a skillet.
• Once it is hot, add oil, bay leaves, chopped onion, and chopped ginger. Cook this mixture for 3 to 4 minutes until onions turn translucent.
• Now add chopped tomatoes and cook it for 4 to 5 minutes.
• Reduce heat and add chopped veggies one by one. Stir them well.
• Now add all the spice powders, salt one by one, and mix them well, so that spice powders get coated to the veggies.
• Add cooked chickpeas and coconut milk to the curry and let it cook over medium heat for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Let the veggies cook as per your liking. It might take anywhere from 10 to 15 minutes.
• You add more coconut milk to thin out the curry.
• Garnish the curry with chopped fresh cilantro.
• And the easy vegetable curry with chickpeas is ready to be served over basmati rice, brown rice, millet, or quinoa.

Recipe Notes:

• Want to make it spicy? Add half a teaspoon of red chili powder or red pepper flakes or black pepper powder along with other spices.
• Want to make this curry more healthy? Then add leafy greens like spinach, kale, collard greens. Add chopped leafy greens at almost the end of cooking and cook them for 2 to 3 minutes. 
• If you are making this curry in the instant pot, add leafy greens after the pressure release, and then close the instant pot for about 5 minutes. The remaining heat will cook the leafy greens.
• Don't have chickpeas handy? Use any beans like kidney beans, black beans, black-eyed peas. You can skip it altogether or add a cup of frozen peas.
• If you don't want to use beans but make this veggie curry protein-rich, you can add Indian cottage cheeses(paneer) or tofu.
• Which coconut milk is best in this curry? Full fat coconut milk gives a thick consistency to the curry. However, you can use light coconut milk or any other plant-based milk to make this curry. I used regular coconut milk that I made at home.
• You can add more coconut milk to this curry to make it thinner.
• Don't have fresh tomatoes? You can use tomato paste or canned tomatoes to make this curry. You can even skip tomatoes and add a dash of lemon or lime juice once you cook the curry.
• As we used coconut milk in this veggie curry, I used coconut oil to make the curry.
• I haven't used garlic, but you can add some for a great flavor.

Variations:

Thai style curry:

Add two tablespoons of red curry paste in the first step and saute it with onions to make this a Thai curry. And skip the garam masala powder.

Indian veggie curry:

Increase the quantity of garam masala to ½ or 1 teaspoon to add Indian flavors to this curry.

Serving suggestions:

This creamy vegetable curry tastes equally good with basmati rice and Indian flatbread roti or naan bread.

You can serve this curry over brown rice, millet, or quinoa for a healthy and delicious meal.

I like to have this curry with a slice of sourdough bread.

Storage and leftovers:

As we are using coconut milk, this curry stays well at room temperature for about 8 hours. And you can store this curry for two days in the refrigerator and use it for meal prep.

If you want to use it for more, store the curry in the freezer. I usually keep the curry in portion-sized containers and take the required quantity and then thaw it.

You can steam it in the instant pot using the pot in pot method to heat the curry. You can even heat it on the stovetop pan.

If the curry becomes thick, you can add coconut milk and adjust the consistency.

I usually heat the leftover curry and use it as a sandwich filling or taco filling.

More vegetarian curry recipes:

Bean curry with veggies - curried red kidney beans with veggies like beans, carrots, and zucchini.

Adzuki beans curry - adzuki beans cooked in onion tomato gravy.

Black-eyed peas curry - Indian spiced Instant pot curry with black-eyed peas and spinach.

Vegan Palak paneer - Indian-style spinach gravy cooked with tofu.

Bell pepper spinach curry - Quick and easy stir fry with colored bell peppers and spinach.

Indian chickpea curry - Indian restaurant-style chana masala curry with basic spices and chickpeas.

Recipe:

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