Chickpea Zucchini Curry

 Chickpea Zucchini Curry

 

By Namit Kathoria

 

Soaking time: 8-9 hours or overnight if you are using dried chickpeas

Preparation time: 20 min

Cooking time: 20 min – 1 hr

 

Serves 4 people

Ingredients:

3 cups vegetable stock if using dried chickpeas/ 1-2 cups if you use cooked chickpeas from a jar

1 cup dried chickpeas/400g jar cooked chickpeas drained and rinsed

1 white onion diced

4 juicy tomatoes finely chopped

½ inch fresh turmeric grated/ ¼ teaspoon turmeric powder

¼ - ½ inch fresh ginger grated

5 garlic cloves grated

2 chillies finely diced

Juice of ½ lemon with the fibre

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 teaspoon coriander powder

2 ½ teaspoons cumin powder

⅛ teaspoon cayenne pepper/ chilli powder

⅛ teaspoon asafoetida

⅛ – ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper

2 teaspoons garam masala

½ - 1 teaspoon Himalayan rock salt

1 handful fresh spinach washed and shredded

½ yellow pepper diced

1 carrot scrubbed and diced

½ zucchini diced

 

Garnish with some fresh chopped coriander, lemon wedges, sliced white onion and some whisked Greek style soya yoghurt.

Serve with brown basmati rice or chappati.

Preparation:

1. Heat up some of the olive oil on a medium to high heat adding in one piece of onion. Once it starts to sizzle, add in all of the onion and the tomato. Cook for about 5 minutes until the tomato becomes soft and the onion becomes translucent.
2. Add in the garlic, the ginger, the turmeric and the fresh chilli. Cook for about 30 seconds with some more oil, constantly stirring.
3. Then add in the spices, the salt, the black pepper and more oil and cook for another 30 seconds to a minute.
4. Now add in all of the vegetables, except for the spinach, with a little bit more of the oil. Stir through and cook for about 3-4 minutes so that the vegetables absorb some of the flavour. Once everything starts to looks ready, add in the vegetable stock and the chickpeas. If you use an Instant Pot, seal and cook on high for about 20 minutes waiting for the natural release to happen. Otherwise if using a normal pan, put the lid on, bring to the boil and immediately reduce to a simmer. Cook for about 50 minutes if using dried chickpeas and if you are using cooked chickpeas then 20 minutes but with no lid on. Then switch off the heat.
5. Add in the spinach and the lemon juice whilst the mixture is still hot, mix and after about 2 minutes or when the spinach starts to wilt, taste and see if you need to add any more spices, salt or pepper.
6. Serve with brown rice or chappati and garnish with the ingredients above.

 

 

Where does your protein come from?

It comes from a mixture of the chickpeas and if you serve it with brown rice or chappati then you get the compliment of amino acids that forms a complete protein in the body. The soya yoghurt is an additional source of protein and is a complete protein in itself.

 

To get more inspiration for healthy plant-based recipes please see our new nutrition and recipe book “Life” which is due to come out in 2022.