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Every challenge is an opportunity to learn and grow.

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Coconut Chickpea Curry

I had a wonderful weekend filled with sunshine and good friends. One of the highlights was having Sebastien’s sisters over for an impromptu dinner party with our friends Nadeem and Bonnie.

I love having my house filled with good energy so I was really looking forward to dinner, but at the same time perplexed as to what I was going to cook. Seb’s sisters are both vegetarians so I opted to make one vegetarian meal as opposed to a meat and veggie option.

When Seb and I were planning the meal (last minute of course) we immediately though of this one butter chicken paste I buy from time to time ,but mix with chickpeas instead of chicken, which is soooo yummy. So off to Loblaws we went with high hopes that they would have it in stock because our friends were coming over in 1 hour.

They were sold out

I love to cook from scratch and make stuff up, as you can probably tell from my recipes, so I knew I had to think quickly on my feet and come up with an alternative meal plan. I wanted to stay in the same category so I concocted in my head a recipe for a coconut chickpea curry with the hopes that it wouldn’t be a flop.

It was FANTASTIC. I even made it again on sunday it was so good. At one point Nadeem commented, “I didn’t even realize I was eating vegetarian until I looked and saw that Seb’s sister had the same meal on her plate!”

So here it is, in all it’s glory and simplicity…Coconut Chickpea Curry

Ingredients:

2 tsp sunflower oil
1/2 medium white onion, diced
2 garlic cloves, sliced
1/2 pint cherry or grape tomatoes, quartered
2-3 teaspoons of Chana Masala spice mix (made by MDH spices)
1/4 – 1/2 teaspoon of cayenne pepper (adjust the heat to your liking, you can also leave this out)
1 can of chickpeas
1/2 cup coconut milk
1 cup of water

Heat the oil in a frying pan on medium-high heat.

Add the onions and brown them, add the garlic when the onions are near finished. Saute garlic approx. 3o seconds.

Add the tomatoes to the mixture and reduce heat to medium. Saute for 1-2 minutes to soften.

Add the chana masala spices and stir to mix, immediately add the coconut milk and cayenne pepper and stir to thoroughly form a sauce.

Toss in one can of rinsed chickpeas and stir to mix. Add the water, adjust the heat to low-medium and simmer until the sauce is nice and thick and the chickpeas softened.

Serve warm over basmati rice and with a side salad.

Serves 4.

I hope you enjoy this delightful Indian inspired meal as much as I did with my closest friends.

Always living with passion,

Sammie