Here’s a recipe that is in my .. erhmm .. history ? rolladex ? Whatever. It’s a recipe known to me and not one to bring sweat to my brow. It claims to be a curry, but you’ll need to hot it up if you like real curry.

Chickpea Curry

Ingredients

• 1 onion, halved and sliced finely
• 3 cloves garlic chopped small
• 1 long red chilli, chopped fine (2 is better !)
• thumb-sized piece ginger, chopped fine
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 1 tsp ground turmeric
• 1 tsp mustard seeds*
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 4 dried curry leaves
• 1 tsp fenugreek*
• 2 tbs tomato paste
• 2 cans chickpeas, drained
• 1 can coconut milk
• 1 tbs coconut flour

*if you have a mortar and pestle, these should be ground together; but if you don’t, see if you can buy ’em already ground

Method

• Place a large saucepan on medium heat and add the oil.
• When the pan is hot add the onion, garlic, chilli & ginger, cook for 10 minutes stirring often. (This is the most important part of making the curry: getting your base ingredients lovely and golden will insure the finished curry has a powerful flavour. So says the AvantGarde Vegan — quite cute, if you go for that hair shaved up the sides thing ..)
• Add all the spices & cook while stirring for another 3-4 minutes to let the spices roast & release their aromatics.
• Throw in the tomato paste and cook for 1 more minute before adding the chickpeas: stir well so they are coated.
• Shake the can like mad and pour in the coconut milk and stir well; then bring the pan to a simmer.
• Let the curry bubble away gently for around 10 minutes.
• When the rice is cooked, just before serving stir the coconut flour into the curry to thicken it up a little.

I didn’t make this one for a long time, thinking in superior fashion that a curry of nothing but chickpeas would be, like, BORING ! – channelling Villanelle .. [grin]  It isn’t: the spices give the chickpeas a super burst of flavour.

Of course you can add any vegies you like: the harder ones come to mind. I think partially-cooked potatoes and cauli are great – you need to pre-cook ’em a bit to avoid having to cook the shit out of those yummy spices while waiting for the vegies. Just saying ..