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No Chop Chickpea Curry – a Perfect Quick Meal!

No Chop Chickpea Curry

Short on time and wondering how to pull off a meal? This fast and easy vegan chickpea curry is ready in the time it takes to cook rice!

Picture this: it’s a weekday night and you’re looking between the clock and your fridge wondering how you’re going to pull off an actual meal. Or it’s a weekend afternoon and you’re feeling exceptionally lazy but you still need to feed yourself. At this point, the takeout menus begin to look extra inviting. So you have three choices: starve, order takeout, or you can make our No Chop Chickpea Curry. This fast and easy vegan chickpea curry comes together in roughly the amount of time it takes to cook rice (not to mention cheaper and faster than getting take-out).

No Time? No Problem!

In our house, we love a good curry dish. But, a lot of curry recipes require a significant amount of chopping, cutting, and mincing, and sometimes we don’t have the time or energy for that amount of work. So I was inspired to put together a curry dish that could work for the college students in my life with limited time who are trying to create good vegan meals in dorms, apartments, or kitchens that may also have limited tools.

For College Student or Busy Adult

Despite our original inspiration, this No Chop Chickpea Curry can work for anyone who has constraints on their time, is feeling particularly lazy on any given day, or particularly for people who think they can’t cook. I’m serious, this recipe is perfect for new or uncertain cooks who want to expand their repertoire and also not burn the house down.

Short List of Basic Ingredients

With a few basic stock spices on hand and ingredients that are readily available in any decent grocery store, this is an unbelievably easy meal to pull together. The short list of ingredients all have a long shelf life, so you can always stock up and know you’ll have a meal up your sleeve for the future. We do like our food spicy, and the main heat source in this recipe is the Sriracha; 2 tablespoons is a medium amount of heat that won’t overwhelm the curry flavor, but you can always adjust due to how spicy you like your food. These basic ingredients produce a fragrant, flavorful cry that is just perfect ladled over your favorite rice. (we are currently partial to brown jasmine, yum!)

Coconut Milk Makes this Chickpea Curry Just Right

As for the coconut milk, we like the So Delicious lite culinary coconut milk for this recipe. I find that two containers are just right for the recipe and the consistency is a wonderfully creamy and tasty addition to the curry. It’s fine if you can’t find the So Delicious brand, just make sure to get “culinary” coconut milk for this recipe as it has a different consistency than regular coconut milk. If you have trouble finding it you can purchase these cartons at Amazon. (affiliate link)

So Delicious Lite Coconut Milk
This stuff is the best (but if you can only find cans, and other brands, it will be fine)

 

No Chop Vegan Chickpea Curry cooking away
No Chop Vegan Chickpea Curry cooking away

This Vegan Chickpea Curry Makes your Meal Easy

This curry has become a go-to in our house, and not just because it’s quick and easy. If you have guests or are entertaining, this is the perfect distraction-free meal; I love making it when people are over because it frees up my time to enjoy and entertain my guests. And to top it all off, this No Chop Chickpea Curry is a perfect leftover because it’s an easy and portable meal for work or school that tastes great at room temperature or warmed up. So, start the rice and get going! You will be enjoying dinner in no time – trust us!

 

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No Chop Chickpea Curry

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  • Author: Georgia @ Full of Beans
  • Prep Time: 5
  • Cook Time: 15
  • Total Time: 20 minutes

Description

This fast and easy vegan chickpea curry comes together in roughly the amount of time it takes to cook rice (not to mention cheaper and faster than getting take-out). This is a curry dish that’s perfect for the college students with limited time who are trying to create good vegan meals in dorms, apartments, or kitchens that may also have limited tools. Or anytime you want a nutritious, hearty meal but you’re short on time and want to avoid fuss.

Enjoy this curry dish and please share your  comments on this post and your photos on social media! We love to see them!  #fullofbeanslife


Ingredients

Units Scale
  • 3 cups (2 cans) cooked chickpeas, rinsed and drained
  • 2 11oz cartons, or 1.5 (15oz) cans, lite coconut milk*
  • 1 15oz can diced tomatoes, undrained
  • 2 cups frozen, chopped or leaf spinach (or 1lb bag frozen)
  • 1/4 cup PB Fit peanut butter powder (or 1/3 cup peanut butter)
  • 2 tsp sriracha or other hot chili sauce (to taste)**
  • 3 tbs agave syrup
  • 2 tsp neutral vegetable oil
  • 1 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 1/2 tsp ginger powder
  • 1/2 tsp onion powder
  • 2 rounded tsp curry powder

Instructions

  1. In a large pot or Dutch oven, heat the oil over medium heat and add the spices and salt, stirring for 30 seconds or so until fragrant
  2. Add the chickpeas, coconut milk and tomatoes and stir gently to combine
  3. Next, add the peanut butter powder, sriracha** and agave syrup
  4. Add the spinach, stirring occasionally until heated through
  5. Let the pot simmer for about 5 minutes and taste
  6. Adjust curry, chili sauce or agave to taste
  7. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 10 – 15 minutes, stirring ocassionally
  8. Serve over rice and enjoy!

Notes

  • * we like using the low-fat culinary coconut milk. it is a huge reduction in the fat and we don’t notice any reduction in flavor. Any good culinary coconut milk will work. If you just can’t find any, substitute regular coconut milk and add some corn starch to thicken.
  • If you only can find the cans of coconut milk, and don’t care for that leftover half can, simply use it all and toss in a little extra chickpeas and spinach. Then adjust the spice to your taste.
  • ** this is a nice low to medium level of heat, but not enough to overwhelm the curry flavor. Use less if you are concerned and test after all ingredients are cooking. Its always easy to add heat – a little tough to remove 🙂
  • we like serving this on brown rice, which makes for a nicely hearty meal. But basmati rice, which is much lighter with a subtle flavor, is quite nice, too.
  • if you use fresh leaf spinach remember that it loses a ton of volume when cooked. So, 2 cups frozen is a LOT more spinach than 2 cups fresh. Just add your fresh spinach and adjust as it cooks down. The final proportions are always up to you!
  • if organic frozen spinach (what we prefer) is hard to find, go right ahead and use something like kale. It will have its own special taste but will be delicious!

Georgia is an unpretentious foodie who, at 50, transitioned from a vegetarian diet to a whole foods plant based diet and is loving it. She works as a nurse, plays as a quilter, loves to run, hates to race.
She thinks dogs are actually angels (in dog suits).

This Post Has 18 Comments

  1. Hi! I gave this a try this week and really liked it. I wasn’t sure how well I liked it on the day I made it – the flavor were fine, just nothing fabulous. But I had leftovers for several meals (my kind of dish) and it definitely was better on day 2 and 3 – I will absolutely make it again. It was quick and easy – I couldn’t quite bring myself to not at least add onions…I get why you didn’t add them – that was the point of “no chop”.

    1. Hi Karen!

      LOL, thank you for your wonderful comment. Yes, no onions to chop was part of the point. 🙂
      We LOVE dishes that keep you (and the family) fed for several meals running – thats part of what we are all about. And the ones that get better with time are our favs (like our Better Than Tuna chickpea salad).
      If you feel like adding onions, though, go right ahead, we get it.
      Thanks for checking out our blog!
      Peace, Greg & Georgia

    1. Hi Angie!
      You can do either. We buy big giant bags of organic frozen spinach from BJs. But you can use what you have on hand. The recipe assumes frozen (and loose, not a block).
      You can adjust to your taste, too!

      Thanks for trying the recipe – please let us know what you think!

      Peace, Georgia and Greg

  2. This looks so good but was wondering, if I omit the tomatoes, how much liquid should I add to replace the liquid in the tomato can? I have a hard time with night shade vegetables.

    1. Oh, we totally understand about the nightshades. Sorry that is an issue for you. you could always give it a try simply leaving the tomatoes out. However, i’ll ask Georgia about some substitution ideas (this is Greg).
      Thanks for being in touch!
      Peace

      1. Thank you, I’m trying to steer clear of as many nightshade as I can. I think I’ll add some coconut milk…yumm!!

  3. This sounds good, but I was wondering if we could substitute almond milk for the coconut milk, and maple syrup for the agave (my husband is allergic to agave…makes his face puff up like a toad!) He loves curry, though!

    1. Hi Territoons,

      No problem with the maple syrup substitution at all. Should be just fine. But the culinary coconut milk adds a slight coconut taste and acts as a thickener. So the almond milk will work, but it will be a bit thinner. Consider a 1:1 substitution of an almond or soy creamer. You can find that at many markets. Or you could add a little corn starch to the almond milk to your desired consistency.
      Note: we haven’t tried this ourselves but it’s what we would start with. 🙂

      Thanks for trying this recipe and being in touch. Please let us know how it works out!

      Peace, Greg & Georgia

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