Chick pea curry

Well this is just a very simple curry (simple – well I guess it has a lot of ingredients but it is simple in that this is really not a difficult recipe and is hard to balls up – put it this way, I can make this whilst also doing the packed lunches for the next day and browsing Instagram stories which are my own perfectly curated TV programme). 

The other noteworthy thing about this recipe is that it’s vegan. Now I don’t go in for these irritating ‘veganuary’ things, nor do I abstain from alcohol for the whole month of January either. It’s my birthday at the end of the month and I see every glass of wine I consume in January as a conspiratorial two fingers up to this attempt to ruin my birthday celebrations through abstinence by everyone who may have slightly overdone it in December.

It is also a cheap recipe. This serves two as a main with some rice or four as a side (or one of you’re greedy or can’t be bothered to serve anything with it). I reckon it comes in at under £1 for the whole dish if you already have the spices and bits in the cupboard.

Anyway, I send you this recipe with love and budgetary concerns in mind, because, well, you need to save your pennies for my birthday present don’t you?

Lots of great recipes like this in my books, Recipes from a Normal Mum and The Power of Frozen.

One year ago: Choc nut flapjack, Oat pizzas, Chai smoothie and Oat baked salmon fishfingers.

Two years ago: Roasted rainbow roots and pan fried pork, Banana and chia porridge bread, Baked tortilla, Roasted cauliflower, celery and garlic soup, Garlic, lemon and sweet chilli chicken, Oreo peanut butter brownies and Skinny orange and cardamom tealoaf.

Three years ago: Lamb and pea pie on This Morning, Halloumi, courgette and carrot fritters, Crunchy piggy meatballs (also on This Morning) and Granola breakfast muffins.

Four years ago: Lemon & blueberry loaf, my Bake Off Cherry Bakewell inspired cupcakes, plus Sesame bread sticks

Five years ago: Love cupcakes, White chocolate, lemon and macadamia cake and a perfect wintery Roasted celeriac, carrot and parsnip soup.

Six years ago: Bake me not chocolate cake, Jelly and ice-cream meringue roulade, Good flapjack and Banana, butterscotch and fig traybake.

Seven (how did that happen??) years ago: Treasure hunt ice-cream, Rhubarb and ginger chutney and Carrot cake.

Ingredients:

• 2 tbsp. rapeseed oil
• 1 onion, peeled and roughly chopped
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp. minced garlic (I used the pre chopped stuff as I am lazy)
• 1 tbsp. minced ginger
• 2 tsp garam masala
• 1 tsp turmeric powder
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp chilli powder
• 1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
• 1 x tin chopped tomatoes
• 1/8th block coconut cream – gosh about 30g
• 1 x tin drained and washed chickpeas
• 1 tbsp. tamarind paste

Heat up a slosh of rapeseed oil in a saucepan and fry a roughly chopped onion in it (peeled first of course) with 1/2 tsp salt, then after 5 mins or so I add in 1 tbsp minced garlic, 1 tbsp minced ginger, 2 tsp garam masala, 1 tsp turmeric, 1 tsp ground coriander, 1 tsp ground cumin, 1 tsp chilli powder and 1 tsp freshly ground black pepper. I add 1 tin of chopped tomatoes plus a tin of cold water (just fill the tin up with tap water after chucking the toms the toms in). Simmer for 5 mins then add about 1/8th of a block of creamed coconut (in international aisle at the supermarket – the stuff you need to chop with a knife) plus a drained and washed tin of cooked chickpeas (the washing in cold water in a sieve makes them have less of an, ahem, catastrophic effect on the digestive system ????). Stir well and add 1 tbsp tamarind paste if you have it. Leave to simmer on the stove on a low heat for 10 minutes, or longer if you have time.

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