Aubergine & Chickpea Curry

Aubergine & Chickpea Curry, full of rich, spicy flavour, is so simple to make. Apart from the aubergine, most of the ingredients, including tinned chickpeas and tinned tomatoes, are fridge and kitchen cupboard staples. Which makes this tasty, nutritious curry perfect for a weeknight dinner. To add crunch, roast some of the chickpeas until crispy and scatter over just before serving.

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Aubergine & Chickpea Curry is one of those dishes I’ve been making for years. We usually have most of the ingredients to hand so, as long as we remember to pick up an aubergine or two, it’s a good weeknight option.

The base consists of onions, garlic, ginger and fresh chillies plus a range of whole and ground spices including cumin and mustard seed, ground coriander, paprika, turmeric, fenugreek and garam masala.

But don’t worry if you don’t have all the spices I’ve listed in the recipe. The curry will still taste good even if you miss a few out or make some substitutions like chilli flakes or powder instead of fresh chillies.

The aromatics and spices are cooked with tomatoes until they form a rich sauce. Into this we’re going to put nutritious chickpeas and soft, browned aubergine chunks.

I think Aubergine & Chickpea Curry tastes even better if you make it ahead and leave all the delicious flavours to meld for 20 or 30 minutes before serving.

AUBERGINES

For this recipe, which serves two generously, I use three small, two medium or one very large aubergine. This may sound a lot, but it does reduce down considerably once cooked.

And, by the way, aubergines do need to be thoroughly cooked. Under-cooked aubergine is nasty and spongy. Properly cooked, almost-falling-apart aubergine is silky and smoky.

For the Aubergine & Chickpea Curry I start by browning the aubergine first. I used to do this in a sauté pan, then set the chunks aside before starting the curry base in the same pan.

But, these days, I roast the aubergine in the oven instead. Besides allowing for a bit of multi-tasking (you can make a start on the base while the aubergine’s cooking), having the oven on gives me the excuse to make crispy chickpeas…

CRISPY CHICKPEAS? YES PLEASE!

I’ve gone mad on deliciously moreish crispy chickpeas. They’re a great addition to so many meals. Not just because you can flavour them how you like, but because of that satisfying crunchy texture they bring. I love them on salads, but crispy chickpeas add interest to loads of dishes with a mainly soft consistency.

So it dawned on me that I could sex up my old favourite, Aubergine & Chickpea Curry, by holding back some of the chickpeas from the spicy stew and turning them into a crispy garnish.

Crispy chickpeas are dead easy to make. Just don’t go wandering off as they can go from ‘just-need-another-minute-or-two’ to ‘bugger-they’re-burnt’ quicker than you’d think.

All you do is sprinkle the chickpeas with a little oil and your chosen seasonings then bake until lovely and crunchy. Rubbing off the skins first helps them take up seasonings better, and makes them crispier, but it isn’t absolutely vital.

Flavoured with garam masala or chaat masala, I think crispy chickpeas lift this curry to an even higher level of deliciousness.

WHAT TO EAT WITH AUBERGINE & CHICKPEA CURRY

Besides my recent introduction of the crispy chickpea garnish, I suppose the big thing that’s changed over the years is what we tend to eat with Aubergine & Chickpea Curry. In the past, like most Brits I suppose, we’d automatically reach for rice as the accompaniment. Later, wanting to increase our vegetable intake, we’d swap brown Basmati rice for cauliflower rice.

But I’ve now discovered that socca chickpea flour flatbreads go with so many dishes, including curry. For Aubergine & Chickpea Curry, I like to flavour the simple batter (gram flour, salt, water) with garam masala or chaat masala. Sometimes I’ll add garlic granules, coriander leaf and red chilli too.

Another thing I almost always have with curries is yogurt. The cooling, creaminess makes a great contrast to the spicy stew and I usually flavour it with mint – fresh if I have it, from a jar if not.

I like to include raw vegetables with most meals. To accompany this curry, I chop and grate things like carrot, peppers, red onion and cucumber. A few whole spices such as mustard and fennel seed, heated in oil (I like sesame oil for this) until they starter to splutter, is nice poured over the veg. I finish by seasoning with salt, pepper and a squeeze of lemon.

But, however you eat this fab Aubergine & Chickpea Curry, I think you’ll love its rich spiciness. And with at least three portions of veg in each filling bowlful, you know it’ll be doing you good too.

5 from 2 votes

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Aubergine & Chickpea Curry

Aubergine & Chickpea Curry is simple to make, but full of rich, spicy flavour. Apart from the aubergine, most of the ingredients, including tinned chickpeas and tinned tomatoes, are fridge and kitchen cupboard staples. To add texture to the curry, scatter over some crispy, baked chickpeas just before serving.

Course Main Course

Cuisine Indian, Vegetarian, Vegan

Keyword curry

Servings 2

Author Moorlands Eater

Ingredients

• 2 medium aubergines cut into large chunks
• salt & pepper
• 3 tbsp oil e.g. olive, coconut, sunflower (or substitute butter/ghee)
• 2 tsp black mustard seeds
• 2 tsp cumin seeds
• 1 tsp fennel seeds
• 2 medium onions roughly chopped
• 6-8 cloves garlic finely grated or chopped
• 3 cm ginger root finely grated or chopped
• 2-3 hot green chillies finely chopped or sliced
• 4 tsp garam masala
• 2 tsp ground coriander
• 1 tsp paprika
• 1 tsp ground fenugreek
• 0.5 tsp turmeric
• 400 g tinned tomatoes
• 1-2 tsp sugar or other sweetener optional
• 200 ml water
• 240 g cooked chickpeas equivalent to a 400g tin, drained
• 2 tbsp chopped coriander

Optional: crispy chickpea garnish

• a third to a half of the chickpeas set aside from the amount shown above
• 1 tbsp oil e.g. olive, coconut, sunflower
• salt to taste
• 1 tsp spices of your choice e.g. garam masala, chaat masala, cumin, chilli powder.

Instructions

Optional: crispy chickpea garnish

1. Preheat the oven to 220C/200 fan/Gas 7

2. Drain the chickpeas and put them on kitchen paper or a clean tea towel. Gently rub to dry the chickpeas which will also remove their skins (this helps to crisp them up).

   Place the skinned chickpeas on a shallow baking tray.

3. Drizzle the oil over the chickpeas and sprinkle with salt and your chosen seasonings. Shake the tray to coat the chickpeas then place in the oven.

4. Bake for 15-25 minutes until the chickpeas are brown and crispy. Note: can burn easily so check every 4 minutes or so.

   Taste and sprinkle with more seasonings if liked then set aside.

For the aubergine

1. Preheat the oven to 220C/200 fan/Gas 7 if you haven't already done so for the crispy chickpeas.

2. Put the aubergine chunks in a large roasting tray, season with salt and pepper, drizzle with 1 tbsp of the oil and mix well.

3. Put the tray in the oven (cook at the same time as the crispy chickpeas if making them) and bake until soft and brown, turning occasionally (20-30 min).

   Set aside.

For the curry base

1. In a large saute or frying pan, heat to moderate the remaining 2 tbsp of oil.

2. Add the mustard, cumin & fennel seeds and cook until they start to fizzle & pop (2-3 min).

3. Add the chopped onion to the pan and cook, stirring often, until it's starting to soften & brown (10-15 min)

4. Stir in the garlic, ginger & chillies then cook for 2-3 min more.

5. Add 2 tsp of the garam masala plus the ground coriander, paprika, fenugreek & turmeric and stir well, cooking for a minute or two.

6. Stir in the tinned tomatoes, season with salt & pepper plus 1 tsp of the sweetener if using

7. Bring to a boil then reduce the heat to a simmer. Cook until the oil separates from the tomatoes (approx 10-20 min).

8. Add the water (swish it around the used tin of tomatoes first so as not to waste any), bring back to the boil then reduce the heat to a simmer again. Simmer, with a lid on, for 10 minutes.

9. After 10 minutes, add the cooked chickpeas and the browned aubergine, put the lid back on and gently simmer for 10 more minutes.

10. Take off the lid and if the sauce isn't reduced enough to your liking and/or the aubergine isn't completely soft, continue simmering with the lid off until done (5-15min.)

11. Take off the heat, stir in the remaining 2 tbsp of garam masala plus more salt and sweetener if you think it needs it.

12. Stir in the chopped coriander just before serving.

Recipe Notes

• If you're not making the optional crispy chickpeas, just add all the drained chickpeas at step 9.
• After making, this curry tastes even better if left to sit for 15-30 minutes to let the flavours meld. Gently reheat if necessary.

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