Sweet Potato & Chickpea Curry
Serves 4
This is vegetarian comfort food at its best but is equally great served as a side dish to chicken or fish.
Kate’s top tips
I like to keep the skin on the potatoes when they are roasting, but if you aren’t keen on the skins, simply peel them off before roasting.
If you want to get ahead of time, you can make the curry sauce in advance but don’t roast the potatoes. When you are ready to serve your meal, simply roast the potatoes in the oven, gently re-heat the curry and stir through the potatoes just before serving.
Don’t worry if the texture of the curry is not all that loose, as this is not supposed to be a wet curry.
You will need a large baking tray. I use a food processor to create the paste for the base of this curry, but if you don’t have one then simply finely chop the ingredients by hand instead.
This curry doesn’t freeze.
What you need
2 large sweet potatoes, washed and dried
2-3 tbsp coconut oil, melted
1 onion, roughly chopped
1 clove garlic, peeled
1 tsp ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp coriander seeds
½ tsp fennel seeds
1 tsp black mustard seeds
400g tin chickpeas, drained and rinsed
½-1 tsp chilli flakes
1 tsp ground turmeric
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tsp garam masala
400g tin chopped tomatoes
200ml filtered water
Salt and pepper
What you do
Pre-heat the oven to 190˚C.
Cut each potato into five pieces of approximately equal size and place each large chunk onto a large baking tray.
Drizzle two tablespoons of the coconut oil and a good amount of seasoning over the potatoes and stir to coat them evenly.
Place the potatoes in the pre-heated oven for approximately 35-40 minutes until they are cooked through and the skins have crisped slightly. Check time
Once the potatoes are cooked, remove them from the oven and leave to one side.
Place the onion, garlic and ginger in a food processor or blender and whizz to form a smooth paste.
Heat the remaining tablespoon of coconut oil in a large, deep pan or casserole dish and as soon as it is hot, add the cumin, coriander, fennel and black mustard seeds.
Fry the spices for a minute or so until they begin to sizzle and you start to smell their aroma.
Add the onion paste from the blender along with some seasoning and gently fry for approximately ten minutes until softened. Add a couple of tablespoons of water to the paste if it looks to be sticking to the pan.
Add the drained chickpeas, the remaining spices, tomatoes, water and more seasoning.
Bring the sauce up to boiling point then lower the heat and allow the sauce to simmer for approximately 25 minutes.
If the sauce looks to be drying out, feel free to add a little extra water but bear in mind this isn’t meant to be a particularly wet curry.
Add the cooked potatoes to the sauce, stir and allow the potatoes to heat through. Serve with the coriander sprinkled over the top and a spoonful of yoghurt on the side.
To serve, choose any of the following:
2 tbsp fresh coriander leaves, chopped
2 tbsp Coconut Collaborative, natural yoghurt
