With the cooler temperatures in the air, we're reaching for more fragrant and comforting dishes like our chickpea curry with spinach.
We've used dried chickpeas, as we like the texture and earthy flavour, so you'll need to allow for soaking time, but if you're short on time feel free to use canned chickpeas instead.
We've combined fresh garlic, ginger, ground coriander, cumin, paprika and fresh chopped tomatoes for a fragrant and flavourful dish.
piece fresh root ginger, peeled and finely chopped
3
garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
2tsp.
ground coriander
1tsp.
ground cumin
2tsp.
paprika
4
tomatoes, peeled, de-seeded and roughly chopped
handful of fresh coriander leaves
450g
spinach leaves, trimmed and chopped
fresh coriander, to garnish
Directions
Step 1
If using dried chickpeas, discard any small stones or shrivelled peas. Rinse, then put into a bowl and add double their volume of cold water to cover. Leave to soak overnight.
Step 2
Drain the soaked chickpeas, then put them in a large saucepan with plenty of water and bring to the boil. Lower the heat and simmer gently for 2-3hr or until tender, adding salt towards the end of the cooking time (see Chickpea Tip). The cooking time will be between 2(1/2) - 3(1/4)hr, or 15 min if using canned chickpeas. Drain well. If using canned chickpeas, simply drain and rinse under cold running water.
Step 3
Heat the oil or ghee in a large heavy-based saucepan or flameproof casserole. Add the chopped root ginger, crushed garlic, ground coriander, ground cumin and paprika and cook for 2min, stirring all the time. Add soaked, cooked (or canned, drained) chickpeas, stirring well to ensure they are thoroughly coated in the spice mixture.
Step 4
Add the tomatoes, coriander leaves and spinach. Cook for 2min, then cover the pan with a lid and simmer gently for 10min. Season with salt and pepper to taste, garnish with coriander sprigs and serve.
Watch the time
The cooking time for dried chickpeas depends on how fresh they are. If they've been stored for a long time and look shrivelled, they may take longer than 3 hours to cook.
An experienced and highly skilled team of food writers, stylists and digital content producers, the Good Housekeeping Cookery Team is a close-knit squad of food obsessives. Cookery Editor Emma Franklin is our resident chilli obsessive and barbecue expert, who spends an inordinate amount of time on holidays poking round the local supermarkets seeking out new and exciting foods. Senior Cookery Writer Alice Shields is a former pastry chef and baking fanatic who loves making bread and would have peanut butter with everything if she could. Her favourite carb is pasta, and our vibrant green spaghetti is her weeknight go-to. Lover of all things savoury, Senior Cookery Writer Grace Evans can be found eating crispy corn and nocellara olives at every opportunity, and will take the cheeseboard over dessert any time (though she cannot resist a slice of tres leches cake). With a wealth of professional kitchen know-how, culinary training and years of experience between them, they are all dedicated to ensuring every Good Housekeeping recipe is the best it can be, so you can trust they’ll work (and if they don’t – we’ll have the answer for why*) every time (*90% of the time the answer is: “buy an separate oven thermometer”!).
