This Easy Vegan Chickpea Curry is oil-free and SO quick! Made in 1 pan with chickpeas, zucchini and bell pepper is so creamy and ready in about 30 minutes. Makes for a fast and easy dinner! Made with a homemade curry spice blend. It is so delicious and healthy!
VEGAN CHICKPEA CURRY
I love curries of all kinds and I especially love when they don’t take forever to be on my plate. I am all about fast and easy meals. But it’s never about sacrificing flavor. This is a vegan curry recipe that I created awhile back that stemmed from my Homemade Curry Powder. So many people make that curry blend mostly and absolutely love it and have made the curry as well and loved it. I also use it in this Sweet Potato White Bean Curry Soup.
HOMEMADE YELLOW CURRY POWDER
I use my own homemade curry powder since I love the flavor so much, but a store-bought version works too. For my version, it requires just 8 ingredients: cumin, turmeric, coriander, garlic powder, cinnamon, cayenne, ginger, nutmeg, black pepper, cloves. Just make the spice blend the day before or the week of when you know you want to make this curry. That way it’s already on hand and makes dinnertime that much faster. It makes enough for 8 curries!
Just look at that gorgeous yellow vegan chickpea curry. It’s important to use a creamy milk here for taste and texture purposes. Also, if you use a runny thin milk like almond, it will also dilute the color. This curry is rich and creamy and has no oil!
INGREDIENTS NEEDED
(You only need 8 main ingredients. Full details and exact measurements on the recipe card below)
- Yellow curry spice blend
- red bell pepper
- onion
- zucchini
- coconut sugar
- chickpeas
- coconut milk
- lime juice
HOW TO MAKE VEGAN CHICKPEA CURRY
Step 1: Add the onion, bell pepper and zucchini in some water until they are getting tender, add the curry spice and cook another minute to soak up the remaining juices.
Step 2: Add the milk, sugar, chickpeas and salt and cook another 10 minutes until everything, including the chickpeas, are tender.
Step 3: Add the lime juice and serve over rice or grain of choice!
MORE VEGAN CURRY RECIPES
- Vegan Instant Pot Curry
- Thai Green Sweet Potato Curry
- Curried Jamaican Stew
- Lazy Red Lentil Curry Soup
- Vegan Cauliflower Curry Soup
- Sweet Potato, Chickpea and Spinach Coconut Curry
- Easy 1 Pot Creamy Curry Rice Soup
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Vegan Chickpea Curry (Oil-free!)
Ingredients
- 1 red bell pepper, diced
- 1/2 cup (80g) finely diced onion
- 1 medium zucchini, sliced
- 1 tablespoon Homemade Curry Spice Blend or store-bought yellow curry powder
- One 15 oz can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
- 1 1/4 cups (300g) canned "lite" coconut milk (I recommend the Thai Kitchen brand for best results. Thin milks like rice or almond are not recommended or the curry will be more bland & runny
- 1 tablespoon (10g) coconut sugar
- 3/4 teaspoon fine salt
- 1 tablespoon (15g) fresh lime juice
- optional for serving: rice or grain of choice
- I use this scale.
Instructions
- Make the homemade curry spice blend, it's the best! Or use store-bought.
- Add the bell pepper, onion and zucchini to a large pan with 1/2 cup water and a sprinkle of salt over medium heat. Cover and cook for 8 minutes so that they begin to tenderize well. All the water should be evaporated by the 8 minutes, watch closely so the veggies don't stick to the bottom.
- Add the curry spice blend and stir it around and cook for about a minute.
- Next, add the milk, sugar, chickpeas and salt. Stir well and bring back to a boil, once boiling, immediately turn to simmer and cover and cook for 10 minutes or until the chickpeas and remaining veggies are at desired tenderness and the sauce has thickened some. You don't want the sauce too cooked down or you won't be able to enjoy all that yummy sauce over your rice. Stir in the lime juice. Taste and add anymore salt/sugar if needed. Eat as is or serve over rice or grain of choice. Be careful about adding too much rice or it will soak up all that delicious sauce, which you don't want.
Nutrition
This recipe contains coconut milk which is very high in fat. It is possible to substitute the coconut milk with oat milk with a teaspoon of coconut essence. That will make this recipe heart and cholesterol friendly
If you use oat milk, it will be extremely watery and lack flavor and richness, so if you are prepared for that.
Can I leave the zucchini out? I don’t like the taste of it so would I be able to do that?
Yes, but you will need to add another veggie to make up for the lack of volume, otherwise, it will just be too much liquid. I’d suggest carrots.
Another fantastic recipe success from Vegan8.com. I made this with almond milk and omitted the sugar. Added some fresh cilantro & chopped cashews and it was beyond amazing!! I’ve tried about 6 of your recipes and every one is a huge success! Even for my picky daughter!! I’m so hooked! Keep them coming!
Woohoo, so happy to hear how much you are loving my recipes, thank you Staci!
Just discovered your blog–had been looking for a zucchini curry recipe. This was one of the best curries I’ve ever had/made. I made the fresh curry powder and because I use a co-op, my spices are fresh. I love the curry taste…it’s got zing ( I actually prefer more) but my girlfriend/guinea pig just likes a little bit of heat and it was perfect for her. I just added a bit more cayenne. It did come together as quickly as you said and I managed to save a little for lunch tomorrow. This is a keeper. I do whole grain fat-free plant-based cooking…looks like I’m going to be visiting your blog regularly. Thanks!
I just made this for the second time (my spice mix was already finished and stored). This is one of my favorite dishes. As a plant based eater, I pretty much know all the best rules for maintaining a healthy lifestyle. This dish has it all with the beans added to the vegetables, combining with either quinoa, brown rice or some other whole grain. While I rarely use coconut milk, this dish is best with it rather than some other nondairy milk. I added some mushrooms or additional nutrition. So easy to add other veggies if you have them and need to use them up. This is suitable for company who are non-vegan. Thank you.
Thank you so much for this review! I’m so glad you enjoy it and make it often!
I love this recipe! My family loves it too and it looks so beautiful! I have been making it about once a week! Thank you!!
Yay! That’s so wonderful to hear! Thank you Karey!
OH…MY…WORD…made this for dinner tonight. Sooo good!! The sauce is just like you would get in an Indian restaurant. And the best part?? My hubby…non-vegan loves it!! Woohoo! Thank you!
Yippee!! Thank you for making it so quickly! Your feedback made my day, thank you Sydney!
Hi, Brandi! I saw that you had added (at least partly on my suggestion) a link at the top of some of your blog pages that said “Jump to Recipe.” This is SOOOOO appreciated – Once I’ve read the page, I want to be able to come back to it and not have to scroll endlessly to get to the recipe when I’m in the kitchen and ready to cook. Wondering if you could add that to every page? Or at least the new ones!
Hi Laurie! Yes, I’ll get that added today! Totally forgot!
Ok, so you are not going to believe this. I tried a bite of yellow curry with lentils last week, just one bite, and I didn’t think it was awful. I’m not going to say I loved it, but I did leave thinking, hmmmm I could eat more. HAHA! And then I see this, and I’m thinking, ok, I just may try it at some point. So that my friend is a huge win because you know how I feel about curry! I love all the color you have in here too.
Hahaha, you are hilarious! Girl, you are so missing out with curry, it’s so dang delicious and full of flavor!! You gotta try my green curry or 1 pan red curry from my book, so gooooood!
Will almond milk work if I add some coconut extract? Also, will sucanat work instead of coconut sugar? I don’t know if coconut sugar has that “coconut flavor”.
Hi Janet! I actually advise against almond milk in the post because it’s not nearly as creamy and the sauce don’t thicken up well or be as rich. It’s not about coconut flavor, since the lite coconut milk leaves no coconut taste, but rather it’s for creamy texture. You can always use it if you like, just know the result will be less rich and much more watery.
Oh and yes, sucanat is fine!
Thank you Brandi, this is a superb recipe and it’s a go to when you don’t feel like cooking — it comes together in a snap.
Thank you so much Lavender! So glad you love this recipe and thank you for the suggestion of creating a separate post for this curry, such a great idea!