A flavorful and easy recipe for vegan Thai Curried Chickpeas with an easy vegan Thai red curry paste.
If you love chickpeas in creamy, spicy, curried sauces, like this chickpea curry, you will fall in love with these curried Thai chickpeas.
Most of the meal prep I do involves making flavorful sauces, pastes and masalas and freezing them, so I can quickly put together a meal for a weeknight. And having Thai curry pastes in the freezer ensures that I always have a resource on hand to feed my family a delicious, nutritious dinner (like this vegan Massaman Curry), no matter how late it is or how tired I am.
These vegan Thai Curried Chickpeas are perfect for hurried lunches and dinners. All they need is a side of rice and you have the most delicious meal on hand.
I have more recently shared with you my recipes for vegan Thai green curry paste and Thai yellow curry paste. My vegan Thai red curry paste can also be found on my DIY spice mixes page.
It's best to make your own curry pastes because most store bought versions contain fish sauce (although vegan versions are available --read labels carefully).
Thai red curry paste does contain some ingredients that you likely don't stock in your pantry on a regular basis, like galangal and lemongrass, but it's easy to make a red curry paste that's excellent without these ingredients. Once you make a batch you will have enough for 3-4 uses.
Expert tips
- The red curry paste needs a handful of aromatic ingredients, including onions, galangal and lemongrass, as well as ingredients that add umami (tamari or soy sauce if you are not gluten-free), spice (red chili peppers and Sriracha sauce) and sweetness (sugar). It's fine to use flavor substitutes like ginger and lime, but don't skip these too or you risk losing the perfect balance of flavors that makes this red curry paste so amazing.
- Once you've got your curry paste ready, you can either refrigerate it for a week or so, or better, freeze it. Each recipe of curry paste is good for 3-4 uses.
- The curried chickpeas require two heaping tablespoons of the curry paste, but go with your tastebuds. The curry paste is quite hot, and although it all mellows down nicely in the curry with the lime, sugar and coconut milk, you want to start out by adding a tablespoon, taste, then add more if you want it.
- To make the curry, you need to chop onions, tomatoes and garlic, and you're pretty much done. Basil is the herb of choice here, but I know it isn't always easy to find fresh basil in summer. When I make this in winter, and I can't think of a better meal for the cold weather, I just use dry basil which works nicely.
Serving suggestions
- With basmati rice.
- With a fresh side salad, like kachumber or vegan Caesar salad.
More delicious chickpea recipes
Vegan Thai Curried Chickpeas
Ingredients
- 1 teaspoon avocado oil or any neutral oil (If making this oil-free, use 1 tablespoon of the coconut milk to saute the onions)
- 1 medium onion (finely chopped)
- 4-5 cloves garlic (minced or crushed into a paste)
- 2 heaping tbsp Thai red curry paste (recipe follows, use more or less according to your preference)
- 2 teaspoon tamari (soy sauce is fine too, but if you use it your dish won't be gluten-free)
- 2 tomatoes (finely diced)
- 3 cups chickpeas (cooked or canned)
- Juice of half a lime
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 10 basil leaves (torn, or 1 teaspoon dry basil)
- ¼ cup coconut milk
Instructions
- Heat the oil in a skillet and add the onions. Saute until golden spots appear.
- Add the garlic and 1 tablespoon of the red curry paste. Stir until the paste has dissolved into the oil.
- Add the chickpeas, tamari, sugar, lime juice and tomatoes. If using dry basil, add it at this time. If the sauce is dry, add half to one cup of water.
- When the curry comes to a boil, turn down the heat and simmer another two-three minutes. Add the coconut milk and warm through without bringing to a boil.
- Add the remaining 1 tablespoon of red curry paste and stir in.
- Check if you need salt. If using fresh basil leaves, add now and turn off the heat.
Vegan Thai Red Curry Paste
Ingredients
- ½ onion (diced)
- 3 red chili peppers
- 1-inch piece galangal , sliced thinly (use ginger as a substitute)
- 1 stalk lemongrass (trim the top and the hard outer leaves and slice finely. If you can't use this, use the zest of two limes instead)
- 1 tablespoon lime juice
- 1 tablespoon Sriracha sauce
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 tablespoon ground coriander
- 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 2 tablespoon tamari (or soy sauce)
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- ¼ cup avocado oil or any neutral oil
Instructions
- Put all the ingredients in the grinder but add just enough oil to keep the blades moving. Add the rest of the oil if needed, to make a fairly smooth paste.
Maria
Hi Vaishali,
I came across your blog when searching for chickpea curry recipes. I made your "Easy Chana Masala" last night - for tonight's dinner. My husband commented "smells good" from the living room and it did smell wonderful!
Having recently become vegan, I'm always looking for simple and tasty recipes. I signed up to your blog and look forward to receiving and trying your recipes 🙂
To make the above coconut rice, do you wash the rice before toasting it?
Thank you!
Vaishali
Hey Maria, no need to soak the rice before toasting. Thanks for the feedback on the easy chana masala. So glad you liked it!
Anonymous
Your recipes are so beautiful and I can tell they taste delicious; being a vegan with a pakistani father and white mother, your recipes speak to me. I love thai food there's so many yummy flavors; I will save this blog...I have many of your recipes on my mental to-do list lol. Thanks!
Vaishali
Anon, thanks for your lovely comment. I hope you will try some of the recipes! And let me know how they turn out. 🙂
Raven
Looks absolutely delicious! Can't wait to compare to my chickpea recipe:
NalaShanti
I am mad about chickpeas and here I find I am not the only one! This is a great dish. I didn't have a fresh tomato on hand and was too lazy to go out so I used stewed canned tomatoes. They worked out great to add moisture to the dish. I also was out of coconut oil so I added a handful of grated coconut with the rice before the liquid was added. It toasted up nicely and was an additional layer of flavor. Yum.
Rossana
Made this last night.......YUMMMMMM!!!! Definitely in our top 10!!!! Thank you for sharing your delicious recipes.
Penny
I just found your wonderful blog through a link a friend posted on Facebook. I am now feeling SO hungry! I love chickpeas and cook a large batch to keep in the fridge, but am always looking for new ways to use them. This will be the next recipe I try! Thank you!
What a sweet pooch! Very like our old dog, Charlie...
I'm now off to add you to my blogroll.
Daisy
Hi Vaishali,
thank you so much for your comment! 🙂 I'm really happy about it.
This weekend I will try the Creamy Baked Pasta in a Minty tofu Sauce :). I don't remember the last time I had pasta, some couple of months ago maybe, so when I saw the pictures in your post I said to myself: "That's it! This weekend I'll give it a try". It's so much fun trying new recipes!
I'm totally amazed by the size of the vegan/vegetarian community here and how creative and supporting you guys are! 🙂
Keep up the fantastic work!
PS - I'm having Indian Vegetarian Cooking classes, free (!!) given by a group of Indian people that work in Microsoft (there is big Indian community working for Microsoft, here in Seattle), and last week they taught us how to make Aloo Parathas 🙂 and I just came across with your recipe!
Gosh, I want to go home and cook!
Daisy
Hi Vaishali,
I found out your blog, a couple of months ago, when I was searching for roasted potatoes :). I tried your recipe and they were delicious! Since then I've been following you recipes and in the beginning of this week I tried this recipe. I was curious because of the flavors. I love basil, but in my home country (Portugal) we don't we it often, but chickpeas we do. I never had rice cooked in coconut milk and I said to myself "this sounds so exotic and yummy!". It was, definitely! 🙂 This is an excellent meal! Thank you so much for sharing!
Susana.
PS - Your dogs are adorable!
Susan
I'd love some of that, especially on this rainy, chilly day.
Opie knows comfort when he feels it. : } That's one happy fellow.
G3
Vaishali!! I saw this pic .. and wanted to eat it right off my screen. So I rushed home and cooked it for dinner .. and oh My God!! Was sooo yumm!!! I loved the coconut flavor in the rice .. and the curry was to die for!! I think this was one of the very few recipes which I have tried which looked EXACTLY like the pic you posted, color consistency .. everything!
jodye
This dish looks and sounds amazing! Mmm coconut milk always gets me. and P.S. your dog is the most adorable animal I've ever seen!
Indhu
yummy curry and rice... and I have only had the south indian version of coconut rice that is a must when making other mixed rice like puliyodharai, lemon rice, etc... for festivals and stuff - your version must be delicious 🙂
and I had the same doubt that Mahimaa had about coconuts and cholesterol - thanks for clarifying 🙂