Today it’s just gonna be a very quick post. I’ve been extremely busy and had absolutely no time to cook the last couple of days – the horrors! So when I got the chance yesterday I knew it’s got to be some kind of comfort food that leaves me all warm and satisfied. To me comfort food means either pasta or chickpea curry. I recently came across this recipe from one of my favs, Minimalist Baker. Christian and I had it for a late dinner and even though it’s a bit time consuming it’s just so so incredibly good. The roasted red pepper sauce is unbelievably creamy, thick and aromatic. It makes for a perfect pasta bowl indeed!
So when I knew I would have time to cook something nice for myself I actually deliberated for a second if I should just make the pasta again. But then it came to me: why not make a curry with the roasted red pepper? Even the thought of having them again gave me great comfort so this was absolutely the right choice. And it really is the bomb! It’s creamy, it’s rich and the smoked paprika brings the right kind of subtle heat. Chickpeas and spinach are two of my favourite curry companions and work nicely with the roasted bell pepper. Each of the ingredients has it’s own room to shine. I served it with some fragrant jasmine rice.
Roasted Red Pepper, Chickpea and Spinach Curry
400 g red bell peppers (about 3 pieces)
3 tablespoon olive oil
1 red onion, diced
3 cloves of garlic, diced
1 pinch of sea salt and pepper
400 ml coconut milk
4 tablespoon nutritional yeast
2,5 tablespoon cornstarch
1 pinch of smoked paprika
300 g chickpeas
250 g leaf spinach
200 g cocktail tomatoes
1. Bake the red bell peppers at 220°C for about 30 minutes until charred. Remove skin, seeds and stems, then set aside.
2. While the red bell pepper is roasting, heat up a pan and sautee the onion and garlic in the olive oil until golden brown and season generously with salt and pepper, then set aside.
3. In a blender mix peppers, onion and garlic, coconut milk, nutritional yeast, cornstarch and smoked paprika until well combined. If needed season some more with salt and pepper.
4. Transfer to a skillet, add chickpeas, spinach and halfed tomatoes and bake in the oven at 200°C for about 30 minutes. Serve with rice or freshly baked naan.
Note: Many years after posting this recipe I still get messages concerning the missing ‘curry’ spice. Please be aware, that the spice ‘curry’ simply does not exist – it is an invention of the colonizers of India (England) and it refers to a blend of spices. A curry, however, is a dish of vegetables (or meat) cooked in a rich sauce. This is what this recipe is for. A curry. A dish. Many people seem to be extremely angry about this missing ingredient. If you’re one of them, please just go ahead and add the spice-blend ‘curry’. Or just add something else. This is a recipe that can be shaped and mended to your own taste, and I encourage you to do so. However, I would ask you to try and move a step towards decolonization – even if this just means to stop thinking cheap curry blend in the supermarket is Indian culture. Thank you!
We picked a bunch of cherry tomatoes from our CSA, so now I am rearranging my menu and grabbing a few things to make this dish. Mmmm…
Great to hear! Enjoy your meal! 😀
That sounds amazing and look forward to making it. The coconut milk you use is that from the can or you regular coconut milk from carton? Thank you
Hi Chantal, thank you very much! I used creamy canned coconut milk. Hope you’ll like it.
Hi! If I don’t have a skillet for the last step, what do you recommend?
Hi Gina, feel free to use any ovenproof dish, for example a casserole or baking dish. Best, Sonja
Where is the curry in this recipe?
Learn something new every day – curry is a style of cooking! – very confusing. This recipe looks delicious and I’m going to make it… with curry powder because that flavor is what drew me to this recipe to begin with
Hi Lisa,
I just wanted to answer you exactly that 😉 Oxfords defnition is this one: A dish of meat, vegetables, etc., cooked in an Indian-style sauce of strong spices.
Of course you can add any spice you like, I strongly recommend you to try it first though. The roasted bell pepper has A LOT of flavour and the smoked paprika brings the right kind of heat to the table. In order to taste those flavours properly, I skipped other spices.
Enjoy your meal in any case!
Made this for dinner last night. Used the One Green Planet converted measures. Wow! That sauce is so lush. Been vegan for a year now, this is my favorite recipe so far. Seems the sauce could be quite versatile, use for pasta, soup, will be experimenting with it. Thanks so much!
Absolutely delicious! I used jarred roasted red peppers and the dish was divine!
Could you please let me know why do we add 4 tbsp of yeast in this curry . can this be skipped ?
Hi Bela, nutritional yeast brings a lot of rich flavour to the dish and is also very healthy 😉 Nevertheless: sure, just leave it out and season to your taste!
I am making this right now but subbed the skillet section with my crockpot on low and also used cabbage in place of spinach. It already smells amazing! Thanks for the recipe!
Oh my gosh this dish is so good! My husband isn’t fond of curry, so I left that out. Didn’t have spinach, so I subbed a bunch of swiss chard from the garden, and it is amazing. Make sure you have plenty of naan bread for sopp’in the gravy. YUM!!