Cauliflower & Chickpea Butter Curry
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 4 servings 1x
- Category: Indian
- Cuisine: Dinner
- Diet: Vegetarian
Description
Every week I make at least one vegetarian or vegan dish. Partly because my son and I have high cholesterol and its one day to ease up on cholesterol intake from meat. And partly to be a little more environmentally in tune. But I don’t want to cook the same thing every week (aka falafels with Greek salad ~ the favorite of my husband and son).
I find that swapping out the meat for cauliflower or chickpeas (or both!) in dishes that are strong in flavor, you don’t even notice that you’ve skipped the meat. Indian and Korean are definitely two cuisines that are easy to swap in cauliflower and chickpeas for the meat. And without fail, they worked perfectly in this butter curry.
I like to make a strong butter curry. Most people only put in a teaspoon or two of red curry paste, but it leaves the sauce so weak. If it’s just my husband and I, I’ll put in 2 tablespoons, but that’s a bit too spicy for my son. So when he’s eating with us (which is always now #pandemic), I only put in 1 tablespoon, which is strong enough to give the sauce a mild bite but still weak enough to not leave our mouths on fire!
This is a great Meatless Monday dish, as it cooks in 20 minutes. The cauliflower is roasted dry (meaning no olive oil) in the oven for twenty minutes. While it is roasting, you can make the curry sauce and heat the chick peas through. So by the time the cauliflower is done, all you have to do is scoop the cauliflower into the sauce, stir, and you’re done! If you’re making this with basmati rice, the rice usually takes 30 minutes, so you can just let the sauce simmer on low until the rice is ready.
This is such an easy vegetarian dish to make for your next Meatless Monday. And trust me, you will not miss the meat!
Enjoy!
Ingredients
1 head of cauliflower, cut into bite size pieces
1 – 15.5 oz can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
2 TB coconut oil
14 oz coconut milk
1 cup Greek yogurt (I use 0% fat)
6 oz tomato paste
1 small onion, chopped
6 garlic cloves, minced
1” ginger, minced
1 TB red curry paste
2 TB garam masala
½ TB paprika
1 tsp turmeric
½ tsp cayenne
2 TB butter
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basmati rice, to serve
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 450°
Spread the cauliflower on to a baking sheet. Bake 20 minutes, stirring halfway through.
Meanwhile, in a large saucepan, melt the coconut oil over medium heat. Add the onion and sauté, stirring often, until just starting to soften ~ about 5 minutes. Add in the ginger and garlic and cook until fragrant ~ about 1 minute. Add in the red curry paste, tomato paste, and all of the spices. Stir to mix well with the onions and let roast for a minute.
Add in the coconut milk and stir until smooth. Add the chickpeas, stirring to fully coat. Bring the sauce to a light simmer and then lower the heat to low. Let simmer for 10 minutes to thoroughly heat the chickpeas. Once the cauliflower is finished roasting, scoop it into the pan and stir to coat. Add in the butter and stir until it is fully melted.
Serve over basmati rice or with naan. Enjoy!
Keywords: Meatless Mondays, Cauliflower Butter Curry, Meatless Butter Curry, Chickpea Butter Curry, Garbanzo Bean Butter Curry, Vegetarian Butter Curry
Looks amazing 🤩 is the yogurt necessary or I can leave it out?
Thank you! It’s super delicious. The yogurt helps thicken it up, so I highly recommend it. If you’re trying to go vegan, there are vegan yogurts available at most stores now. The other alternative is cornstarch. I don’t normally recommend using cornstarch, but it would be an easy way to thicken this sauce and skip the yogurt. Just mix together about two teaspoons of cornstarch with half a cup of cold or room temperature coconut milk before adding that to your sauce. That should help give it the right thickness. Let me know if you try it and how it turns out!