Chickpea & Butternut Squash Curry Recipe

For my birthday, my daughter’s asked me what I wanted to do. One of the things I cherish most is the time we spend together, so I asked them to make me a home cooked meal with a recipe from a cookbook that my British cousin sent us for Christmas: Feed me Vegan by Lucy Watson.

The recipe I chose was the, you guessed it from the blog post title, Chickpea & Butternut Squash Curry.

Since the cookbook is in metric and some of the ingredients they couldn’t find, my resourceful girls adapted and created a fantastic version of the one in the book.

Amazing Flavors

The curry flavors are intoxicating. And the health benefits amazing too! All of the ingredients are natural and non-dairy (obvi from the title of the cookbook!). Turmeric is a fabulous anti-inflammatory, ginger reduces muscle pain, mustard seed is a great source of trace minerals, including selenium, which addresses inflammation in the body. When it comes to cooking, coconut cream is a great substitute for creamer. Of course, chickpeas contain fiber and protein and butternut squash is loaded with vitamin A and potassium.

I took Instagram story photos but forgot to download them before they expired! Here’s one of how our dish turned out and there’s a second picture, which is from the cookbook, Feed me Vegan. After the pictures, you’ll find the ingredients and recipe.

Also, when we re-created the recipe here since I’m all about simplifying what may look like a complicated process for some, I’ve put all ingredients in the order they are used AND simplified the steps to indicate when you HEAT, ADD, COOK, etc. (see below). This was important for me to make it as easy as possible for you to create a delicious dish.

You can gather your ingredients and put them in order, then easily follow the steps, moving the ingredients to another part of the countertop. This way you know exactly where you are in the process at all times.

Ingredients (in order of when they are added)

• 2 tbsp Olive Oil
• 6 cardamom pods, split or 1 tsp cardamom powder
• 8 curry leaves or 1 tsp curry powder
• 1 tsp black mustard seeds
• 1 large onion, finely chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 1-inch piece of freshly cut ginger root (peeled and grated)
• 1 tsp ground turmeric
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 4 cups vegetable broth
• 2 cups butternut squash, cut into 1-inch chunks
• 8 oz. coconut cream
• 1 can (13 oz) chickpeas – drained, rinsed and de-skinned
• 2 handfuls of fresh baby spinach
• 2 cups Brown rice (or your choice) to serve under curry mixture

Recipe

1. HEAT the oil in a saucepan over high heat.
2. ADD Cardamom, curry, and mustard seeds and stir for 30 seconds.
3. REDUCE heat and simmer to medium.
4. ADD onion and cook for 7-8 minutes, stirring frequently, until softened and beginning to brown.
5. ADD garlic and ginger and cook for 2 minutes.
6. ADD turmeric, cumin, coriander, and salt and cook for 1 minute.
7. ADD Pour in veggie stock and bring to a boil.
8. ADD Butternut squash and return to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for about 10 minutes.
9. ADD coconut cream and chickpeas, then cook for 10 minutes or until the curry thickens slightly.
10. REMOVE from heat and fold in spinach so it reduces.
11. SERVE Add rice to bowls, then spoon curry mixture over top. Then add poppadoms over top.

Take Note

A few things to note when making this dish:

• We didn’t use cardamom, curry leaves (used powder) or poppadoms and it tasted wonderful! Next time, I’ll have those on hand, however.
• We de-skinned all the chickpeas (a process!) to ease digestion (skins have been known to cause gas!).
• This dish took roughly 30-45 minutes, but yielded some leftovers! Would recommend making this on a weekend if doing it for the first time, or if you are not experiencing the week-day rush around dinnertime.
• Remember to keep it simple and gather all of your ingredients on the counter, putting them in the order listed above. Once you’ve added an ingredient, move it to another location on the counter. This all helps to minimize confusion and stay with the process.

I’d love to hear your feedback on the recipe and how the information contained in this blog post helped or not. Please comment below. Thanks so much!

Go here for more simple, delicious recipes.

Enjoy!