People think food bloggers are constantly whipping up exotic meals in 10 minutes for dinner. Not true. Well, not in my case anyway. I’m fairly predictable, particularly midweek when I usually make some sort of a pasta dinner, a chicken salad, something with steak and a curry.

Now, I do try not to repeat the exact same dinner in the same month. And as I love a good curry I am always looking for a new recipe. In fact I’m surprised that I haven’t posted a new recipe for one in a few years. This Aubergine Chickpea and Tomato Curry is a new favourite. I make extra to bring some to work for lunch and freeze the rest.

It might help at least to stop annoying himself for ideas on what to cook for dinner!

Useful tips & links:

• Many recipes for aubergine curry mention roasting the aubergine pieces and adding them to the curry in the end so that they are a little crispy. To be honest, once they are in the sauce they lose their crispiness. So I save myself some washing up and cook them in the one pot.
• It’s no secret that I love the combination of aubergine, or eggplant, and tomatoes. I have several recipes pairing them already, such as this Zaalouk or Moroccan Aubergine and Tomato Salad or this Pasta Alla Norma.
• I love hot spicy food but not everyone likes it as much as I do. To balance this I just split a whole chilli and cook it in the curry. That way there is the flavour of the chilli but less heat. If you want it hotter, chop up the chilli and add it when adding the garlic and ginger.
• You can always top with some natural yoghurt to cool the curry when serving.
• If you have good ripe tomatoes you can use these instead of tinned. I have mentioned adding sugar to the tinned variety. The reason for this is that tinned tomatoes are often acidic and the sugar cuts through this. It may seem strange then to add tamarind or lime juice, but these are to add a sour note which makes a huge difference to the curry.
• This curry is both vegetarian and vegan.
• For more ideas have a look this gorgeous recipe for Aubergine Bhaji from Nicola at The Wonky Spatula.

 

Aubergine Chickpea and Tomato Curry

Serves 4-6

 

Ingredients:

• Olive Oil
• 2 aubergines, diced to approx. 1.5cm cubes
• Salt and pepper
• 1 onion, finely sliced
• 2 cloves of garlic
• A 5cm piece of ginger
• 2 teaspoons of ground cumin
• 2 teaspoons of ground coriander
• 1 teaspoon of turmeric
• ½ a teaspoon of ground cardamom (optional)
• 1 x 400g tin of chickpeas, drained
• 600g of chopped tomatoes or passata
• 400ml of coconut milk
• A red chilli
• 1 teaspoon of tamarind paste or a squeeze of lime juice
• 1 teaspoon of garam masala
• Sugar (optional)
• Coriander leaves to garnish

Method:

• Heat a large splash of olive oil in a large wide pan over a medium heat. Fry the diced aubergines until golden all over and season with salt and pepper.
• Turn down the heat and add the sliced onion, you may need to add a little more oil here too. Gently fry until the onion has softened.
• Crush the cloves of garlic and grate the ginger. Add both of these to the pan with the cumin, coriander, turmeric and cardamom and fry for another few minutes.
• Add the drained chickpeas and stir them through the aubergines and spices.
• Pour in the tomatoes and coconut milk, mix and turn up the heat so that it comes close to boiling.
• Turn down the heat, split the chilli down the middle and add it to the pot. Cover and allow the curry to simmer for 20 – 25 minutes, stirring occasionally. If you want it to thicken a little more remove the lid for the last 5-10 minutes of cooking.
• Taste the curry and add a little sugar if the tomatoes taste acidic. Add the tamarind paste or lime juice and garam masala and stir through. Taste to make sure the curry is seasoned to your liking.
• Remove the chilli and serve with steamed rice or naan bread and garnish with fresh coriander.