30-Minute Chickpea Curry
from Pantry

This recipe exists because canned chickpeas are one of the most useful things you can keep in a pantry and most people don't use them enough. They're already cooked. They're mild enough to take on whatever flavors you give them. They're filling and satisfying in a way that vegetarian food doesn't always manage to be. This curry is the proof.

The entire recipe is built from canned and shelf-stable ingredients, which means it's the thing you can make when the shopping hasn't happened, when it's a Thursday and the fridge is thinning out. Thirty minutes from nothing to dinner for three or four people.

The key step is the onion. Most curries taste flat because the onion was cooked quickly and added in one step. Here you're giving the onion seven minutes to properly caramelize and develop flavor before anything else goes in. That step is what separates a curry that tastes built from one that tastes thrown together.

What you need

• 2 cans (15oz each) chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• 1 can (14oz) crushed or diced tomatoes
• 1 can (14oz) coconut milk
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1-inch piece fresh ginger (or 1 tsp ground ginger)
• 2 teaspoons garam masala
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1 teaspoon turmeric
• 2 tablespoons neutral oil
• Salt and fresh cilantro or parsley to finish

How to make it

Step 1: Build the flavor base. Heat oil in a wide, heavy-bottomed pot over medium-high heat. Add diced onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until translucent and starting to brown and stick at the edges — about seven minutes. If you rush this, the curry will taste flat. The browned onion is flavor you can't get any other way.

Step 2: Aromatics and spices. Add garlic and ginger. Stir for sixty seconds — they'll become fragrant very quickly. Add garam masala, cumin, and turmeric. Stir constantly for thirty seconds, letting the spices toast in the oil and coat everything. The pot will smell extraordinary. This is called blooming spices, and it develops flavor that adding them later never achieves.

Step 3: Tomatoes in. Add the canned tomatoes and stir everything together, scraping up any fond from the bottom of the pot. Let this simmer for five minutes until slightly reduced and the tomato has cooked into the spice base.

Step 4: Chickpeas and coconut milk. Add the drained chickpeas and pour in the coconut milk. Stir to combine. Bring to a gentle simmer and cook uncovered for fifteen minutes. Stir occasionally. The sauce will reduce and thicken and the flavors will come together.

Step 5: Season and serve. Taste. Add salt. A squeeze of lemon or lime if you have it — acid is what brightens a curry that might taste slightly dull. Serve over rice, with flatbread, or with nothing but a bowl and a spoon.

What you can add

A handful of spinach stirred in at the end wilts in two minutes and adds color and nutrition without changing the dish. Diced sweet potato added with the tomatoes gives it substance and sweetness. A swirl of yogurt on top to serve adds coolness and tang. None of these are necessary — the curry is complete as written — but all of them work.

The spice question

If you don't have garam masala: cumin, coriander, a pinch of cinnamon, and a pinch of cayenne will cover most of the same ground. Curry powder (standard supermarket curry powder) works as a substitute — use the same quantity. The curry will taste different but still good.

If you don't have coconut milk: a cup of chicken or vegetable broth plus two tablespoons of heavy cream, or just broth, makes a thinner but still flavorful sauce.

More vegetarian dinners: Cheap healthy dinner ideas · Wilted greens stir-fry · What to make with what's in your fridge