Friday Feast: Chana Masala
January 9, 2009 at 1:00 am 6 comments
This is the first Friday Feast post. Basically, on a Friday after a long week at work, I anticipate needing a break. A vegan recipe is a helpful, yet quick and easy post. And reducing your meat, dairy, poultry and seafood consumption helps the planet!
So here’s the first one: Chana Masala.
Yankee Elv found this recipe on Vegweb, but modified ages ago it so it suited us better. She’s made it lots of times now, and it always works well (unless you get a dodgy can of chickpeas, so they don’t soften up properly, but that’s not her fault and besides… it still tastes good, just the texture is a little weird).
This is a totally vegan recipe.
Chana Masala
Ingredients
2 tabs olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 – 2 cloves fresh garlic, minced
1 tab curry powder (we use Keen’s)
1 tab tomato paste
400g can chickpeas, drained
1/2 tsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp salt
black pepper to taste
1 tab vegan margarine
1/3 cup coconut milk (approximately – it’s 3 tabs at one point, and 5 tabs later)
Method
1. Heat oil in a frying pan over a medium-high heat.
2. Fry onions until slightly brown.
3. Reduce the heat to medium and add garlic, curry powder and tomato paste. Combine and simmer for about 2 mins.
4. Add chickpeas, 3 tabs of the coconut milk, lemon juice, salt and pepper to the pan. Simmer for 5 -6 mins, stirring occasionally.
5. Add margarine and stir to melt and combine.
6. Add the other 5 tabs of coconut milk and stir to combine. (Add more or less coconut milk than this depending upon how creamy you would like the dish to be).
7. Simmer for about 5 more mins, or until the chickpeas are softened.
8. Serve with basmati rice (and enjoy the yummy goodness, according to Yankee Elv).
FYI: tabs means tablespoons. tsps means teaspoons.
Entry filed under: Friday Feast. Tags: beans, curry, recipe.
1.
Yankee Elv | January 10, 2009 at 11:17 am
Wasn’t this totally YUM last night? I wish there were leftovers. I want some for lunch.
2.
ecolesbovego | January 10, 2009 at 1:54 pm
You got the texture just right, and it was a good can of chickpeas too. Very nice.
3.
Friday Feast: Creamy Red Curry « Eco Lesbo Vego | February 6, 2009 at 5:26 pm
[...] 6, 2009 One day Yankee Elv decided that the Chana Masala she was making just wasn’t going to cut it for her. She wanted another curry as well. So I [...]
4.
Working Vegan « Eco Lesbo Vego | May 11, 2010 at 1:36 am
[...] a bring-a-plate lunch (like a pot luck), it was ok. I made sure I brought something I could eat (chana masala, which everyone loved so much I had to give the recipe to half the team). The other folks were [...]
5.
Lara S. | June 14, 2010 at 1:20 pm
Hi! This recipe sounds great, but I live in Argentina where coconut milk is expensive and not “green” at all, so… could this be made without the coconut milk? Can it be replaced with almond milk, for example? Also, I don’t like the taste of vegan margarine (I use it for cakes so the taste is not noticeable), can I replace it with vegetable oil?
I’m just discovering your blog thanks to the comment you left at “Plasticfreeveg”, which I know because I’m a Fakeplasticfish reader
I like the blog a lot, I’m a vegetarian and you’re giving me courage to start considering going vegan.
6.
Aussie Elv | June 14, 2010 at 6:22 pm
Hi Lara, thanks for the comment! I’m so pleased you’re enjoying my blog.
Going vegan is not hard when it comes to home-cooking, but can be more challenging when you eat out. Most places provide some vegan things though, and I’m definitely not beating myself up if I accidentally eat something non-vegan. It’s a bit late once you’ve already taken a bite, so why stress, right? I just tell myself to be more careful next time.
Regarding the vegan margarine: I don’t taste it in this dish as the curry flavour covers it. If you wanted to use oil instead though, I think it would work fine. You might have to experiement as to how much. I tried replacing vegan margarine with oil in my chocolate slice at a ratio of 1:1 and it gave a slightly oilier result, but since this is not a baked item, then it might be fine to use that ratio. I’ve accidentally put too much oil in this before, and it still tasted good anyway, just… oilier! So I don’t think you can go wrong there.
As far as coconut milk goes, the purpose of it is to provide a creamy consistency, to make the curry flavour a bit milder and to add a mild coconut flavour. I think you could achieve the first two with a non-dairy milk, probably one of the creamier ones like soy or a nut milk (like almond). I think something like rice or oat milk wouldn’t be creamy enough. If you can find it, non-dairy evaporated milk would be the best, but the other non-dairy milks I mentioned should work too.
If you want the coconut flavour, you could try coconut essence, if it is available to you. I know some non-vegans who are watching their weight use low fat evaporated milk and coconut essence to replace coconut milk and it works fine.
If you end up making it, let me know how it goes with the substitutions! I hope it’s great.