Aubergine and Chickpea Curry

Aubergine and chickpea curry is perfect for a mid-week dinner, as it takes just 30 minutes to prepare. It’s delicious served over basmati white rice and garnished with fresh parsley.

I love making a good vegetable curry! Curries are easy to make, comforting, and always made with lots of vegetables. Everyone in our family loves curry!

This vegan aubergine/eggplant and chickpea curry is one of my all-time favorites. I’m a big fan of aubergines and chickpeas, and the best curries have to be creamy. This curry ticks all the boxes!

What makes this curry so good? The aubergine cubes are seasoned with salt and ground black pepper and then roasted in the oven until crisp and golden. They become crispy from the outside but soft from the inside.

Then, at the end of the recipe, they’re stirred in the curry, and I’m pretty sure that you will fall in love with the texture and taste of the aubergines in this dish as much as I did when I first made it.

The Ingredients

To make this curry, you will need:

• Aubergine/eggplant, olive oil, and salt.
• Canned stuff: Coconut milk, chopped tomatoes, and chickpeas.
• Onion, ginger, garlic, and green chili. The curry dream team!
• Spices: Coriander, cumin, garam masala, and turmeric.
• You will also need water, and fresh parsley leaves to garnish.

How to Roast an Aubergine?

Roasting an aubergine for this recipe is really easy. Start by washing the aubergine, and cut it up into cubes.

Scatter on a baking tray, drizzle with extra virgin olive oil, and season with salt and pepper.

Roast in the oven at 200°C (395°F) for about 20 minutes. Keep flipping the aubergines cubes every few minutes, and roast until they start to crisp up.

How to Make Aubergine and Chickpea Curry?

Now that you roasted the aubergine, peel and dice a yellow onion. Then heat olive oil in a pan or pot, and sauté the onion. Add garlic, ginger and chili and cook for a couple of more minutes.

Add the spices. Adding spices early when cooking a curry will activate the spices, and make your dish even more flavourful.

Add a can of chopped tomatoes, and your cooked chickpeas. I prefer to cook chickpeas at home from dried, I soak them overnight then cook them on the next day. I found when I soak chickpeas before cooking them, they’re easier to digest.

However, if you don’t have much time then you could just use a can of cooked chickpeas. Simply drain the chickpeas and you’re ready to go!

And now it’s time to add coconut milk. Add a can of full fat coconut milk, and stir it in with the rest of the ingredients. Let the curry simmer for 5 minutes, the sauce will slightly thicken (remember it will thicken more as it cools down later).

Stir in the roasted aubergine cubes!

Make sure that you add the roasted aubergine at the end of the cooking process, as the aubergine cubes will be crispy. And adding them to the curry earlier can make them a bit soggy.

If the aubergine cubes start absorbing some liquid from the curry, they will become softer but will still be absolutely tasty so that’s not a problem.

We usually make this curry in a big batch that will last us for at least 2 days, so we just reheat it on the next day to have for lunch or dinner.

Serve it over white basmati rice, sprinkle with chopped fresh parsley leaves and enjoy!

Also, make sure to check out my chickpea and potato curry, it’s AMAZING!

More Aubergine Recipes

If you’re looking for more aubergine recipes, check out my vegan stuffed aubergines, Persian walnut and aubergine stew fesenjan, baba ganoush, and Briam a delicious Greek vegetable bake!

This recipe first appeared on the blog on August 31, 2018. It was updated on September 12, 2019.