![Hamburger Holstein](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/02/25/dining/hamburger/hamburger-mediumThreeByTwo440.jpg?width=1280&quality=75&auto=webp)
Sweet Potato and Chickpea Curry
Updated May 31, 2024
![Sweet Potato and Chickpea Curry](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2014/03/19/science/sweetpotatocurry/sweetpotatocurry-articleLarge.jpg?width=1280&quality=75&auto=webp)
- Total Time
- 50 minutes
- Rating
- Notes
- Read community notes
Advertisement
Ingredients
- 2medium red onions, peeled
- 1clove garlic, peeled
- 1bird's eye pepper, Thai chili or other very hot small pepper with its seeds
- 12½- to-3-inch piece of ginger, peeled and cut into chunks
- 3tablespoons canola oil
- ½teaspoon hot red pepper flakes
- ½teaspoon ground ginger
- 1teaspoon ground coriander
- 1teaspoon ground cumin
- 1½teaspoons ground turmeric
- 3cardamom pods, lightly crushed
- Salt
- 2pounds (about 3 medium) orange-fleshed sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into ½- to-1-inch cubes
- 1¾cups coconut milk
- 1tablespoon tamarind paste
- 2¼cups hot chicken or vegetable broth
- 4 to 5cups (about 4 15½-ounce cans, drained) canned or cooked chickpeas (garbanzo beans)
- 2tablespoons chopped cilantro leaves
- Cooked white rice for serving (optional)
- Steamed broccolini for serving (optional)
Preparation
- Step 1
In a food processor, combine onions, garlic, hot pepper and ginger. Pulse until finely chopped. Place oil in a large saute pan over medium-low heat. Add chopped onion mixture and sauté until softened, about 5 minutes.
- Step 2
Add hot pepper flakes, ground ginger, ground coriander, cumin, turmeric, cardamom pods and ½ teaspoon salt. Stir to mix. Add sweet potatoes and stir until well covered in spices. Stir in the coconut milk.
- Step 3
Dissolve tamarind paste in hot broth and add to pan. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer, partially covered, until sweet potatoes are just tender, about 25 minutes. (Taste potatoes to be sure they are cooked all the way through, and allow additional cooking time if necessary.)
- Step 4
Add chickpeas and simmer until heated through, about 5 minutes. Adjust salt to taste. Transfer to a warmed bowl and sprinkle with chopped cilantro. Serve, if desired, with white rice and broccolini.
Private Notes
Cooking Notes
I used 4 c home-cooked chickpeas and used the cooking liquid instead of vegetable broth. I also substituted lime juice for the tamarind, with no added sugar. Since I didn't have to dissolve tamarind in the stock, I used only about 1 c of broth plus one can of coconut milk to cook the sweet potatoes. Use additional broth to adjust consistency to taste: I wanted a fairly thick, creamy sauce.
A good "clean-out-the-fridge" recipe. I added quartered mushrooms, spinach and cherry tomatoes.
If you're close to 2lbs on sweet potatoes it's okay. You're gonna need more than 2 1/4 cups of broth because the potatoes are a lot. Also you don't need 4 cans of chickpeas, 2 are enough. The tamarind doesn't really come thru but this is delicious. You could serve it on rice but you don't really need to.
Also the potatoes take a lot longer than 25 minutes. It's a good meal to prepare for the next day.
The potatoes took longer than 25 minutes but don't overcook them or they'll get mushy. Agree two cans of chickpeas would be fine. Really delicious though!
Didn't have tamarind. Nigella Lawson suggests equal amounts of lime juice and light brown sugar as a substitute. I followed the recipe as written and in my opinion it cannot be improved
Loved this recipe....did a little less than 2 pounds of potatoes, only two cups of chickpeas, added three big handfuls of cut-up spinach for color, only 2 cups of broth so it was thick....served over rice....plates were licked clean by all! Super yummy!
tamarind paste sub = lime juice + brown sugar serve suggestion: w/ herbed millet + mushroom ragout as in OG article
Also used butternut squash instead of sweet potato. To control the heat given the variability in hot peppers, don't add the pepper to the food processor with the onions. Chop the pepper finely and add it gradually to the pan when you sauté the onion mixture to obtain the right amount of heat for you.
This stew was delicious! A few adjustments: I also only used 2 cans chickpeas, only one cup of broth and one can coconut milk. Not having a Thai chile, I used about a half of a jalapeño without seeds. I kept the rest of the spices the same. I subbed a tablespoon of pomegranate molasses for the tamarind. I did not use a food processor, I hand-grated fresh ginger and turmeric and added more garlic, as well. Added some Swiss chard I had in the freezer at the end, squeezing out excess liquid first.
Excellent. I also modified it slightly. I cooked it in a large pan, which ended up being very full when I put all the liquid in. So I cooked it uncovered until the potatoes were done, which made the liquid incredibly thick, creamy and delicious.
Cauliflower rice is a great addition! Great recipe.
Four cans of chickpeas seems like an awful lot of chickpeas for 6-8 servings. There are only two of us, so I used just one can, and two large sweet potatoes but stupidly did not reduce the amount of other ingredients. I ended up with a curry that is too liquidy, and WAY too spicy for my taste. But I will try it again and divide the ingredients more exactly.
This is delicious. I would rate it as "warm" rather than "hot" on my personal spiciness scale. I made it as written, and while it does sound like a lot of chickpeas, in the end it seems right. The amount of liquid is correct to yield sauce rather than soup. The timing to cook the sweet potatoes, assuming you have cut them into approximately 1 inch cubes, is correct. I like the taste of tamarind; next time I will use 2 tablespoons to get more of its fruity-sour flavor.
Doubled up on some of the dry spices and let then bloom. Added a massive bunch of spinach towards the end. Easy, tasty and - as Nigella writes - a very comforting dish for a cold Swedish evening!
Really good and adaptable recipe. I added too much coconut milk so compensated by adding half the amount of broth and it worked out fine, although a bit rich. The tamarind is an excellent addition but as another reviewer said, lime juice would make an approximate substitution.
Delicious recipe. One modification: based on community advice from another recipe, I roasted the cubed sweet potatoes while the other items cooked on the stove. Shortened cooking time considerably.
Definitely don’t need all the chickpeas. 2 cans was sufficient. But this was the first curry I’ve ever made that actually turned out well (semi beginner, very white cook here). Really good!
Made this exactly as written minus the tamarind paste sub with lime and sugar. I think next time I would go with getting tamarind paste because although this was fine it was lacking a wow factor for me, which is crazy considering the reviews! Maybe I was expecting more of a curry flavor - next time may add a bit of curry powder or paste to fill in some missing gap that I can't quite put my finger on.
I didn’t have chick peas so I used 2 cans of black beans instead and it worked well. Black beans and sweet potatoes go well together.
Halved the recipe. Used lime zest instead of tamarind. A couple of other minor substitutions. Really good! Everyone enjoyed.
This is pretty good. I'm not over the moon about it, but it wasn't too bad. I'll probably make it from time to time.
Added chopped baby spinach and doubled the tamarind -- it was delicious! I love chickpeas and thought the amount was appropriate for a vegetarian main
3 cardamom pods = 1/2 tsp ground cardamom
This is mind-blowingly good. Best vegan meal I ever made. I left out the tamarind paste cause I couldn’t find it in the grocery store and used 2 cups of dry chick peas with extra veg broth in my pressure cooker. Fabulous!
For three people I used I can of beans, I sweat potato and about 1/3 of a butternut squash. I also added a little red pepper and reduced the amount of coconut milk and vegetable stock - a cup of each.
Outstanding. I did the brown sugar/lime for the tamarind. 1 can coconut milk, 2 cups homemade broth. 3 medium sweet potatoes, 2 cans chickpeas. No peppers, but I doubled the dried hot chili flakes. Absolutely delicious!
As others wrote, very adaptable recipe. With no time to grocery shop after work, I substituted black eyed peas plus a handful of roasted cashews (ground in the blender) for the chickpeas and two jalapeno peppers (minus seeds) for the small hot pepper. Reduced broth to 2 cups and simmered for an hour or or so. Served over rice with a little cilantro. Great meal- a thick, rich sauce with complex flavors and the comforting warmth of sweet potatoes. Yum.
This was quite good. Used 2 sweet potatoes, 2 cans chickpeas, I can coconut milk, I c veg broth with tamarind paste dissolved in it and found the consistency to be just right. I've made a lot of different chickpea/cocoonut curries lately but this was the only time tamarind paste was part of it and I definitely noticed the difference in flavor notes and welcome the variety.
Decent base recipe, but needed some exciting. I went heavy on the garlic and tamarind, and doubled some of the spices. Even then it needed a good squeeze of lemon to get things going at the end. Ended up making this in an instant pot by browning the masala paste, adding spices then just dumping the rest in. Ten minutes on high made the potato fall into the sauce which I actually quite enjoyed. Would definitely benefit from some greens to add another flavour and texture.
What did I do wrong? This whole dish came out bitter. The only ingredient I left out was the tamarind, which I did not have.
Advertisement