Vegan Cauliflower, Potato, and Chickpea Curry
This vegan cauliflower curry is hearty, filling, and comes together in just 45 minutes.
We’re ending the week off with a simple and vegan cauliflower curry! I still love this braised Indian chicken with chickpeas, but if you want a vegan vegetable curry, this dish is for you. Similarly to the chicken recipe, this dish is very weeknight friendly and makes great leftovers.
Many of you request more vegetarian recipes on the blog and I’m more than happy to oblige, because I happen to make vegetarian recipes throughout the week! They sort of outnumber the non-vegetarian ones now that I think about it.
If the title of the recipe is any indicator, this vegetarian curry just happens to be vegan as well! Oh, and gluten-free! Convenient, huh?
I’m already professed my love for gluten on this site many times (um, pasta), but I love having a recipe on hand for times when I need to serve something that is a little more dietary-restriction friendly.
Plus, labels mean nothing to me. Good food is good food. Period.
This cauliflower, potato, and chickpea curry is an adaptation from one of my favorite, relatively new-ish cookbooks, River Cottage Veg by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.
If you’re looking for vegetarian recipe inspiration, I highly encourage you to check out this cookbook! It is filled with tons (200) creative, and innovative vegetarian recipes. Main courses, desserts, appetizers, soups, etc.! Plus, it just happens to be a really beautiful book filled with gorgeously styling photographs, if that is your thing.
It is one of my most highly used cookbooks for sure.
I ended up taking several creative liberties with this recipe. Inspired by a traditional Indian cauliflower dish, aloo gobi, I decided to add potatoes to the mix. It makes it a bit heartier and filling, plus the technique I used to incorporate them requires no additional steps. Yay!
I also chose to finish the curry off with light coconut milk. It just makes the dish a bit creamier and indulgent without being overly rich or heavy. My biggest cooking tip for this recipe is to not be afraid of salt. This dish contains two of the most naturally bland (yet tasty) vegetables/starches to have ever walked this earth–plain cauliflower and potatoes. They beg to be heavily seasoned!
If the dish tastes flat, it is most likely due to the fact that you haven’t added enough salt. Don’t be afraid of the stuff!
Vegan Cauliflower, Potato, and Chickpea Curry
Ingredients
- 1 large head of cauliflower (roughly 2 lbs) trimmed
- ¾ lb Yukon gold potatoes
- kosher salt
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 3 medium onions chopped
- 4 garlic cloves minced
- 1-inch piece fresh ginger root peeled and finely grated
- 1 tablespoon ground coriander
- 1 tablespoon ground cumin
- ½ teaspoon ground cardamom
- pinch dried red pepper flakes
- 2 star anise pods optional
- 1 (28 oz) can chopped tomatoes
- 1 (15 oz) can chickpeas drained and rinsed
- 2 cups (480 mL) vegetable broth or substitute with water
- 1 tablespoon garam masala
- ¾ cup (180 mL) light or full-fat coconut milk
- large bunch of fresh cilantro chopped
- kosher salt
- freshly ground pepper
Instructions
- Cut the cauliflower into medium-sized florets. Chop the potatoes into ¾-inch chunks. Place cauliflower and potatoes in a large soup pot and fill with cold water. Season the water heavily with salt. Bring to a rolling boil over the stove. Remove from the heat and drain into a large colander. Set the colander over the pot to keep warm while you prepare the remaining ingredients.
- Heat the oil in a large, heavy pot. Add the onions, garlic, and ginger, and saute, stirring every few minutes, for about 8 to 10 minutes, or until the onions are very soft and translucent. Adjust heat if necessary.
- Add the ground coriander, cumin, cardamom, red pepper flakes, star anise, and a generous pinch of salt and pepper. Cook, stirring frequently, for 2 to 3 minutes, or until very fragrant. Add the tomatoes with their juices and drained chickpeas, and stir mixture together. Add the drained cauliflower and potatoes, and vegetable broth (or water, if using) to the pot. The liquid should almost reach the top of the vegetable mixture. Bring to a low simmer. Simmer the mixture for 10 minutes, stirring gently. until the cauliflower and potatoes are fork tender.
- Stir in the garam masala and coconut milk, simmer for an additional 10 minutes, and season to taste with salt and pepper. This dish requires a heavy hand of seasoning. Finish the soup by sprinkling and stirring in ½ to ¾ cup roughly chopped cilantro. Serve with rice and naan.
88 Comments on “Vegan Cauliflower, Potato, and Chickpea Curry”
Great recipe! I tried this out today and it came out wonderfully! A little side note, I know you were inspired by the aloo gobi recipe, and you added potatoes, bit aloo means potatoes and Gobi, flower, I think you meant to say you decided to add chic peas?
Thanks again!
Hi, I’m making this… but I can’t see at what point you add the cardamom?
Hi Hannah! Sorry – that was a typo on my part. The cardamom should be added along with the other spices in step three. I just edited and updated the recipe. Thanks for pointing that out! I hope you enjoy it.
Hi, when I got to adding the coconut milk and garam masala Stage I realised it hadn’t been used so added it then… it didn’t really seem to matter as the curry tasted amazing! Thank you – definitely be making this again ❤️
Can you please let me know roughly how many serves you would get with the quantities ? Please
Hi Karen! This recipe makes about six servings. If you look underneath the thumbnail image in the recipe box, every recipe will give you the approximate serving numbers. Thanks!
I tried this vegan curry with sweet potatoes.. It is AWESOME. But the hardness of the sweet potatoes means they should be cooked somewhat before the cauliflower. Or be in teensy morsels. I had to simmer simmer simmer and the dish lost all its color ( though not awesome flavor).
WARNING — this took a lot longer to prepare than noted, mostly because potatoes needed extra time.
Yep, I totally know what you mean. Sweet potatoes take a lot longer to cook than normal Yukon potatoes, so I would definitely recommend cooking them for long prior to adding the cauliflower if someone was to make that adaptation. Thanks for the helpful tip!
I made this, this afternoon to start my no meat eating week and absolutely loved it. The creamy soup is a perfect match for the potato and cauliflower. I know this is listed as a vegan dish but I think adding a few tiger prawns would be fantastic.
I will definitely make it again.
Try to stay vegan — the ecosystem destruction of prawns and disgusting antibiotics and toxins in them are beyond disgusting.
I made this last night and enjoyed it. I had two issues though– one was that the potatoes took far longer to cook up than the recipe indicated and the other is that there was too much liquid for our taste. Next time I’d cook the potatoes longer before adding them to the other ingredients and use about half the liquid. Flavors were great though!
agreed!
Made this but modified it for slow cooker. Blended 1 can of coconut milk with 15 oz. fire roasted tomatoes and added 3/4 cup broth, then slow cooked on low for 6 hours and it came out great!
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We loved it, especially with the addition of chopped cilantro and lemon sprinkled on top!
Thinking of making this soon since I have all of the ingredients. Since I usually just cook for myself, I would like to cut this recipe in half.
Any ideas for doing this?
Thanks for sharing this recipe. I made it last night and for a little sweet I added a few raisins. I only had regular raisins, but I think golden raisins might be good too.
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I made this tonight and it is seriously one of the most delicious things that I have ever put in my mouth! Thanks for sharing this amazing recipe.
I live in an Indian neighborhood in New York and am used to some high high heat. I tripled all of the spices in this recipe and was very generous with the salt and cilantro. I also added extra tomato — perhaps I had too much potato and cauliflower in there, but it seemed like I needed more. Turned out awesome!!! Thank you for sharing this recipe!
What a wonderful dish. Added a couple sweet potatoes. DH loves it. The best ever! Says it gets more flavourful the next day even! Making it again tonight.
So thrilled to hear that you enjoyed it! Love your addition of the sweet potatoes!
That first picture with the coconut milk — LOVE! And this recipe … definitely going to add this to my must-make list!
This curry is my absolute favorite! I could eat it every day and not get tired. I’m currently trying to get my pre-baby body back and I’m using my fitness pal to do so. I was wondering how many calories were in this meal so that I can log it.
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Made it and really liked it!! Thank you for a great recipe.