Chickpea and Zucchini Coconut Curry

Inspiration: Mia recipes

Back story: I have a love hate relationship with green zucchini. I had one in the fridge and just didn’t know what to do with it. This curry came up in my reels with zucchini and corn and I immediatly thought “That sounds disgusting”. I decided to give it a try because, why the heck not! Am I glad I did because this was yummy. I made a few variations to suit my preferences so here it is!

• Vegan

• Gluten Free

Equipment:

• Cutting board

• Knife

• Large skillet / pan (I used my large cast iron skillet which was the perfect size)

Ingredients:

• ¼ cup of olive oil

• 1 can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed

• 1 large green zucchini, diced

• 1 cup of frozen corn (the original recipe calls for corn off of 2 ears)

• 1 small shallot, finely chopped

• 2 cloves garlic, minced

• 1-inch piece of ginger, grated or minced

• 1.5 tbsp curry powder

• ½ tsp cayenne pepper

• 1 can coconut milk (I use full-fat because I love me some healthy fats)

• 2 tbsp tahini (the kind with just sesame seeds)

• 1/3 cup of water

• ½ lemon zest and juice

• ¼ cup fresh cilantro, chopped (original recipe calls for cilantro or basil. Basil would probably be nice with this, but I only had cilantro!)

• Handful of spinach, chopped (could supplement with any leafy green of your choosing)

• 1 packet of paneer cheese (original recipe called for halloumi cheese which also sounds delicious)

• Sesame seeds and/or roasted peanuts (for topping)

• Your choice of rice to top it on! I pretty much always eat brown rice

Steps - Curry:

1. Heat up the olive oil in the large pan and once warm, add the chickpeas. Season with a pinch of salt and pepper and let them get brown and crunchy. This took about 20-25 minutes.

2. Once golden brown and crispy, remove ½ cup of chickpeas and set aside to use as a topper, and leave the rest in the skillet.

3. Toss in the zucchini, corn, shallot, garlic and ginger – season with another pinch of salt – and let cook 5-10 minutes to soften. The house will start to smell yummy.

4. Stir in the curry powder and cayenne pepper for a minute.

5. Pour in coconut milk, tahini and water

6. Stir gently as the sauce turns a golden yellow!

7. Simmer on medium heat for about 10 minutes to allow the sauce to thicken. If too thick, add a smidge of water

8. In the last few minutes of cooking, toss in the spinach, lemon juice and zest.

9. Top it with the cilantro/basil, sesame seeds and/or peanuts

Steps – paneer:

1. Slice paneer long-ways

2. Warm up olive oil on the skillet and grill the paneer, 5 minutes or so on each side.

Notes:

• The good old internet suggests soaking paneer in salt water and then rinsing before grilling to enhance the flavor of the paneer. This sounds bangin and logical, but I didn’t do that out of pure laziness and my paneer still came out bangin. Do you, boo.