Stumped for dinner? Pull this skillet chard and chickpea curry out of your back pocket. Curry powder and fresh ginger give the leafy greens and nut-like beans a spicy East Indian flair. Pair with quinoa or rice for an easy weeknight meal!
Click here to save this Curried Chickpea and Chard dish to make later.
Healthy fresh greens and toothsome protein-rich chickpeas make a perfect pair. I mean, they travel all over the world as a sociable twosome, mingling in Mexican, Italian, Spanish and Thai cuisines. You will love this Indian-curry spiced pairing. Serve with quinoa or brown rice with cooling plain yogurt and sweet tangy chutney (like my Rhubarb Cranberry Honey Chutney.)
The simplest, quickest way to make Indian-spiced curry like this chard and chickpea combo is to use a curry powder blend. The bottle in my cupboard right now lists coriander as the first ingredient, with turmeric, mustard, cumin, fenugreek, paprick, cayenne, cardamom, nutmeg, cinnamon and cloves.
The distinct rich yellow-orange hue in Indian curry powder comes from turmeric. To bump up the curry flavor, today’s chickpea and chard curry includes extra turmeric and cayenne, and fresh ginger, garlic, and red onion.
Do you remember when you first tasted curry? Was it Indian curry or Thai curry? “Curry” is a catchall term for hot and spicy sauces from both India and Thailand. The term curry refers to a blend of spices blend, not one spice all by itself.
**** Thai curries. You can easily turn this recipe into a Thai curry by subbing in a slurry of Thai red curry paste and coconut milk for the curry powder, turmeric, and broth. (2 to 3 teaspoons red curry paste mashed into one (15-ounce) can of coconut milk.)
**** Chard and chickpeas come together again in chard and chickpeas with a simple avocado sauce!
Besides chard and chick pea curry:
Recipes with chard.
- If you love chard, you’ll want to make chard enchiladas filled with wilted chard, with black olives and salty cotija or feta cheese.
- You can even bake tender chard into a French-inspired sweet dessert tart.
- Mexican chard and pepper jack quesadillas with avocado cream.
- Southwestern chard and pinto beans in risotto!
Recipes with chickpeas, aka garbanzo beans.
- Ditch the can. How to cook garbanzo beans in the pressure cooker or Instant Pot.
- Curried potatoes and garbanzo beans with peas and pineapple.
- Here they are with greens again: Wild rice arugula salad with chickpeas.
- A Spanish inspired vegetarian paella salad with chickpeas and spiced walnuts. So good.
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Indian Spiced Chard and Chickpea Curry
Ingredients
- 1 bunch bunch chard About 8 ounces
- 1 tablespoon coconut oil
- ½ each finely chopped red onion, about 1 cup
- 2 cloves garlic , minced
- 1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
- 1 tablespoon curry powder
- ½ teaspoon ground turmeric
- ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
- ⅛ to ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper (see note)
- 3 cups 2 (15-ounce) cans) chickpeas, aka garbanzo beans rinsed and drained, or home-cooked beans
- 1 ½ cups vegetable broth or water, or homemade bean cooking broth
- 2 teaspoons fresh squeezed lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon chopped cilantro
Instructions
- Strip the leaves from the stems. Chop the stems about ½ inch wide. Coarsely chop the leaves.
- In a large skillet over medium flame, heat the coconut oil. Add the chard stems and red onion and sauté several minutes, until the onions soften.
- Add the garlic and ginger. Stir in the curry powder, turmeric, salt, and cayenne, and stir about a minute.
- Add the chickpeas and 1 cup of the liquid. Cook about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Add the chopped chard leaves. Cook and stir until the chard wilts and becomes tender to the bite, about 5 more minutes. Add more liquid if needed to make a thin curry gravy.
- Stir in the lemon juice and cilantro. Taste and add more salt if needed.
We love this dish. Made it last night with 10oz baby spinach in lieu of chard and added some tempeh. Topped with some mango chutney and a glob of plain greek yogurt. It smells and tastes so good. Outstanding! · 31 May, 2016
Thanks Corinne! I’m so happy you enjoy the recipe and equally glad you felt comfortable substituting spinach for the chard! · 31 May, 2016
just made this tonight — absolutely fantastic! · 29 May, 2017
Thank you Kelly–I’m glad you enjoyed it! · 9 June, 2017
I think this recipe as is would be great. I made changes just because that’s what I had on hand. Instead of veg stock I added homemade tomato sauce and extra water to get consistency right. Also added some chunky sliced mushrooms as I only had a cup of chickpeas. Excellent flavours, and adding lemon juice and cilantro as the end really hits the mark. Something I would not have thought of, so Thankyou. Will definitely be cooking this again. · 2 January, 2022
Love, love, love your creativity with what you had on hand! · 5 January, 2022
Had some chard that was past its best (been in the ground too long and gone bitter) but you can’t tell at all with this recipe! I didn’t use chickpeas but I made a massive batch load and froze individual portions to use as a side dish. I microwave cook it from frozen and its completely perfect! A great way to use up old veg and an easy way to add greens to your meals. · 10 August, 2022
Thank you Sarah. What a good idea to make a “massive” batch, freeze in portions and serve as side dish! · 13 August, 2022