Cauliflower Rice Curry with Chickpeas and Sweet Potatoes

This rich and creamy cauliflower rice curry with chickpeas and sweet potatoes is a hearty one-pot meal. Perfect for chilly autumn weather.

In case you haven’t stopped by lately, this October is Weeknight Victory month here on The New Baguette. That means my goal is to help you (and me!) breathe some new life into our weeknight cooking repertoires.

According to my very unscientific observations, most of us get stuck cooking the same 4-5 meals for dinner for extended periods of time (years? decades?). Even despite my profession, I count myself in this population, too, and am always on the lookout for fresh ideas.

Now this cauliflower rice curry is not a new idea to me. In fact, it’s from a cookbook I co-wrote, The Complete Vegan Cookbook – a recipe I tested several times, actually… and proceeded to promptly forget about until now.

This thick cauliflower rice curry is cozy and comforting, and an awesome one-pot weeknight meal for the colder months. It’s a hearty stew that’s creamy thanks to coconut milk and fragrant thanks to yellow curry powder. It’s got sweetness from sweet potatoes and extra protein from chickpeas.

This recipe is great for feeding a crowd, or just yourself – make the whole batch either way and eat it throughout the week, or eat half and freeze the other half for later.

How to Make This Cauliflower Rice Curry

This stew starts with a base of sautéed onion and sweet potato. Coconut milk, tomato paste, curry powder, and fresh ginger go in next and simmer to create a rich broth. Then you add the cauliflower rice, which cooks in just minutes. You finish the curry with lots of fresh lime juice and cilantro.

Cauliflower rice is easy to make on your own. Just cut up a head of cauliflower and pulse it in a food processor or Vitamix until it resembles rice grains. Alternately, you can grate it on a box grater – although that’s a messy way to go (you’ve been warned).

If you don’t have a food processor, or just want a shortcut, most supermarkets now sell pre-made cauliflower rice, either in the refrigerated or freezer section.

Variations

In place of the sweet potato, you can use carrots or butternut squash. For a spicy Thai twist, use a few tablespoons of Thai red curry paste instead of the curry powder. If you don’t like cilantro, garnish with basil. And for a low-fat version, use light coconut milk instead of full-fat.

Cauliflower Rice Curry with Chickpeas and Sweet Potatoes

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• Author: thenewbaguette.com
• Prep Time: 15 mins
• Cook Time: 40 mins
• Total Time: 55 minutes
• Yield: 4–6 servings 1x
• Category: Soups & Stews
• Method: Stovetop
• Cuisine: n/a
• Diet: Vegan

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Description

This cauliflower rice curry recipe is adapted from The Complete Vegan Cookbook, written by Rebecca Ffrench, the chefs at NYC’s Natural Gourmet Institute, and me, Alexandra Shytsman. (Copyright © 2019 by Natural Gourmet Cookery Corporation. Published by Clarkson Potter, an imprint of Penguin Random House.)

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Ingredients

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• 1 tablespoon coconut or avocado oil
• 1 medium yellow onion, diced
• ¾ teaspoon fine sea salt, plus more to taste
• 1 medium sweet potato (peeled or skin-on), cut into ½-inch dice
• One 13-ounce can full-fat coconut milk
• 1 cup water
• 3 tablespoons tomato paste
• 4 teaspoons yellow curry powder
• ¾-inch piece of ginger, peeled and minced (about 1 tablespoon)
• 1 head of cauliflower, cut into florets OR about 4 cups store-bought cauliflower rice
• One 15-ounce can chickpeas, drained and rinsed (or 1 1/2 cups cooked chickpeas) 
• 1–2 tablespoons fresh lime juice, to taste
• Chopped cilantro, for serving

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Instructions

1. Heat the oil in a large, heavy-bottomed saucepan or Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the onion with a ¼ teaspoon of salt and cook, stirring occasionally, until it’s soft and translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the sweet potato and cook, stirring occasionally, until it is starting to soften and brown, 8-10 minutes.
2. Stir in the coconut milk, water, tomato paste, curry powder, ginger, the remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt, and black pepper to taste. Cover and simmer over low heat until the mixture thickens and the potatoes are almost cooked through, about 10 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, in a food processor, pulse the cauliflower in 2 batches until it is similar in size to rice grains.
4. Add the cauliflower rice, chickpeas, and lime juice to the curry, and cook for another 5-10 minutes, until the cauliflower is tender. Taste and adjust the seasonings, if needed. Serve with cilantro.

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Nutrition

• Serving Size: 1/6 of the recipe
• Calories: 260
• Fat: 12 g
• Carbohydrates: 22.8 g
• Fiber: 4.6 g
• Protein: 5.8 g