This easy-to-make chicken chickpea curry was created by Henrietta Dutton Williamson (Head Chef British Sailing Team) for my Eat Well—Be Well readers. This dish tasty and warming without being too fiery. It’s ideal for a cold winter’s day.

Ingredients for chicken and chickpea curry

Makes 4 portions

• 1 tablespoon of light (not virgin) olive oil
• 2 small white onions – finely chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic – finely grated
• 25g ginger – finely grated
• 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
• 2 tablespoons of mild curry powder
• 2 fresh red chillies finely chopped (or 1 teaspoon of dried chillies or chilli powder)
• 500g chicken breast – cubed
• 2 yellow or orange bell peppers
• 1 400g tin chickpeas drained, or 225g of cooked chickpeas.
• 1 400g tin chopped tomatoes
• 1 teaspoon of tomato purée (I use Gia sun-dried tomato purée)
• 200 ml water
• 1 large bay leaf
• ½ stick of celery
• 1 large bunch fresh coriander – chopped
• pinch salt and good grinding of black pepper

Serve on a bed of fresh spinach with brown or mixed rice.

Method

Add the olive oil to a large saucepan (that has a lid) and heat the oil until it’s hot. Then add the onions, garlic, ginger, turmeric, curry powder, chillies. Stir these ingredients together until the onions are coated with the spices. Turn down the heat, continue to stir and cook for 5 minutes or until the onion is soft. Add chicken and cook for a further 5 minutes until the cubes or chicken are golden.

Now add the chopped peppers, chickpeas, chopped tomatoes, tomato puree, water, stick of celery, bay leaf, water, salt and black pepper. Bring the ingredients to the boil. Then turn the heat down low, put on the saucepan lid and allow to simmer very slowly for 1 hour.

After 1 hour of cooking, stir in the chopped coriander and serve on a bed of fresh spinach leaves with brown or mixed rice.

Eat Well—Be Well 😊

Photography by Lara Jane Thorpe