Chickpea and spinach curry recipe

My normal lunch of salad or sandwiches just doesn't cut it in the cold winter months and having soup every day gets dull despite the endless flavour combinations. I've been batch cooking on Sunday's so I have varied, hot lunches to take work in the week and this curry is one of my favourites.

This recipe serves 3-4 depending on how much rice or naan bread you serve with it. 

You will need:

1 tin (420g) of cooked chick peas, drained and rinsed

2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 tin (420g) of chopped tomatoes
4-5 handfuls of fresh spinach (I used waaay more because I love spinach)
1 large onion, finely sliced
Oil for frying

For the curry paste:

1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander

1 tsp tumeric
1 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1 red chilli, finely sliced (I used the frozen cubes of chilli)
Juice of 1/2 lemon (I used lime because it was all I had)
2 tbsps oil
1/2 tsp sea salt 

Making curry paste is pretty easy but if you don't have all of those ingredients it tastes just as good without one or two and you can always just buy some curry paste. 

Method

1. Make you curry paste by mixing all the ingredients in a bowl and smooshing them together. Ideally you would do this with a pestle & mortar but I don't have one.
2. Fry your onions in a little oil in a large pan until golden. Add the garlic and fry for a minute or two.
3. Add the curry paste to the onions and fry over a gentle heat for about 2-3 minutes before adding the chickpeas and tomatoes to the pan.
4. Cover and cook over a medium heat for 15 minutes, stirring regularly. Add more water or stock if it gets a bit dry. I add a lot of water because I like my chickpeas to be soft.
5. Add the spinach to the pan and cook for a further 2 minutes.

Without rice this curry is around 200 calories and contains 2 of your 5 a day. You can add some yogurt to serve or some coconut cream to make it a bit more saucy. Enjoy!