Slow Cooker Chickpea and Paneer Curry + The Slow Cooked Challenge

I am not sure how February has arrived already but I am enjoying the slightly lighter mornings and evenings after the darkness of December and early January, how about you? Time for February’s Slow Cooked Challenge, the place for bloggers to share their slow cooked recipes, and a great source of slow cooker inspiration for all.

Last month’s challenge hosted by Janice over on Farmersgirl Kitchen saw a lovely array of slow cooked recipes entered. I’ve decided to leave this month’s theme open again so as not to rein in all that creativity. My January aspirations towards healthy eating have been focusing on vegetable-based dishes and I have another to share with you today.

Slow Cooker Chickpea and Paneer Curry

As I have been trying to eat more fruit and vegetables, this has naturally meant I have incorporated more meat-free meals into my meal plan. Chickpeas are a great, cheap source of protein which i find adapt well to whatever kind of dish you are making. They stand up to long cooking really well too.

The base of my slow cooker chickpea and paneer curry is made on the hob in the traditional way, before being transferred to the slow cooker to bubble slowly away all day. The flavours of the spices have longer to develop due to the slow cooking and they combine to produce a dish full of flavour. I prefer a milder curry, if you like a hot curry you could add a chilli or too to the recipe, or use hot chilli powder where I’ve used mild.

I’ve topped my curry with cubes of paneer cheese fried in a pan, for extra protein and because I love paneer, though the curry can of course also be served without to make it vegan.

Slow Cooker Chickpea and Paneer Curry

A vegetarian Indian curry dish with chickpeas topped with fried cubes of paneer cheese

5 from 1 vote

Print Rate

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Indian

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 7 hours

Total Time: 7 hours 15 minutes

Servings: 4

Calories: 232kcal

Author: bakingqueen74

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 medium red onion diced
• 2 tsp cumin seeds
• 1 tsp lazy ginger chopped finely, or a 2 cm piece of fresh ginger
• 1 tsp lazy garlic or 1 clove of fresh garlic
• 2 tsp ground cumin
• 2 tsp ground coriander
• 1 tsp mild chilli powder or medium/hot as you prefer
• 1 tsp ground turmeric
• 1 tsp ground fenugreek
• 800 g chopped tomatoes (2 tins)
• 400 g chickpeas drained (1 tin)
• 1 red (bell) pepper diced
• 50 g paneer cheese cubed, per person
• black onion seeds to serve

Instructions

• In a frying pan, heat the oil over medium heat and toast the cumin seeds for a couple of minutes.
• Add the onion and cook for a few minutes until translucent and starting to soften.
• Add the ginger and garlic and cook for another minute.
• Add the spices, stir well and cook for another minute or so.
• Add the chopped tomatoes, stir well to ensure the spices don't stick to the base of the pan. Bring to the boil, then reduce to a simmer and cook for five to ten minutes until the sauce has reduced and thickened. By doing this now, your sauce won't become watery in the slow cooker when the red pepper releases moisture as it cooks.
• Transfer the sauce to the slow cooker, add the red pepper and chickpeas.
• Cook on low for 6-7 hours.
• Just before serving, heat a little oil in a pan and fry the paneer cubes for 2-3 minutes, turning, until they are brown on all sides.
• Sprinkle the black onion seeds on the chickpea curry, top it with the paneer and serve with rice or naan bread.

Tried this recipe?Tag me @bakingqueen74 or use hashtag #bakingqueen74!

Pin my slow cooker chickpea and paneer curry for later

Slow Cooked Challenge for February

If you are not familiar with the Slow Cooked Challenge, it is a monthly blog challenge dedicated to making recipes using a Slow Cooker/Crockpot or by slow cooking in the oven, aga or other slow method of cooking. Each month there will be a theme e.g. soup, dessert, vegetarian or an open challenge.

This month is an Open Theme so please send in any kind of slow cooking recipe.

If you would like to take part, then please:

• Make your recipe in your Slow Cooker or other slow cooking method and post a photograph and the recipe, or a link to a recipe, on your blog
• Link to Farmersgirl Kitchen and BakingQueen74
• Use the Slow Cooked Challenge logo (above) in your post
• If you use Twitter, tweet your post with @FarmersgirlCook @BakingQueen74 and use #SlowCookedChallenge and we will re-tweet it to our followers AND post your picture on the dedicated Pinterest Board.
• A round up of all the entries will be posted on the host’s blog.

Rules

• Please do not publish recipes from cookbooks on your blog without permission, they are copyright.
• If you are using recipes from another website, please link to the recipe on the website rather than publishing the recipe.
• One entry per blog.
• Recipes must be added to the linky by the 28th of each month and a round up will be posted on the host blog.

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