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This Slow Cooker Chickpea Curry with Spinach is SO easy and delicious. Hardly any prep needed and come home to a delicious, vegetarian family meal. It’s also affordable and freezes brilliantly.
This Slow Cooker Chickpea Curry is my most favourite kind of slow cooker recipe, throw everything in and go. No browning, hardly any chopping – what a dream.
This is also a perfect meal for when you need something straight out of the store cupboard.
I’ve tested this carefully to get a nice balance of family friendly spice and sweetness. I also wanted to use curry powder for this recipe rather than paste to make sure it was super budget-friendly.
I found the addition of sweet smoked paprika (such a great spice!) gives this an instant depth of flavour, which can sometimes be tricky to achieve in the slow cooker without pre-frying anything.
Hope you love it!
Why you’ll love this Chickpea Slow Cooker Curry recipe
⭐️ Simple, affordable ingredients
⭐️ A delight for vegan diners or meat-free days
⭐️ Unbelievably easy and delicious
What is Chana Saag?
Chana Saag is a traditional Indian dish made up of chickpeas and spinach in a tomato-based sauce with rich and aromatic spices. It gets a creaminess from the coconut milk and lends itself perfect to this slightly shortcut-style slow cooker version.
If you’d rather try your hand at an authentic Chana Saag, you could have a go at Spice Craving’s recipe here.
This Chickpea Slow Cooker Curry is ideal for a quick midweek win, when we have lots in the cupboard and nothing defrosted or planned. It’s also a great batch cook option so you can simply heat it up and go.
More vegetarian curries…
Slow Cooker
Red Lentil Dahl {Slow Cooker Fakeaways}
Vegetarian
Halloumi Curry {30 Minute Meal}
Slow Cooker
Slow Cooker Vegetable Curry {SO Easy!}
Slow Cooker Chickpea Curry Ingredients
- Chickpeas – Tinned, drained and rinsed
- Garlic – You can use fresh or jar/paste/frozen
- Onion – Again, frozen is fine if you’re short on time but fresh is OK too
- Mild curry powder – Be aware of the temperature here! Obviously a less mild curry powder will give this a stronger spice level!
- Sweet smoked paprika
- Mild chilli flakes – These vary greatly in heat, start with a tiny pinch and add more if your flakes aren’t hot enough.
- Tomato purée
- Coconut milk – I use reduced fat but you don’t have to
- Sea salt
- Spinach – I used fresh baby spinach but you can use frozen if you want to
- Mango chutney – Be careful to check the ingredients if you’re vegan
- Garam masala
How to make Chickpea Curry in the Slow Cooker
1. Add the slow cook ingredients into the pan and cook as per the recipe below..
2. Add the remaining ingredients just before serving, stirring well first.
leftovers
In the fridge You can keep this recipe in the fridge for 3 days. Reheat fully in the microwave or on the hob before serving.
In the freezer This recipe freezes well. Just wait until it’s totally cold and then put into a freezer proof container and freeze for up to 3 months. Defrost thoroughly before reheating.
This may need a splash of water when you’re reheating it to loosen up the sauce.
Top tips
If using frozen spinach
This is a fantastic shortcut ingredient to have in as there’s no risk of it going soggy before you’ve had a chance to use it. If you go for frozen spinach for this recipe, just pop it in to the slow cooker at the start of the process with the other ingredients instead of waiting to the end.
Rinse chickpeas
Give the chickpeas a good rinse under cold water before you put them into the slow cooker to remove the salty water they’re stored in.
FAQs
I would go for rice, poppadoms, naans, raita, or my Easy Flatbreads.
Or if you’d like to pair it with a meat curry dish, probably my Easy Lamb Keema.
The Morphy Richards Sear & Stew Slow Cooker is my all-time favourite because you can use it for initial browning on the hob and it’s really light.
For induction hobs, I recommend the Lakeland Digital 6.5l Slow Cooker instead.
I sure can! My faves are Slow Cooker Beef Curry, Slow Cooker Chicken Curry and Slow Cooker Lamb Curry.
Let me know how you got on and what you thought of these recipes. Please rate the recipe using the ⭐️ below.
Also I’d LOVE to see your cooking creations. If you’d like to share yours with me, you can tag me on Instagram (@tamingtwins).
Slow Cooker Chickpea Curry {Chana Saag}
Ingredients
For the slow cook:
- 800 g Chickpeas (2x 400g tins), Drained and rinsed
- 3 Cloves garlic, Peeled and crushed
- 1 Onion, Peeled and chopped
- 2 tbsp Mild curry powder
- 1 tsp Sweet smoked paprika
- 1/4 tsp Mild chilli flakes
- 3 tbsp Tomato purée
- 400 g Coconut milk (1x tin), Reduced fat
- 1/2 tsp Sea salt
To finish:
- 240 g Baby spinach, Shredded
- 50 g Mango chutney
- 1 tsp Garam masala
Instructions
- Add the slow cooker ingredients to the pan and cook on HIGH for 3 hours.
- Add remaining ingredients just before serving (the heat will wilt the spinach).
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
So an easy, fuss free delisious dinner!!! Definitely will be made again.
Easy recipe to follow got it in the slow cooker before starting work and it will definitely be a regular in my house now!
I made this for my family and it went down a treat. So tasty. I served it with naan bread to mop up the sauce. Will definitely make it again
Hi Sarah, I’ve made a few of your recipes and they’re great! I just wanted to flag an issue when I go to print the recipes using the “print” button on your recipe – when printing, it doesn’t print anything in bold type. I’ve tried it using another printer and it’s the same issue. I’m using a Mac. Just wanted to let you know as it means a lot of the instructions/titles cannot be read.
Hi Jodie, I’ve looked into this and I hope it’s fixed? Let me know if you try to print again and doesn’t work please!
I loved this, thank you!
Didn’t have all the ingredients listed so swapped tinned lentil for chickpeas and used Greek yoghurt instead of coconut milk. It was excellent.
Your recipe has given me the confidence to try this way of cooking and I’m looking forward to trying more!
Really lovely recipe! Maybe we’re just greedy in my household but it only did 3 portions for us hehe!
I’m looking forward to making this in the next day or two as it looks lovely and tasty – the recipe says to cook on HIGH for 3 hours, but could it also be cooked on LOW instead and for how long? (sorry it may seem like a silly question, but I’m just getting used to using a slow cooker, and would hate to ‘get it wrong’ per se…)
I did this as wanted to chuck it in the slow cooker at lunch time for later evening meal. I did 6hrs on low and it worked well.
Huge fan of veggie slow cooker recipes
The taste of this is on another level
We all loved it . New favourite
I’ve made this recipe before, making it again tonight.
It is super-,easy and tasty. Thanks for sharing
Well done.
Yet another great recipe have been following these for a while and they have never failed.
Just now brave enough for a suggestion.
I drained out the clear fluid from the coconut milk and replaced with the same volume of vegetable stock.
Seemed to add a little bit extra for my crew.
But hey just an amateur.
Thanks for all the recipes
Greg