Chickpea curry

Cook a big batch of chickpea curry in one go and freeze it. On a busy night, that part of dinner is already made.

Chickpea curry

Can you freeze chickpea curry?

Yes. Freeze it in containers, one meal to each.

How to freeze and defrost it, with the Food Standards Agency’s advice at each step.

The recipe

One batch makes 8 portions.

Ingredients for 8 portions

Method

Prep

  1. Dice onions into 1 cm pieces.
  2. Crush garlic clove and peel and grate ginger.
  3. Drain tinned chickpeas.

Curry

  1. Heat vegetable oil in a large saucepan over a medium heat. Fry the onion for 8 minutes until soft and golden.
  2. Add the garlic, ginger and chilli flakes and fry for 1 minute.
  3. Stir in ground coriander, ground cumin, garam masala and tomato puree and fry for 2 minutes until fragrant, stirring so the spices don't catch.
  4. Add the chickpeas, chopped tomatoes and salt. Simmer for 5 minutes until slightly reduced.
  5. Crumble in creamed coconut, add water and simmer for 5 minutes, stirring until the coconut melts into the sauce.
  6. Stir in spinach and cook for 2 minutes until wilted.

How to freeze

  1. cool any warm dishes before putting them in your freezer, says the Food Standards Agency.
  2. Pour into your containers, one meal to each, and seal.

How to defrost

  1. the safest way to defrost food is in the fridge overnight, says the Food Standards Agency.
  2. Take it out of its container.
  3. Tip it into a pan and heat it, stirring, until it’s steaming hot all the way through.
  4. it is important that food is cooked to steaming hot throughout, rather than warmed, says the Food Standards Agency.

How we’d cook it, not advice. We don’t check recipes for allergens, and ingredients vary by brand, so check the label on everything you use. Prepare and cook food the way the Food Standards Agency says. Allergens and food safety

Nutrition

Per portion
Energy
530 kcal
Fat
26g
Carbohydrate
45.6g
Protein
20.6g
Nutrition details
Energy
530 kcal
Fat
26g
of which saturates
14.7g
Carbohydrate
45.6g
of which sugars
10.1g
Fibre
18.6g
Protein
20.6g
Salt
1.58g

Estimated from ingredient data.

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Used in

No special kit

  • Works best in freezer bags Any freezer-safe container does the job too.
  • Everything from one shop Batch cook it with Nomstash and the freezer bags go on the same shopping list as the food.

Cook what you already cook

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Freezing and defrosting safely

The Food Standards Agency’s advice, in their words.

  • Label everything you freeze.

    label food you freeze so you don’t end up with Unidentified Frozen Objects (UFOs)

The rest of the Food Standards Agency’s advice, in their words, is in our freezing and defrosting guide.

Sources

  1. Food Standards Agency How to chill, freeze and defrost food safely gov.uk
  2. Food Standards Agency Cooking your food gov.uk

Last checked . Each quotation on this page was read against the page it links to.

Make curry your first batch.

Nomstash plans the shop, sizes every container and reminds you the night before. Nomstash is in beta.