Chickpea, Spinach & Peanut Butter Curry

Ingredients

• 2 x 400g tins chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• 80g smooth peanut butter
• 2 x 400g tins chopped tomatoes
• 30g fresh ginger, grated
• 200ml hot vegetable stock
• 1 lime, cut into wedges
• Basmati rice or warm naan bread, to serve
• 200g spinach, washed
• salt and black pepper to taste
• 2 onions, diced
• 4 garlic cloves, grated
• 2 tbsp garam masala
• 1 tsp ground turmeric
• 1 x 400ml tin coconut milk
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 15g coriander, roughly chopped
• Kachumber salad, to serve

Method

1. Warm the oil in a large heavy pot over a medium heat. Add the onion with a pinch of salt and cook for 8 minutes, stirring now and then, until soft and turning golden at the edges — that gold is the foundation of the whole curry.
2. Stir in the garlic and ginger and cook for just 30 seconds until fragrant. Don't let the garlic colour past pale gold — burnt garlic turns the whole pot bitter and there's no rescuing it.
3. Tip in the cumin, smoked paprika, ground coriander and cayenne. Bloom the spices in the oil for 30–60 seconds, stirring constantly, until they smell warm and toasted. Raw spices taste dusty; bloomed spices taste of themselves.
4. Stir in the peanut butter until it melts into a glossy paste, then add the chopped tomatoes, red lentils, vegetable stock and soy sauce. The stock is doing real work here — it breaks the tinned tomatoes down so they taste of fruit, not tin.
5. Bring to a gentle simmer and cook for 20 minutes, stirring often so the lentils don't catch on the base, until they've collapsed and the sauce looks thick and silky.
6. Add the chickpeas and simmer for a further 10 minutes until the sauce coats the back of a spoon. Loosen with a splash of water if it tightens too much.
7. Fold the spinach through in handfuls until just wilted, then take the pot off the heat and stir in the lime juice — the acid lifts the peanut richness and brightens everything underneath. Taste, season with salt and black pepper, then taste again. Adjust now — at the pot, not at the table. Most of the salt comes from the soy, but a final pinch ties it together.
8. To batch: cool completely, then refrigerate for up to 3 days or freeze in portions. The flavour deepens overnight. Reheat gently with a splash of water until piping hot.
9. Spoon the curry over rice or alongside warm flatbreads, scatter generously with the chopped coriander, and finish with an extra squeeze of lime over each bowl.