Curried Chickpea Bowls with Garlicky Spinach
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Published Jan 27, 2017, Updated Mar 20, 2023
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These vegan curried chickpea bowls make meal prepping for the week a breeze. The chickpeas are paired with garlicky spinach and brown rice for an easy meal that’s absolutely delicious and filling.
Hooray, it’s Friday!! I’m not trying to rush the weekend away, but today I want to talk about meal prep. I’ve been doing it every Sunday for the past few months and it’s been a total game-changer. I use this meal planning printable to plan our meals for the week ahead, go to the grocery store and do a little meal prep. These few hours over the weekend make make it incredibly easy to whip up health meals throughout the week.
Last up we have my curried chickpea bowls with garlicky spinach.
These bowls are super efficient because you use the same pan to cook the spinach and the chickpeas, both of which can happen while your brown rice is cooking.
Plus, the flavor is on point!!
The chickpeas are cooked with onions and garlic and tossed in fragrant tomato based curry sauce that pairs wonderfully with the zesty lemon garlic spinach. Serving both of these over a generous portion of brown rice makes for a hearty and filling vegan gluten-free meal prep bowl that you can bring for lunch or have on hand for a quick dinner.
The recipe makes three servings so if you want a week’s worth of meals you’ll want to double it! You can easily reheat the curried chickpea bowls before serving or eat them cold. There’s no wrong way to eat meal prep bowls! 🙂
Curried Chickpea Bowls with Garlicky Spinach
Ingredients
Garlicky Spinach
- 1 teaspoon avocado oil
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 5 oz baby spinach
- 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
- 1/2 lemon juiced
Curried Chickpeas
- 2 teaspoons avocado oil
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 large onion, chopped
- 1 15 oz can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
- 2 teaspoons curry
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 2 Tablespoons tomato paste
- 3 Tablespoons water
- 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper
- fresh cilantro, chopped (for topping)
- green onion, chopped (for topping)
- 3 cups cooked brown or white rice
Instructions
- Cook rice, if it’s not cooked already.
- Heat 1 teaspoon oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add garlic and cook until fragrant (about 1-2 minutes). Add baby spinach to the skillet and sauté for 2-3 minutes or until spinach has started to wilt. Toss in sea salt and lemon juice. Toss to coat, remove from heat and place spinach on a small plate.
- In the small skillet you used to cook the spinach, add another 2 teaspoons oil over medium heat. Add garlic and onion and cook (stirring frequently) until onions are soft, about 5 minutes. Add spices (curry powder, cumin, cinnamon), chickpeas and tomato paste into the skillet. Toss to combine and quickly add water as the pan will start to dry out. Add sea salt and pepper, toss everything together and cook for another 2-3 minutes. Remove from heat and prepare bowls — each one with brown rice, chickpeas and spinach. Top with cilantro and green onion.
- For meal prep, allow all ingredients to cool and then grab 3 glass storage containers. Fill each with 1 cup rice, 1/3 of curried chickpeas and 1/3 of baby spinach. Top with cilantro and green onion. Place in fridge until ready to eat.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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I’m really excited to try this out! However I was curious what curry powder you used? They are many different kind 😆 thank you in advance!
Hey Shanice – I just used regular yellow curry powder. 🙂
Wow, it’s amazing. Thanks for your nice review.
Lmao channa masala and keerai varuval literally. Can yall like give credit to indigenous cultures which u based the recipe upon (even if u took the recipe from another “american cuisine” website instead of claiming it as “american cuisine” 🙄. Isee alot of vegan/meal prep/superfoods websites claiming indigenous foodstuff and preparation methods as a novel western development while ethnic people have been bullied for producing and consuming the same for ages.
Why would she do that? They’re all dead ☠️
So quick easy and flavorful!! I doubled it and substituted a can of diced tomatoes, since I didn’t have any tomato paste. It’s going to be so nice to grab one in the morning to take to work for lunch!!!
Yay! So glad this recipe was a hit, Susie! Thanks for coming back to leave a review. It means the world to me.
What brand of curry do you use? There’s a few different types from different countries with varying levels of spice and I have no idea which to buy for this recipe
Hey Jamie – It varies, but some of my go-to brands are Simply Organic, Frontier, McCormick Organic, Spice Island or Trader Joes.
One of my new favorites (and my family’s) for meal prepping! So hearty,- flavourful and relatively quick to make.
Yay! I love to hear that, Rachelia. Thank you so much for your review, I appreciate it so much!
I made this for dinner last week and I loved it!! Back again now meal prepping this for lunch the next few days. Loved the recipe- followed it to a T! Thank you for sharing!
Woo!! So glad this recipe was a hit! Thanks for the review, Kori. I really appreciate it!
Love this recipe how long are they ok in the fridge for?
It should last about 4-5 days in the fridge!
Just a question can I freeze these? Amd how long for ? And do I have to let them defrost before heating them
Up in the microwave to eat. Thank you
It’d probably be fine to freeze these for up to 3 months in an airtight container. I would probably take them out the night before you want to eat to defrost. Let me know if you try it and how it turns out!!
Damn! It’s looks so delicious and yummy recipe. Thanks for sharing us.
Thank you for leaving a review + comment! It’s so appreciated!
I love curry, vegan and not, but this was not good. I followed the recipe to a T and it was terrible. I had to spit it out. I’m sure some people might like it but the cinnamon was super overpowering as were the other flavors. I tried saving with some coconut milk but I just couldn’t bring it to edible.
The spinach wasn’t bad but the curry, unfortunately was pretty bad. 🫤
Hi Rachael – I am so sorry to hear that this recipe did not turn out the way you had hoped. You could definitely adjust the seasonings based on your preference, but for most, this recipe is enjoyed as is. Sorry you did not have the same experience.