This curry was born out of a trip to the grocery store. We knew the final product would be curry, but that’s about all we knew. He grabbed a pepper, I grabbed some spinach and a can of chickpeas, and there was coconut milk at home. Now what?

I started with roasting the red pepper. Roasted peppers are at least 5–10 times better than their un-roasted counterparts. I also minced a lot of garlic and ginger. Good farmer’s market garlic I’ve hoarded since July. Mmm.

Next up, ghee. I love ghee. I didn’t think it was possible to improve on butter, but when it comes to cooking with it on the stove top, ghee has plain old butter beat. Buy some. I popped some mustartd seeds in the ghee before adding a generous amount of garam masala. Then the onion, cooking it until it was soft, before adding the garlic and ginger.

Tomato puree came next. You want to be sure your onions are nice and soft before adding the tomatoes as the acid will keep them crunchy for all eternity if they’re not soft already.

I finished it off with the chickpeas, the spinach, and the chopped, roasted red pepper. Add half a can of coconut milk and you’re done. Yum yum yum.

Roasted Red Pepper, Chickpea, and Spinach Curry

1 red pepper, roasted, skinned, and chopped

1 onion, chopped
2–3 large garlic cloves, minced
1″ garlic root, peeled and minced

1 tbsp ghee
2 tsp mustard seeds
2 tbsp garam masala

300mL tomato puree
1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 bunch spinach, rinsed and de-stemmed

½ can coconut milk

Heat the ghee in a heavy bottomed pan over medium high heat. Add the mustard seeds and cook, shaking the pan, until they start to pop. Then add the garam masala and stir. Add the onion and cook, stirring, until the onion is soft, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and ginger and cook until everything is softened and beautifully fragrant.

Add the tomato puree, chickpeas, red pepper, and spinach (you’ll probably have to add the spinach a handful at a time and let the first bit cook down a bit before adding more so it will all fit in the pan). Finish it off with the coconut milk.

Heat through, season to taste, and serve over spiced basmati rice.