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This is an 8-ingredient, 30-minute 1 Pan dump-and-done Indian butter chickpeas recipe. It’s packed with butter chicken sauce flavor, uses tender chickpeas as the protein instead of chicken. No sautéing! Just add to pot, simmer and done. Glutenfree Soyfree Nutfree
Table of Contents
Murgh makhani, aka butter chicken, is a popular curry in a creamy tomato sauce. Traditionally, the sauce is made using cream and butter for creaminess, but in this vegan version, coconut milk is doing that work.
The resulting dish, with toothsome chickpeas in a spiced creamy tomato sauce, is just as decadent and satisfying without any animal products.
This version is super simple. It uses just 1 pan, no sautéeing step, just add everything to the pan and simmer! A few ingredients, chickpeas, tomato purée, some spices, coconut milk and garlic.
You can use other beans if you don’t like chickpeas, like white beans or kidney beans, or seitan or soycurls even crisped-up baked tofu. It’s all about that sauce!
For a baked version of the sauce, try my baked tofu makhani, for a complex flavored sauce try my whole roasted cauliflower with butter sauce, for a large batch instant pot butter sauce, see my cookbook!
Why You’ll Love Butter Chickpeas
- rich, spiced tomato curry sauce with hearty chickpeas
- easy, 30-minute, one-pot meal
- only 8 ingredients, not counting salt and sugar
- dairy-free, gluten-free, nut-free, and soy-free
More Vegan Butter Chicken Sauce Recipes
- Butter Chicken Ramen
- Indian Butter Tofu Paneer
- Instant Pot Vegan Butter Chicken with Soy Curls
- Vegan Butter Chicken Lasagna Bake
- Butter Chicken Bao
Indian Butter Chickpeas
Ingredients
- 8 oz canned tomato puree or passata,, Or unseasoned tomato sauce (do not use thick tomato paste)
- 14 oz full-fat coconut milk, or use 1.5 cups cashew milk(1/3 cup cashews blended with 1.25 cups water)
- 15 oz chickpeas, can drained or 1.5 cups cooked chickpeas
- 2 teaspoons garam masala
- 1/2 teaspoon paprika , or cayenne or Indian red chili powder or add both
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon sugar
- 3/4 teaspoon garlic powder, or 2 teaspoons minced ginger and garlic or ginger-garlic paste
- 2 bay leaves, optional
- 1 teaspoon dried fenugreek leaves,, Kasoori Methi
- 2 tablespoons non dairy cream, cashew cream or non dairy yogurt , , optional, for extra creamy sauce and 2 tsp more for garnish drizzle
- cilantro, sliced green chilies and lime for garnish
Instructions
- In a large skillet over medium heat, add all the ingredients and mix really well. Bring to a boil. Taste and adjust salt and flavor. You can add more garam masala if you like or some ground cumin and ground coriander for additional flavor. (Old spices have much less flavor payoff so you might have to adjust as needed. I use fresh spices and spice blends and often use less than listed)
- Continue to cook for another 5-8 minutes to thicken and switch off the heat.
- If the sauce is not thickening enough you can add 2 teaspoons of flour mixed with 2 tablespoons of water or 1 teaspoon of cornstarch mixed with 1 tablespoon of water (for gluten-free) and mix it in while it’s still boiling. This will help the sauce thicken faster.
- The sauce will thicken more as it cools so you don’t want it too thick while it’s hot.Serve the butter chickpeas garnished with cilantro, lemon juice, and sliced green chilies or with rice or quinoa or flatbread, or naan. You can also add a garnish of non dairy cream.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Ingredients and Substitutions
- canned tomato puree – This is the base for the vegan butter chicken sauce.
- coconut milk – The fat in full-fat coconut milk is replacing the butter that usually gives butter chicken sauce its silky creaminess, so please do opt for full-fat, not light. This is coconut milk that comes canned, not the boxed kind for drinking.
- chickpeas – Use cooked or canned chickpeas, drained. You can also use other beans or even cooked tofu instead, if you prefer.
- spices – Garam masala, paprika, salt, sugar, garlic powder, bay leaves, and fenugreek pack these butter chickpeas with so much FLAVOR! You can use cayenne or Indian red chili powder instead of the paprika. In place of the garlic powder, you can add even more flavor by using minced, fresh ginger and garlic or ginger-garlic paste.
Tips
- Don’t worry if the sauce doesn’t completely reach the thickness you want while it’s simmering. It will thicken as it cools.
- That said, if it’s seeming way too thin, you can thicken with flour or cornstarch mixed with a little bit of water.
- Feel free to adjust the spices to your liking as the sauce simmers!
How to Make One-Pot Butter Chickpeas
In a large skillet over medium heat, add all the ingredients, and mix really well.
Bring to a boil, then taste and adjust salt and flavor. You can add more garam masala if you like or some ground cumin and coriander for additional flavor.
Continue to cook for another five to eight minutes to thicken and switch off the heat.
If the sauce is not thickening enough you can add two teaspoons of flour mixed with two tablespoons of water or a teaspoon of cornstarch mixed with a tablespoon of water and mix it in while it’s still boiling. This will help the sauce thicken faster.
Serve the butter chickpeas garnished with cilantro, lemon juice, and sliced green chilies or with rice or quinoa or flatbread, or naan.
Frequently Asked Questions
Butter chickpeas are naturally gluten-free, nut-free, and soy-free.
Typically, butter chicken sauce is made from tomato, butter, cream and/or yogurt, and spices. In this vegan version, we are making the butter chicken curry sauce with coconut milk instead of the butter and cream. You get the same creaminess without any dairy!
So flavorful and easy. We served it on rice and made it for 4 servings. It was so good that my wife and I ate all of it. There was no reason to thicken it up with cornstarch or flour. I just simmered it a bit with the lid off and it thickened up.
yay!
Great recipe! I fried some onion, garlic and ginger before adding everything into the same pan. I didn’t have Fenugreek leaves, I added a little coriander powder and cumin powder. It was really tasty and really easy and quick. I had some spinach in the fridge so added that at the end and heated it through. I’ll leave out the spinach next time, I’ll be making this loads.
awesome!
Made this as written and it was SO GOOD! I didn’t use a thickener. Served over rice with lots of cilantro and lime, perfection. Thanks for another great recipe!
yay!
Haven’t tried it but using flour to thicken this recipe definitely makes it not gluten free. Maybe some other kind of flour, the description is pretty generalized so I assume you want to kill people with gluten allergies who have no problem drinking beer or eating ketchup or any other numerous things with gluten in them, lmao. I’d still try your recipe.
Says cornstarch right there next to flour for gluten-free. People who know gluten will obviously use that.
I want to make this with some veggies. It looks so good! Any suggestions on what you would personally choose?
Roasted cauliflower, butternut, green beans, peppers, potato, peas etc
absolutely delicious!! Definitely going to be in my regular
rotation! Was
going to steam broccoli separately but ended up just throwing it in and it came out great. Thank you for another amazing recipe Richa!!
🙂 thank you!
Made this last night. In spite of some ingredient challenges finding fenugreek leaves, garam masala supply ruined had to cobble together, had to substitute puree w blendered canned diced, it turned out terrific. I cant wait to make it with perfect ingredients.
yay! so glad it worked
Absolutely love this recipe Richa! So easy and so flavorful! My family and I really enjoyed this one. The only thing I might do differently is to add the chickpeas more towards the end, since I used canned and boiled the sauce a bit longer. But it was delicious just as it was too! I’m convinced from this recipe and the one in your Indian Kitchen cookbook, Potato Veggie Balls in Garlic Fenugreek Sauce, that dried fenugreek leaves are a killer ingredient. Thank you for making your cooking in many different cuisines so accessible! Love your food.
yay, thank you!
Made this for a vegan potluck event–everyone loved it!
Awesome!
Made this for a vegan potluck event==everyone loved it!
Yay
This was SO quick and easy! I used oat cream and cashew cream instead of coconut milk and didn’t add sugar at all. I also mixed chickpeas and kidney beans as that was what I had.
A hit in my house, even my baby liked it! I’m sure I will make this very often. Thank you!
thank you!