Vindaloo Chickpeas with Spinach

Method

1. Drain and rinse the chickpeas, then leave them in the sieve for a few minutes. Wet chickpeas steam in the pan instead of colouring.
2. Heat the oil in a wide, deep frying pan or a casserole over medium heat. Add the onion and half the salt and cook for 8 to 10 minutes, stirring now and then, until it is soft and going gold at the edges.
3. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute, until it smells sweet. Do not let it brown, or the whole pan turns bitter under the chilli.
4. Turn the heat up, add the chickpeas and cook for 3 to 4 minutes, stirring, until they start to squeak against the pan and a few skins blister. This is the step people skip, and it is the one that gives the finished curry a roasted note.
5. Pour in the jar of vindaloo. Half fill the empty jar with water, put the lid back on, shake it out and add that too.
6. Bring to a simmer, then turn the heat low and cook uncovered for 12 minutes, stirring every few minutes. It is ready when a spoon dragged across the base leaves a line that holds for a second.
7. Add the spinach in three handfuls, letting each one wilt before the next goes in, about 3 minutes in total.
8. Taste. Add the rest of the salt if it needs it, the teaspoon of sugar if the sour edge is too sharp, a squeeze of lemon if it tastes flat. For a milder pan, stir the coconut cream or yoghurt through now, off the heat.
9. Rest for 5 minutes, which lets the chickpeas take up sauce, then serve over rice with coriander, lemon wedges and mango chutney on the side.

Make ahead, leftovers and the freezer

This is better on day two than on day one, which makes it a good Sunday pan. The chickpeas keep drinking the sauce overnight, so loosen it with a splash of water when you reheat it. Cooked, it keeps 3 days covered in the fridge.

To freeze it, stop before the spinach goes in and freeze the curry alone for up to 3 months. Spinach that has been frozen in sauce turns to thread. Defrost, bring back to a simmer, then wilt fresh leaves through. Leftovers that have gone thick are worth mashing roughly with a fork and piling onto toast with a fried egg, which is a better second dinner than another bowl of the same thing. For another jar-led weeknight pan on the same principle, our harissa chicken traybake does the work in the oven instead.

Common questions

What can you make with Maya Kaimal sauces?

Treat them as a base rather than a finished sauce. One 354g jar coats about 600g of chicken thigh, lamb or prawns, or two 400g tins of chickpeas or lentils, or a tray of roasted cauliflower and potato. Brown the protein or the pulses first, add the jar, add 100ml of water and simmer. Our chicken tikka masala follows the same three steps with a milder jar.

How hot is vindaloo?

Hotter than most jarred curry sauces, and sour as well as hot, which is the part people forget. A Goan vindaloo gets its character from vinegar and chilli together rather than chilli alone. Maya's own note on this jar is that it packs a good punch and that if you like a hot curry you will like this one. Coconut cream, yoghurt or a spoon of mango chutney will bring it down at the table.

What do you serve with a chickpea curry?

Plain basmati rice, something cool and something sharp. Yoghurt loosened with lemon, or a cucumber and yoghurt salad, covers the cool; mango chutney or lime pickle covers the sharp. Warm flatbread works if you would rather not cook rice. The spinach is already in the pan, so you do not need a second vegetable on the side unless you want one.

The vindaloo sits with the rest of the Maya Kaimal range, and shipping is free Australia-wide on orders over $100. Orders placed before 12pm on a weekday are dispatched the same day from our Corio warehouse.