This chickpeas potato curry is simple and goes well with rice or as a dipping sauce for your bread. The recipe takes only 15 minutes and is vegan, gluten-free, and tasty for a quick meal.

This simple curry is probably my favorite go-to when I need a quick sauce or gravy for my bread or rice. The curry’s creamy texture makes is so appetizing and light enough to drink as a soup. I also love to add some chopped greens such as spinach or broccoli, and asparagus for the colors. Please check other variations of this curry below and make some today.
How to make Chickpeas Potato Curry
Step 1: Heat up a non-stick pot with oil.
Step 2: Stir in store-bought or homemade sambal such as Easy Vegan Sambal and mix until all incorporated.
Step 3: Then, add the potatoes, chickpeas, and season with salt. Stir the mixture to combine.
Step 4: Gradually add in the water or vegetable broth, enough to cover all the potatoes.
Step 5: Finally, stir in the coconut milk and bring the mixture to a rolling boil, then lower it to simmer. Once the potatoes are fork-tender and the gravy is reduced to almost half, turn off the heat. The curry will be slightly thick as well from the potatoes’ starch.
Variations
- Chickpeas – beans such as cannellini, kidney or lentils
- Potato – sweet potato or taro
- Sambal – other chili sauce such as sambal oelek or sriracha. Please adjust salt accordingly when using other sauces and to tame down the heat level, coconut sugar may be used.
- Coconut milk – I love canned coconut milk for this recipe. Alternatively, you can use creamy unsweetened plant-based milk such oat, cashew, macadamia, and soy
This Chickpeas Potato Curry is
- Quick and easy and takes only 15 minutes to make
- Easily customizable – see variations above
- Gluten-free and Dairy-free
- Perfect for make-ahead meals
- Best paired with rice or bread such as Roti Canai

If you try this recipe, I would love to hear your feedback and see your beautiful re-creation. Leave me a comment, rate it, and tag @woon.heng and #woonheng to your photos on Instagram or Facebook. Happy cooking, friends!

Chickpeas Potato Curry
Ingredients
- 1 small potato skin removed and cubed
- 1 can [15.5oz/449g] chickpeas/garbanzo beans drained and rinsed
- 1 tablespoon sambal
- 1 cup [250ml] water or vegetable broth
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup [125ml] coconut milk
- 1 tablespoon oil
Instructions
- In a heated non-stick pot with 1 tablespoon oil, add the sambal and stir to combine.
- Then, add potatoes, chickpeas, give it a quick stir, and season with salt.
- Add the water and be sure the water covers all the potatoes.
- Stir in the coconut milk and bring the mixture to a rolling boil, then turn down the heat and let it simmer.
- Once the potatoes are fork-tender, which takes about 10-15 minutes, turn off the heat.
- Serve warm with rice or roti.
Video
Feel free to pin the below picture on your Pinterest Board for easy reference.

Hello Woonheng,
I was just wondering if the sambal you have used here is your homemade one, or is it a store bought one? And if it is a store bought one, what type is it? I live in Canada, and when I look for sambal, I see a few different varieties with different ingredients. Thank you! This looks so delicious.
Hi Samantha, I’ve tried with my homemade and store-bought. There is an Ayam brand Malaysian curry paste (no shrimp) that you can use as well. Other brands include Mekhala Living, Mama Lam’s that I love. If you find some paste that comes in package,such as Tean’s Gourmet or Babas are great as well. I just don’t remember which one is vegan/vegetarian friendly. Hope that helps. 🙂
Where’s the curry spice? I must have added too much water to “cover” the potatoes… bland so I kept adding more salt and spices. Then peas, nutritional yeast. Slight improvement. Couldn’t include Sambal because of reflux I. Our house.
Hi there, thanks for your reaching out. The spice is in the sambal, if you are not using sambal, you’ll have to use curry powder that has a blend of cumin, coriander, chili, turmeric for a simple curry. Hope that helps. thanks a lot.
This recipe is insanely easy to put together to have a filling nutritious meal on on the table quick. I made a few tweaks like adding garlic, spinach, and extra sambal, and it was perfect with rice! Might add this to our biweekly rotations!
Yay, thanks Maggie. I’m so happy to hear that you loved this recipe and your pairing ingredients sound so yummy too. Greatly appreciate your feedback and happy to hear this will be added to your biweekly routine. 🙂