Vegetarian Butter “Chicken”

The long awaited recipe for my viral vegetarian butter “chicken” is finally here. This recipe is super simple once you break it down. You essentially keep the base “sauce” of a traditional butter chicken the same and replace the chicken with chickpeas! It’s creamy, buttery, sweet and spicy!

Here’s everything you need to make this recipe:

1 can of chickpeas

1 cup of water

1 cup heavy cream (coconut milk if you are vegan)

4 tablespoons of unsalted butter (vegan butter if you are vegan)

1 white onion, diced

3 cloves of garlic, minced

1 red chili pepper, minced

1/4 cup of tomato paste

Pinch of baking soda

1/2 teaspoon of fresh ginger, minced

1 tablespoon of salt

1 tablespoon of pepper

1 teaspoon garam masala

1 teaspoon of cumin or cumin seeds

1 teaspoon chili powder

1 1/2 tablespoon of fenugreek leaves

Naan to serve or jasmine rice

*For a traditional butter chicken color you can add food coloring

Step 1:

In a large pot over medium heat, melt butter. Add the onion, salt, and pepper stirring occasionally until the onion has softened. Add garlic, ginger, tomato paste, and chili pepper to the pot. Continue to stir until the tomato paste is fully incorporated. Keep and eye on it to make sure the garlic doesn’t burn.

Step 2:

Add the chickpeas, baking soda, garam masala, chili powder, and cumin. Stir everything together and cook for about 1 minute, we want to soften the chickpeas a bit. Add in heavy cream and water. Stir and simmer over medium heat, then reduce to low and continue to let it simmer. The sauce will rise, this is because of the baking soda, but that’s okay that is exactly what we need when it comes to making sure we get that creamy base. Add fenugreek leaves and stir. This is a good time to taste for salt and pepper, add more based on your needs. Let simmer until sauce has reduced, ideally this should take 15-20 minutes.

Step 3:

Serve with naan or jasmine rice. I like to top my dish with a sprinkle of more fenugreek leaves. Enjoy!