I thought that I’d try this classic curry and add my leftover veggies from the fridge. I was convinced I had a tin of chickpeas in the store cupboard at home and it turns out I didn’t so you’ll also learn how to speedily cook dried chickpeas in a pressure cooker here!

Ingredients

150g dried chickpeas (or a tin of cooked chickpeas)

1 large onion peeled and top and tailed.

2 cloves of garlic – peeled

thumb size piece of fresh ginger (peeled)

1 teaspoon cumin seeds

1 carrot thinly sliced or diced if you prefer

1 tin of tomatoes (I like Cirio as they lack the tartness that you sometimes get with tinned tomatoes)

2 teaspoons of turmeric powder

1 red bell pepper washed and diced into about chickpea sized pieces

3- 4 medium chopped fresh tomatoes

1 green and 1 red chilli – finely chopped.

3 spring onions – finely sliced

1 handful of fresh coriander

1/4 cucumber, deseeded and cubed

little gem lettuce – washed and leaves separated.

1/2 a lime

Method

If you are making the chickpeas from dried; wash them and tip them into a pressure cooker (I use a Prestige one), cover with 2 litres of water. Lock on the lid on and set it to level 1 (if you have that). Bring to the boil until the red marker pops up and then reduce the heat to a simmer for 45mins.

In a separate pan boil the carrots for about 5mins or microwave for 1min. Drain them and set aside.

While that’s happening, prepare your veg and make the sauce:

I used my Magimix (small bowl and blade) to chop the onion, ginger and garlic finely. Heat two tablespoons of sunflower oil in a saucepan and then add the onion mixture. Fry it for about 5 mins then add the cumin seeds an stir for a minute or 2 until the seeds are fragrant but don’t let them burn.

Next add the partly cooked carrots, stir and fry for a couple of minutes.

Then add the tinned tomatoes and about half a tin of water, mix well, cover and cook for about 10-15 mins until the carrots are nice and tender.

When the 45mins is up, remove the pressure cooker from the heat and leave to cool for 10mins and then release the lid. Drain the chickpeas and transfer them to the pot with the tomatoes in. Add the chopped fresh tomatoes, pepper and chilli and stir well. Simmer for 3mins and then stir in the fresh coriander and spring onion.

Serve in toasted and halved pita breads with the diced cucumber and lettuce. Squeeze a little lime over it just before serving.