Chickpea Stew

This chickpea stew is an easy one–pot recipe with simple ingredients and is ready in about 30 minutes.

It’s excellent as a tasty and nutritious everyday dinner and for meal prep, as the chickpeas become even more flavourful the day after.

Serve it with a dollop of yogurt and warm flatbread for a delicious and healthy meal.

Chickpea stews are perfect for healthy and nutritious weeknight dinners because they are easy to make and cook fast and can be easily changed by varying the spices and veggies.

Inspired by world cuisines, we have already made a Middle Eastern spinach stew, a Moroccan chickpea stew, an Indian chana masala, an African peanut stew, and a vegetable stew, all with chickpeas.

In this blog post, we’ll show you how to make a stew with chickpeas, sweet potatoes, spinach, and a mix of spices that will remind you of Eastern flavors.

You’ll only need one pot and about 30 minutes of cooking time.

The result is incredible!

It’s a flavorful, creamy, nourishing home-cooked meal that is hard to beat. The whole family will love it; we promise!

Serve chickpea stew with yogurt, rice, naan, pita bread, or crusty bread.

If you want a lighter dinner, you can even have it on our cauliflower rice.

Quantities are in the recipe box at the bottom of the page.

Flavor base

We start this recipe with a quick and simple flavor base with coarsely chopped onion, grated garlic and ginger sautéed in olive oil for a few minutes.

This simple step at the start of the recipe makes a real difference in taste and flavor depth.

Spices

We use ground cumin, turmeric, and red pepper flakes (or cayenne pepper) for spices.

You can substitute oregano, rosemary, sage, and bay leaves for cumin and turmeric.

Chickpeas

Use canned or dry chickpeas that you previously soaked for 12-24 hours and then boiled in water until tender, about 2 hours.

Here’s our guide on how to cook chickpeas.

Substitute pinto beans, cranberry beans, black beans, red kidney beans, black-eyed peas, and white beans for chickpeas.

Sweet potato

Diced sweet potato adds sweetness and creaminess to the chickpea stew, making the dish more fulfilling and nutritious.

Substitute regular potatoes, diced eggplants, broccoli, cauliflower florets, or mushrooms for sweet potatoes.

Spinach

You can also add leafy greens and collard greens (without the thicker stems) to the stew 5 to 10 minutes before it’s ready so that they have the time to wild and get tender.

Try spinach, Swiss chard, kale, and bok choi.

Diced tomatoes

You can use canned diced tomatoes or crushed tomatoes.

You can substitute chopped ripe tomatoes if in season.

Salt and pepper

We use sea salt or kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Serves well with

We like to top this chickpea stew with cool Greek yogurt and spicy chili oil or tadka.

But that’s up to you; you can simply add a squeeze of lime or lemon.

We use chopped fresh parsley to garnish the meal and add freshness to cut through the warm spices. Cilantro is also terrific.

Rice, naan, roti, pita bread, and crusty bread are all delicious options to soak up the flavorful gravy.

Peel and cut the sweet potatoes into bite-size chunks. Set aside.

Heat the olive oil in a large pot or Dutch oven. Add the chopped onion and sauté for 4 minutes, stirring often.

Now add grated ginger, grated garlic, cumin, turmeric, red pepper flakes, and sauté one more minute or until you smell the fragrant aroma of the spices.

Stir in drained and rinsed chickpeas and sauté in the flavor base for about one minute.

Stir in diced sweet potatoes, canned tomatoes, water or vegetable broth, salt, and black pepper.

Cover with a lid and bring to a boil, then crack the top open and simmer on medium-low heat for about 20 minutes or until the sweet potatoes are fork tender.

Now stir in the spinach and cook a couple more minutes until they wilt. Taste and adjust for salt before serving.

Serving Suggestions

We like to serve this as a main course with a side of rice or bread. It’s excellent with soft naan, pita bread, or roti.

It’s also excellent on couscous or other grains like farro, quinoa, and barley.

We recommend Greek yogurt and fresh lemon juice as toppings. But our guilty pleasure is a drizzle of Tadka, a flavored oil with garlic, chili, and spices.

Make ahead: Chickpea stew is an excellent recipe for meal prep as it keeps well in the fridge and freezer. Plus, its flavor improves a few hours after it’s made, so make it in advance.

Refrigerator: Let the stew cool down at room temperature, then store it in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days.

Freezer: Cool it down completely, then transfer it into a freezer-friendly container and freeze it for up to 3 months.

Thaw: Defrost in the fridge over several hours or in the microwave.

Reheat: Warm the chickpea stew in a saucepan on the stovetop with a couple of tablespoons of water. Alternatively, you can reheat it in the microwave.

More chickpea recipes

STEWS/SOUPS: pasta e ceci, chickpea curry, chickpea soup, cauliflower curry with chickpeas.

SALADS: quinoa chickpea salad, chickpea pasta salad, chickpea salad, Greek chickpea salad.

OTHER: Masabacha, chickpea fritters, hummus, falafel.

For even more ideas, check out our compilation with 35 chickpea recipes.

Mains

Chickpea Curry

30-Min Meals

Moroccan Chickpea Stew

Salads

Chickpea Salad

Mains

Chickpea Fritters