Easy falafel curry

This falafel curry is a brilliant way to serve falafel, coated in a creamy, spicy sauce – it makes such a hearty, filling curry! Perfect served over rice or with naan bread for dipping.

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Falafel might not be an ingredient you often find in curry, but it works so well! The creamy curry sauce coats the falafel beautifully, like little chickpea dumplings. It’s full of flavour, and easy to make too – read on to find out how!

How to serve falafel

Falafel is such a vegan staple – it’s one of those things that will feature as the vegan option in 90% of restaurants these days.

But it’s often served in the same way – just on its own, with some salad and pitta bread, maybe a bit of hummus.

This may be the traditional way to eat falafel, but I always like to do things a bit differently, and I think falafel curry might just be my new favourite way to serve falafel!

Just coat the crispy falafel in a silky smooth curry sauce, and they become soft and moist and extra tasty. It’s a revelation!

How to make falafel curry

The falafel curry starts with a super simple curry sauce. Cook off some sliced onions with garlic, chilli and ginger (the smell in your house will already be amaaaazing by this point).

Then, add a couple of ground spices (nothing fancy, just a couple of things that you can find in any supermarket), some tinned tomatoes, and a can of coconut milk. I also added a big handful of fresh spinach.

That’s your curry sauce done!

Just let it simmer away for a while so the flavours can develop, and it becomes beautifully rich and silky, with a deep orange colour.

Goodlife falafel

Next up, the falafel!

I used shop-bought falafel to make my falafel curry, which I would definitely recommend, as by the time I’d made the sauce and prepared my rice and naan, I wouldn’t have wanted to stand around making falafel from scratch too. There’s a time and a place for cooking things from scratch, but for me, 2020 isn’t it.

I used this falafel from Goodlife, which is without a doubt my favourite shop-bought falafel. I sometimes find falafel a little dry, which this one isn’t at all (especially when you dunk it in curry sauce!), it cooks up beautifully, and it’s flavoured with lemon, cumin and coriander, so it’s super duper tasty.

Goodlife also make loads of other amazing vegetarian products, and I love how they’re all centred around vegetables, rather than aiming to replicate meat, and they’re all made with natural ingredients.

It’s so nice to see so many creative and exciting vegetarian products these days – the Goodlife mushroom and spinach kievs almost always feature in my weekly shop (a mushroom mixture stuffed with a super garlicky cheese sauce?! yes please), and the vegetable protein balls are so handy to chuck in the oven for an easy dinner for the kids (we love serving them in bread rolls as a kind of meatball sub!).

I’ve actually not tried a single Goodlife product that I’ve not thoroughly enjoyed, so definitely look for them if you’re in the UK (I get mine from Sainsbury’s).

Just cook your falafel in the oven, and add it to the curry sauce. Job done.

Look how nice and crispy it gets…

Then when you toss it through the curry sauce, it soaks it up ever so slightly, helping the falafel to stay moist, while also holding their shape.

The falafel ends up functioning a bit like an Indian kofta, which is a bit like a meatball (or a vegetarian equivalent!). It makes such a hearty and filling curry.

This falafel curry is just the sort of thing you could serve to guests, especially meat-eating guests, as there’s no way they could feel hungry or unsatisfied by this hearty vegan meal.

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5 from 2 votes

Easy falafel curry

This falafel curry is a brilliant way to serve falafel, coated in a creamy, spicy sauce – it makes such a hearty, filling curry! Perfect served over rice or with naan bread for dipping.

Prep Time: 5 mins

Cook Time: 25 mins

Total Time: 30 mins

Servings: 3 people

Ingredients

• ~ 18 pieces of falafel (6 per person)
• 1 tbsp oil
• 1 red onion, thinly sliced
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 mild red chilli, finely chopped
• 1/2 tsp ginger paste (or fresh minced ginger)
• 1 tsp ground turmeric
• 1 tsp garam masala
• 400 g tin ~ 1 1/3 cups chopped tomatoes
• 400 ml (~ 1 1/2 cups) tinned coconut milk (I used light)
• Large handful fresh spinach
• Salt
• Black pepper

Instructions

• Bake the falafel according to the instructions on the packet – it should take around 20 minutes. Make sure it’s nice and crispy.
• Meanwhile, heat a dash of oil in a deep frying pan, and add the sliced onion, garlic, and ginger. Cook over a medium heat for around 5 minutes, until the onion has softened. Add the turmeric and garam masala, and cook for a few minutes more. You can add a dash of water if the mixture feels too dry – it should be the texture of a paste.
• Next add the tin of chopped tomatoes and the coconut milk, and bring to a gentle simmer. Leave it to cook for a while – the exact timing doesn’t really matter, but at least 10 minutes or so will give a nice rich sauce (a bit longer is fine too!).
• Add a handful of spinach to the sauce, and allow it to wilt for a couple of minutes, then add the crispy falafel. Stir gently to coat the falafel in the sauce, season to taste, and serve immediately.

Course: Main meals

Cuisine: Indian, Mediterranean

Author: Becca Heyes

Note: Nutritional information is approximate, and will depend on exactly what ingredients you choose. Information above is for 1/3 of the recipe.

Here’s another hearty vegan curry – slow cooker chickpea curry: