vegetarian butter "chicken"

Right off the bat, this is not the prettiest dish you'll ever see on this blog. Secondly, I've never had butter chicken, so I don't really know if this is good butter "chicken".

But, whatever it is, it's quick, delicious, inexpensive, relatively healthy, and I pretty much always have the ingredients on hand. So, off we go...

olive oil
1 chopped onion
1 -2 garlic cloves, pressed
3 t curry powder
1/2 t garam masala
1 t ground ginger
1/2 t cumin
1 cup tomato sauce
1/4 cup water
2 T sugar
1/2 cup coconut milk
1 1/2 cups chickpeas*
1/2 lb potatoes, cubed and boiled

Heat a bit of oil in a large skillet. Add the onion and sauté just until the onion starts to brown, then add the garlic and cook a few more minutes.

Stir in the curry powder, garam masala, ginger, and cumin. Stir and cook a few minutes more, then add the remaining ingredients. Simmer for 10 minutes, or until the sauce thickens a bit. I'm still learning Danish tomato products, so if it's not thickening up to my liking, I stir in a bit of cornstarch.

Once I get the texture squared away, I add a bit of salt and freshly ground black pepper and taste it. I find that curry powder and garam masala vary from brand to brand, and even package to package, so I start off easy and usually pimp it near the end. Sometimes I add hot chili powder, smoked paprika, and/or red curry paste.

I serve this over brown rice, but then again, I serve everything over brown rice :)

*this is equal to one 15 1/2 oz. can

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