As much as I love coconut milk based curries, sometimes you just want something different.
For those days it’s hard to go past this mild and creamy cashew-based pot of goodness.
I’ve called it ‘everyone happy’ because it’s a really easy recipe to adapt to different dietary requirements. Use all chicken for the omnivores, all chickpeas for the vegetarians. Or serve with steamed or fried rice for the carb lovers.
Garam Masala is an Indian spice blend that’s normally used at the end of cooking. I’ve recently rediscovered it as a chilli-free alternative for curry powder. I then serve Tabasco at the table for my Irishman to get his heat fix, while the rest of us are happy with the mild version.
See I told you – it really is an ‘everyone happy’ type of dish. One day I will write a book of all Everyone Happy recipes for those of use who are catering for different dietary requirements.
NOTE: It serves 4 if you’re using both chicken and chickpeas. If you choose one of these options, increase the quantity accordingly.
For a pantry meal, use frozen spinach instead of fresh.
Everyone Happy Cashew Masala
Ingredients
- 100 g roast cashews
- 1/2 cup tomato passata / puree
- 1 cup water
- 2 teaspoons garam masala
- 1/2 teaspoon fine salt
- 450 g chicken thigh or breast fillets
- 2 cans chickpeas
- 1 squeeze lemon
- 1 large bag baby spinach
Instructions
- Place cashews, passata, water, garam masala and salt in a medium saucepan with the lid on. Bring to a simmer and cook for 5 minutes to allow the cashews to soften.
- Meanwhile drain your chickpeas and slice the chicken into bite sized strips. When the sauce has been simmering for 5 minutes, remove from the heat and very carefully puree in the pot with a stick blender. You can use a blender or food processor but it's pretty messy and you need to let the liquid cool a bit before pureeing.
- When the sauce is creamy but not completely free of chunks, return to the pot to a medium high heat. Add the chicken and chickpeas. Cover and bring back to a simmer. Simmer for 5-10 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through. If it starts to dry out and thicken too muchm add an extra 1/2 cup of water.
- Remove from the heat. Taste and add a squeeze of lemon if needed. And more salt if it's a bit bland.
- Serve with baby spinach in the bottom of shallow bowls. Finish with the extra cashews on top.
Nutrition
Variations & Substitutions
short on time – brown the chicken in a separate pan while the sauce simmers. Then combine the two.
Keto / ultra low carb – use extra chicken or cooked low carb veg like cabbage, cauliflower or broccoli instead of the cashews. Use pine nuts almonds or almond meal instead of the cashews
vegetarian – all chickpeas!
nightshade-free – use coconut milk instead of the tomato. Or chicken stock. Or just more water and a pinch of brown sugar.
more substantial (carb lovers) – serve with steamed or fried rice for the carb lovers.
more substantial (low carb) – more chicken, more nuts,
more vegetables – feel free to add any veg to the pureed sauce to simmer. Excellent with zucchini or cauliflower. And try cauliflower ‘rice’ instead of the baby spinach to serve. Defrosted and drained frozen spinach or kale will work too.
different protein – any ground (minced) meat – beef, lamb, chicken will be good. Or sausages, salmon or eggs (amazing poached in he sauce).
more fancy / for entertaining – steamed rice or cauliflower rice or this spiced roast cauliflower salad with labneh.
Waste Avoidance Strategy
cashews / tomato passata / garam masala / salt / chickpeas – keep them in the pantry.
chicken thigh or breast fillets – freeze them.
lemon – whole lemon will keep wrapped in a plastic bag in the fridge for months.
baby spinach – either freeze or wilt down in a pan with a little oil and then keep in the fridge for weeks.
Problem Solving Guide
bland – more salt! More spice. Or douse it with tabasco.
too dry – overcooked chicken. Next time get it out earlier. For now a dollop of yoghurt will help.
sticking to the pan – the cashew sauce does like to stick after it is pureed so make sure you stir frequently in the final stages of cooking.
Prepare Ahead
You can but I’m not the biggest fan of reheated chicken so I wouldn’t. Just cook as per the recipe but keep the baby spinach and extra cashews separately. Leftovers will keep in the fridge for 1 week or can be frozen.
Add to my Old Favourite Recipes
Bit of a disaster. I puréed the chickpeas because my husband hates the texture, but that made it way too thick. Had to keep adding water and tomato purée and finally more garam masala to make it edible. Served over a little couscous, then added spinach and finally mush and cashews. It was edible enough that we will try it again.
PS. Stick blending with such a small amount of sauce made a huge mess. Had to cover with a towel to purée. May never get the towel clean! Don’t really like texture of chicken. Will try browning separately and adding. Lots of dishes used for such a meager outcome.
Thanks for reporting back Elaine – so sorry to hear you had a disaster. Sounds like it turned into everyone UNHAPPY.
If your husband doesn’t like chickpeas – why don’t you either leave them out entirely or serve his portion out first and then add the chickpeas and warm them through for you?
And with the chicken – was the texture too dry or something else wrong? If you let me know more details we can problem solve for you.
The failures have the most opportunities for learning!
Oh dear ! This was my first meal I tried. Odds stacked against me. On holiday so I didn’t have the right ingredients. Replaced garâme masala with paprika and red curry, too mild ! Could only find canned spinach, yuk, too strong ! Added in, as an experiment, zucchini and eggplant, raw, to the sauce, and cooked 10 mins. Zucchini ok but eggplant blah. So I made myself extra work, darn. Ah well, I tried !!
wow I’ve never even seen canned spinach Sandra – some excellent lessons here – Eggplant needs longer than you’d think.
And yay for trying things!
We are not very fond of chickpeas, but do not want to eat to much animal proteine, so I substitute them with capuchin beans. Also a little firmer than the usual brown beans, but more flavor than chickpeas.
Fantastic Ryanne!
This was a taste sensation! Dellish! Ands no oil. Must remember to do the sauce part in a smaller pan though as my stick blender covered me in it! ;-D
oh no Donna! I hope you didn’t get burned. 🙂
Oh no, just splattered my dress with the sauce. worth it though – delish!
Made this tonight. My market was out of garam masala…… I just used 1/2 curry, not sure if my family would like the spice…we loved it! I cannot wait to make it with garam masala since we are not familiar with that spice.
Thanks Jules!!!! Another ‘go to’ on my new normal list!!!
I am so thankful for you and all that you do and share with us!
Fantastic Melissa 🙂
Wow wow wow! This recipe was amazing and not nearly as messy as I thought it would be (spooned the softened cashew mixture into the blender with no spills).
Added a bag of frozen cauliflower rice to the finished product.
Served with baby spinach and arugula and lots of lemon and salt. Yum!! Looking forward to leftovers. 🙂
ooh yum Claire! Good call on the frozen cauli rice – I’ve only recently discovered it! Am d using it tonight in a new burrito bowl recipe I’m working on. Enjoy those leftovers 🙂
I made this primarily to try out an alternative method of softening the cashews, i.e. soaking them in some freshly boiled water first. After a few minutes they were soft enough to mash up with a garlic press (and quickly cooled enough to handle), let alone a food processor, and I used most of the soaking water in the sauce. I started off with half the specified sauce ingredients because I was making 2 servings, not 4, but it quickly became apparent that that wasn’t enough for the amount of chicken and chickpeas, and I probably wound up adding another cup of passata (and garam masala to taste) before I thought that I had enough. I then didn’t have enough cashews to make the sauce creamy, but I ground up an extra 60g to go with the leftovers which was about right. I cooked a zucchini in the sauce and a head of broccoli separately. Good.
Wow that’s good to know you can mash cashews with a garlic press Mark – very creative!
It just seemed to be an easier way to mash them than having to stick-blend the sauce.