Chickpea Dumplings in Curry Tomato Sauce – a perfect vegetarian one pot dish; protein-rich chickpea dumplings are cooked directly in rich curry tomato sauce; to veganize, use non-dairy yogurt.

Recipe for Chickpea Dumplings in Curry Tomato Sauce was first published in Saveur magazine.
Later on a modified version appeared on vegetarianventures.com. I combined both recipes and added a touch of my own.
For instance, I added a pinch of baking powder to chickpea dumplings to make them light and fluffy. Also, I added some peanut butter to both dumplings and curry sauce.
UPDATE:
Some of my readers commented that dumplings were too delicate and they fell apart; so I changed the recipe and added 1 Tablespoon of cornstarch which fixed the issue.

More chickpea recipes
PRO TIPS
- Serrano peppers are quite hot; if you want medium-hot curry, use 1 serrano pepper for the whole recipe (1/2 for the dumplings and 1/2 for the sauce); for mildly hot curry use 1/2 pepper for the whole recipe or omit it altogether.
- Chickpea dumplings can be shaped by two teaspoons or rolled by hands and droped into the curry. The easiest way would be to use small ice cream scoop.

This is what I call a perfect vegetarian dish (even vegan, if you use non-dairy yogurt). Protein-rich dumplings are cooked directly in tomato sauce and eliminate the need for washing lot of dishes.
I’m sure Chickpea Dumplings in Curry Tomato Sauce are going to be on my menu often.
Short video of the recipe (for long video see below in the recipe card):
NOTE: While filming the video, I used powdered coriander instead of coriander seeds and added it in the Step 3. I also missed filming putting peanut butter in the curry (it is optional, anyway).

- CURRY TOMATO SAUCE:
- 2 Tbsp vegetable oil
- 2 tsp coriander seeds (or 1 tsp coriander powder)
- 1 tsp mustard seeds
- 1 tsp cumin seeds
- 1 serrano pepper minced
- 1/2 onion minced
- 1 1/2 Tbsp curry powder
- 1 can (28 ounce; 830 ml) whole tomatoes (pelati), crushed
- 1 cup water
- 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
- 1 tsp ginger powder
- 1 tsp peanut butter optional
- CHICKPEA DUMPLINGS:
- 1 cup chickpea flour
- 1 Tbsp cornstarch
- 1 serrano chille minced
- 1/2 onion minced
- 1/2 fresh cilantro chopped
- 1/4 cup vegetable oil
- 1/3 cup yogurt dairy or non-dairy
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp peanut butter optional
- a pinch of baking powder
-
CURRY TOMATO SAUCE:
-
Heat 2 Tbsp vegetable oil in a pan over medium-high heat. Add coriander, mustard and cumin seeds, and cook until seeds pop, about 1 minute.
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Add one serrano pepper, 1/2 the onion and curry powder and saute until softened.
-
Add crushed tomatoes together with juice, water, turmeric powder and ginger powder. Cook until it has thickened up, about 10 minutes.
-
CHICKPEA DUMPLINGS:
-
Combine all ingredients. Form into walnut-size balls or drop with a spoon into hot sauce. Cover and simmer for about 10 minutes or until dumplings are cooked through.
Recipe Video
LONG VIDEO (for short video – see above the recipe card).
This recipe was first published on: February 27, 2016

This looks so delicious! But I don’t have chickpea flour, only cooked chickpeas.. So I am going to see if this will be good with chickpea ‘patties’ or ‘cakes’.. kinda like hash browns, ya know?
I am sure it will be ok…
If you’re using cooked chickpeas you will probably need to add some flour and omit yogurt so that your dumplings don’t get too soft. I hope it will turn out well.
Do you think coconut milk in replacement of yogurt for the chickpea dumplings would work ok?
I think it should work.
I made this exactly as the recipe states, they were quite delicious! The flavour was perfect, but I did have a hard time rolling the chickpea dumplings into balls, they were sticking to my hands…any suggestions?
Yes, try coating your hands in flour before rolling the dumplings. That should help.
Or you can use two spoons to form the dumplings so that you don’t have to touch them with your hands.
I followed the instructions exactly, but I had problems with the chickpea dumplings falling apart. I was trying to be extra gentle once they started breaking, but that didn’t help; the majority of the dumplings disintegrated. Do you think that I could bake or steam the dumplings before I put them in the sauce?
I think this is an excellent idea!
How many servings does this recipe make?
I would say 2-3.