Curried Vegetarian Black-Eyed Peas Recipe (2024)

Indian » Curried Vegetarian Black-Eyed Peas Recipe

Published: Sep 16, 2016 · Updated: Jul 22, 2019

This curried vegetarian black-eyed peas recipe is an easy to prepare, lightly-spiced mild coconut curry that’s great for people who want a creamy curry without the hot spice usually found in Indian curries. Black-eyed peas are a quick cooking bean which means that you can have this dish on the table in less than an hour when cooking the beans from dry, or in about 20 minutes when using canned beans.

My love of hot and spicy foods is certainly no secret. I love, love, love spicy Thai coconut curries like this vegetable green curry and this vegan red curry, and I pretty much can’t eat fries without Tabasco sauce anymore.

But I’m not always in the mood to sweat it out at the dinner table, especially in the stiflingly humid Spanish summertime, and not everyone shares my love of spice.

So this curried vegetarian black-eyed peas recipe is for you, mild curry lovers! The coconut milk not only makes this curry super creamy, it also tones down the heat of the chili powder and compliments the mix of warming spices well.

The other great thing about this recipe is that you should be able to find all the spices and ingredients you need at your local supermarket. Nothing too exotic here.

Black-eyed peas are a great bean to cook up during the week or any day you’re short on time. I learned recently that contrary to popular belief they don’t need to be pre-soaked and can be cooked from dry much faster than other bean varieties.

I’ve used them before to make this amazing smoky Cajun-style black-eyed peas recipe (it’s really seriously smoky and flavourful!) and I love their earthy flavour that’s so different from other beans. Of course if you don’t have black-eyed peas you can use this coconut curry sauce recipe with any other kind of bean and it will be equally delicious!

Yield: Serves 4

Cook Time: 45 minutes

Total Time: 45 minutes

Ingredients

1 cup dried black-eyed peas (2 ½ cups cooked)
1 tablespoon oil
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 medium onion, diced
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tablespoon minced ginger
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon cumin powder
2 teaspoons chili powder
2 teaspoons garam masala (see note below)
1 tablespoon coriander powder
3 tomatoes, diced
1 cup coconut milk
Salt, to taste
A bunch of fresh cilantro, chopped, for garnish

Instructions

Rinse and pick through the black-eyed peas. Put them in a pot and cover with water and add salt to taste. Bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer and cook until the beans are soft, 30-45 minutes. Drain.
While the beans are cooking, prepare the coconut curry sauce. Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the cumin seeds and fry, stirring, for 20 – 30 seconds or until the seeds are fragrant and begin to crackle.
Reduce the heat to medium and add the onion. Fry until transparent then add the garlic and ginger and fry until soft. Add all the spice powders and fry, stirring, for about a minute or until they release their aroma.
Add the tomato and raise heat to medium-high. Simmer, stirring occasionally and crushing the tomatoes with the back of your spoon until you get a thick sauce. Add the black-eyed peas, coconut milk and salt to taste. Simmer for a couple of minutes or until the sauce reaches the consistency that you like.
Serve with fresh chopped cilantro sprinkled on top and basmati rice.

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Note: Packaged garam malasa mixes are often too spicy and full of cheap fillers rather than fragrant spices. I make my own garam masala, which is really easy and good to have on hand in your spice rack. I don’t put any chili powder in my garam masala so if yours has chili, your dish will be spicier than mine.

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Reader Interactions

Comments

Karen White says
November 24, 2016 at 1:45 pm
I share your love of hot and spicy food but this sounds equally yummy. Another one to try very soon.
Reply
- Melissa says
  November 28, 2016 at 3:47 pm
  Please do, this recipe is spectacular (if I do say so myself :P)!
  Reply
chitra says
February 11, 2017 at 11:27 am
Tried this. It was amazing. Thanks!
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Reply
Becky says
July 22, 2017 at 2:34 am
Any recommendations for vegetable side dishes that pair well with this curry?
Reply
- Melissa says
  July 24, 2017 at 9:30 am
  This curry is so flavourful it's great with any steamed veggie of your choice. If you want more of an Indian vibe, try these spiced potatoes and zucchini.
  Reply
  - Becky says
    August 03, 2017 at 12:14 am
    Thanks! I took inspiration from another one of your recipes and threw a bunch of chopped chard in with this one. It turned out quite well. Great recipe!
    Reply
Anna says
July 26, 2017 at 12:20 am
Hi! What tomatoes did you use? Fresh or canned?
Reply
- Melissa says
  August 04, 2017 at 3:52 pm
  Fresh
  Reply
Jacqueline says
September 21, 2017 at 9:04 am
Scrumptious! I used cardamom seeds as I didn't have cumin seeds and it still tasted delicious - non veggie husband loved it too! Best wishes from New Zealand
Reply
Jane says
October 01, 2017 at 1:09 pm
Made this ! But instead mixed black beans, black eyes peas, and lentils up to the 2 &1/2 cups, with also some snow peas ! Was delicious !
Reply
Theresa says
December 31, 2017 at 11:24 pm
I made this exactly as written and it was delicious. I love how the cumin seeds add another complexity of cumin flavor.
Reply
Melissa says
January 01, 2018 at 11:44 pm
Just made this for New Year’s and it was great! I served it with sweet potatoes. Thank you!
Reply
sf says
January 16, 2018 at 11:15 pm
I made this last night and it was spectacular... even though I got confused and this American used American chili powder,
which is a mix (not chile powder). From the comments, I see I should have used cayenne, hot paprika or maybe Kashmiri chile powder, but I thought it was delicious anyway! I'll make a note to use a hot chile powder on my copy of the recipe, because I'm definitely going to make this again. BTW: I added a handful of spinach to mine. Yum!
Reply
Karen Babyak says
January 23, 2018 at 1:21 am
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This was sooo good. I made lettuce wraps with it because I made mine in the rice cooker so I couldn’t make rice. Umm, both of those decisions were perfect. Sooo good as a wrap!
Reply
Danielle says
February 26, 2018 at 1:33 am
Thank you for this recipe, it is so delicious! I added pumpkin, sweet potato, carrots that I bakes with some of the spices first and then some spinach at the end. I will definitely make this again 🙂
Reply
April says
June 17, 2018 at 4:27 pm
Hi ,
What type of coconut milk did you use? regular unsweetened carton milk or canned coconut milk? Also, if canned, did you use lite or regular?
Reply
- Melissa says
  June 19, 2018 at 12:06 pm
  Regular canned coconut milk, not lite.
  Reply
Lynn says
July 25, 2018 at 6:28 pm
Hi, If I’m using fresh plum tomatoes (roughly a half cup each cut up), how many would I need? I made this recipe a few months ago and because winter tomatoes are tasteless at best, I ended up using canned diced tomatoes and it was absolutely delicious. Making this again for the family and will be doubling the recipe and will definitely be using fresh tomatoes.
Reply
- Jessica says
  November 15, 2018 at 10:02 am
  Lynn, did you use just 1 can of diced tomatoes? This recipe sounds good and I have a bunch of black eyed peas (a bean I've never used before) and plenty of canned diced tomatoes
  Reply
  - Lisa says
    April 13, 2019 at 3:37 am
    Hi - I just made this tonight and I used diced canned tomatoes with no additional salt added. I drained them and then put them in. They didn't cook down entirely as I would have liked, but the dish still tasted amazing.
    I have a question when useing fresh tomatoes - my gut thinks you would want to either roast them or blanch them to remove the skins?
    Reply
Ginger says
August 21, 2018 at 3:38 am
This recipe was a little bit more than wonderful!
I left out the coconut milk because I didn’t have it on hand and served it over rotini pasta. It tasted just like a chili recipe. I will continue to have this recipe often.
Thank you.
Reply
Rebone says
September 16, 2018 at 5:15 pm
I love this recipe. I have made it quite a couple of times, which is rare for recipes I find online. I'm in fact, about to make it again. So just want to thank you for sharing this. 🙂
Reply
Leigh Anna G. says
October 13, 2018 at 12:26 am
This is a wonderful recipe, so grateful I stumbled on it- thank you for sharing!
Reply
Zaza says
November 09, 2018 at 12:42 am
I made this a few times now, and we love it. Always come back to this curry because it's simple but flavourful. Soul food 🙂
Reply
zak says
November 09, 2018 at 5:58 pm
Hi what is an alternative to use instead of coconut milk? Thanks!
Reply
Janine Latus says
January 04, 2019 at 11:54 am
I don't see tomatoes on the ingredients list. What kind and what volume?
Reply
Angela Carrion-Jones says
February 21, 2019 at 3:06 am
Hi,
Do you drain the beans before adding them to the curry"
Reply
Lisa says
April 13, 2019 at 3:34 am
I tried this and loved it; but I would like to know what are the calorie counts? How would I go about trying to figure all of that out?
Reply
- Melissa says
  April 29, 2019 at 9:09 am
  There are many online nutritional calculators. You can just copy and paste the ingredients in. I don't have a specific one to recommend since I'm not a nutritionist and I cannot assess if they're accurate or not.
  Reply
Cheryl says
April 30, 2019 at 4:24 pm
Made this last night for lunches this week. No Garam Masala and didn’t want to make so used some curry powder. Yum. Now I have another way to make black-eyed peas . Yeah!
Reply
Carol says
August 07, 2019 at 7:43 pm
Just tried this dish and it was delicious! Thank you.
Reply
David says
November 02, 2019 at 3:30 pm
I wish to make your recipe but i'd like to spice it up. What addition do you suggest to accomplish a warmer version of the recipe?
Reply
Rebone says
March 29, 2020 at 2:24 pm
I've tried this with coconut milk and when I didn't have that, with cow's milk. Although it's tastier and more fragrant with coconut milk, it works well with either. I hardly ever have fresh coriander but it works well without it. I also add a bit of chutney for subtle sweetness. Great served with brown basmati rice, and even better served with mashed potato. Thanks for sharing. 🙂
Reply
Bonnie says
March 07, 2022 at 3:10 am
Made these tonight—delicious! I was out of cumin and I used canned tomatoes, but followed everything else to a T. Even my daughter who is not a big fan of coconut curries gave me a compliment! Can’t wait to eat leftovers for lunch tomorrow.
Reply

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Curried Vegetarian Black-Eyed Peas Recipe (2024)

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