Butternut Squash Curry with Chickpeas and Spinach

This Thai butternut squash curry with chickpeas and spinach recipe is easy to prepare in 45 minutes.

Made with simple, pantry ingredients, this recipe is perfect for busy weeknights. You’ll love warming up with a bowl of this curry on a cold winter day!

About the Recipe

Perfectly spiced, wholesome, and incredibly satisfying, this creamy curry offers a hearty plant-based meal the entire family will enjoy.

To build plenty of flavor, the recipe features roasted butternut squash, flavorful curry powder and red curry paste and aromatics like shallot, garlic and ginger.

Chickpeas and spinach add nutrition and texture, and lime, coconut sugar and cilantro are used to achieve the perfect balance of spicy, sweet, tangy, and umami flavors.

This easy-to-make yet flavor-packed squash curry is versatile, suitable for casual weeknight dinners, entertaining, or meal prep.

Love curries? You’ll have to try this Vegan Thai Red Curry Vegetables with Tofu, Coconut Sweet Potato Red Lentil Curry, Easy Vegetable Curry with Tofu, Sweet Potato Chickpea Curry and Red Lentil Cauliflower Curry too!

• Butternut Squash: You’ll need one medium-sized butternut squash or about 4-5 cups diced. Sweet potatoes or another variety of squash would work well as a substitute. The amount doesn’t have to be exact, so don’t worry too much about the size of the squash.
• Coconut Oil: Coconut oil works well for sautéing the aromatics and toasting the spices. You can substitute another oil like avocado oil or olive oil if you prefer.
• Shallot: Shallot works great here but you can substitute another variety of onion such as red onion, yellow onion or white onion if that’s what you have.
• Curry Powder: Use a mild yellow curry powder.
• Red Curry Paste: Use red Thai curry paste or substitute yellow curry paste. Red curry paste is readily available in well-stocked grocery stores, Asian specialty stores or can be purchased online. not all brands are vegan so be sure to read the ingredients if needed.
• Crushed Tomato: Use canned crushed tomatoes or substitute canned diced tomatoes. Crushed tomato will make the curry base a bit smoother but diced tomato also works well.
• Coconut Milk: You can use light coconut milk or regular coconut milk. Canned full-fat coconut milk is suggested for the creamiest curry. Cashew cream can be used as a substitue according to this vegan butter chicken recipe.
• Stock: Any vegetable broth or stock works. If you don’t have any on hand, you can use water but broth will add more flavour.
• Soy Sauce or Tamari: Use any soy sauce, I prefer sodium-reduced soy sauce, or substitute gluten-free tamari if needed.
• Coconut Sugar: You can substitute white sugar, brown sugar or maple syrup.
• Spinach: I think baby spinach is the best green to use here though baby kale would also work.
• Lime: You can use lime juice or lemon juice.

Please note the complete ingredient list with amounts is found in the recipe card at the end of the post.

Variations & Additions

• Protein Additions: To add more protein to this dish, serve with this crispy baked tofu, marinated tempeh or any other protein you enjoy. You can also mix raw tofu directly into the curry, like in this vegan panang curry recipe, but I prefer to bake or pan-fry it first so it’s crispy. To pan-fry, follow the tofu portion of this curried tofu recipe.
• Additional Vegetables: You can add up to 2 cups additional vegetables with the garlic and ginger. I’d suggest keeping it simple with 1-2 extras. Try cauliflower, zucchini, red bell pepper, green beans or carrot. Green peas also work well mixed in when you add the spinach.
• Legume Variations: Instead of chickpeas, consider cooked green lentils or red lentils, canned lentils, black beans or kidney beans.
• Peanut Curry: Add 1-2 tbsp peanut butter when you add the coconut sugar and soy sauce.
• Low-Sodium Option: use reduced-sodium soy sauce and low-sodium broth or use water instead of broth.
• For Spicy Curry: Add 1-2 Thai red chilis with the garlic and ginger. Be careful as they’re quite hot! You could also use 1-2 tsp sambal oelek or up to 1 tsp of red pepper flakes.
• Serving: Top with cilantro, cashews, peanuts, pumpkin seeds, chili flakes, Thai basil or sriracha. Serve or jasmine rice, basmati rice, brown rice and/or with naan, roti or pita for dipping.

Step-by-Step Instructions

Step 1: Prepare and roast the butternut squash. The first step is to roast the butternut squash. This step caramelizes the natural sugars in the squash, intensifying the flavour for extra deliciousness!

Cut the ends off the squash and peel it (image 1). Cut in half in crosswise so you have the top half and the bottom half in two sections, then cut each of those in half length-wise (image 2).

Use a spoon to scoop out the seeds (image 3) then dice it all up into approximately 3/4-inch cubes (image 4).

Drizzle the squash with the oil, 1 tsp of the curry powder and a pinch of salt and pepper.

Roast the squash the squash on a baking sheet on the middle rack in the oven for 24-28 minutes, giving it a stir half way through roasting.

Recipe FAQs

Recipe Notes

• You can use anywhere from 1-5 cups of broth depending on how thick you’d like your curry or if you’re making soup. Note that it will thicken substantially storing so I find about 2 cups works best.
• If you’re short on time, you can skip roasting the squash and add it directly to the post when you add the liquids and simmer until the squash is tender.
• Try to cut the butternut squash into evenly sized cubes for even cooking time.