Why this curry earns its place in the freezer

There is a particular satisfaction in opening the freezer on a grey Tuesday and finding six portions of something that tastes as though it took all afternoon. This chickpea curry does take all afternoon — but it takes it in the slow cooker, unattended, while you get on with the garden or the school run. Chickpeas hold their shape far better than most vegetables after freezing, the sauce thickens rather than separates, and the spices deepen overnight, so the second portion often beats the first. One batch fills six 350ml tubs: six lunches, or three dinners for two, for about fifteen minutes of real work.

The core of the recipe

This makes roughly six generous portions. Adjust the chilli to your household, not to a cookbook.

• 400g dried chickpeas, soaked overnight — or two 400g tins, drained
• 2 large onions, sliced
• 4 garlic cloves and a thumb of fresh ginger, both grated
• 2 tsp ground cumin, 2 tsp ground coriander, 1 tsp turmeric, ½ tsp ground cinnamon
• 1–2 tsp chilli flakes or one chopped fresh chilli
• 400g tin chopped tomatoes and 1 tbsp tomato purée
• 400ml tin full-fat coconut milk — the light sort splits and tastes thin
• 500g seasonal vegetables, cut into 3cm pieces
• 1 tsp salt and a good grind of pepper

If you use dried chickpeas, boil them hard for ten minutes in plenty of water before they go near the slow cooker. This is not fussiness: raw pulses contain compounds that cause serious stomach upset, and slow cooker temperatures are not reliably high enough to destroy them. Drain afterwards and carry on. Tinned chickpeas need none of this.

Using what the garden is actually giving you

This is a recipe that bends to the seasons rather than fighting them. In late spring and early summer, courgettes, broad beans and the first spinach go in — add tender leaves in the last twenty minutes so they keep their colour. Through high summer, use the glut of runner and French beans, chopped short, plus greenhouse tomatoes in place of half the tinned ones. Autumn is squash, cubed and given the full cooking time, with kale or chard stirred through at the end. Winter calls for leeks, celeriac and parsnips; celeriac disappears into the sauce and gives it a lovely, faintly nutty body.

A windowsill is enough for the rest. Sow coriander successionally in small pots every three weeks and cut it young, because it bolts the moment it is stressed. Fresh curry leaves are worth hunting down frozen if you cannot overwinter a plant, though a bay leaf from a pot by the door is a decent stand-in and can go in at the start.

Method: what goes in, and when

Soften the onions in a frying pan with a little oil over a medium heat for eight to ten minutes, until properly golden rather than merely translucent. This matters more than any other step and is not one to skip — a slow cooker will not brown anything. Add the garlic, ginger, chilli and ground spices for a minute more, until they smell warm and toasted.

Scrape the lot into the slow cooker. Add the tomato purée, chopped tomatoes, coconut milk, salt, pepper, prepared chickpeas and any firm vegetables — squash, celeriac, parsnip, leek. Stir well, cover, and cook on low for 7–8 hours or high for 4 hours.

Thirty minutes before the end, add quick-cooking vegetables and greens. Check the seasoning, and if the sauce looks thin, leave the lid off for the last half hour; slow cookers do eventually reduce. Using tinned chickpeas instead of dried? Knock an hour off the low setting — they only need to heat through and take on flavour.

Portioning, freezing and reheating

Cool the curry as quickly as you can, ideally within ninety minutes of the cooker switching off. Spread it out in a wide dish rather than leaving it deep in the pan; a shallow layer loses heat far faster. Then portion while still slightly warm.

• Tubs: 350ml lidded containers, filled to about 2cm below the rim to allow for expansion
• Bags: laid flat, they freeze into thin slabs that stack like books and defrost far quicker
• Label: name, date and heat level — a mild batch and a fiery one look identical under frost
• Keep for: three months; beyond that it is safe, but the spices fade

Defrost overnight in the fridge, then reheat in a pan or microwave until piping hot all the way through, stirring once or twice so no cold pocket survives. Reheat each portion only once. Rice freezes well alongside it — bag it as soon as it is cooked and cooled, and never let it sit at room temperature.

Finishing touches that wake up a defrosted portion

Freezing dulls aromatics, so a thirty-second tarka is the best thing you can do at serving time. Heat a tablespoon of ghee or oil in a small pan, add a teaspoon of cumin seeds and a few mustard seeds, wait for them to pop, then pour over the bowl. A squeeze of lemon, a spoonful of natural yoghurt and a scatter of fresh coriander will make a defrosted portion taste freshly made. Serve with rice, a flatbread, or — better still on a cold evening — a baked potato with the curry spooned over the top.