This fall-inspired recipe for Roasted Butternut Tikka Masala can be made with chickpeas or chicken. The fragrant tomato coconut sauce is infused with Indian spices. Vegan & Gluten Free! A healthy delicious dinner recipe, perfect for fall!
This aromatic, flavorful recipe for Roasted Butternut Tikka Masala is bursting with Indian flavors. Traditionally, Tikka Masala is made with tandoori chicken, then bathed in creamy tomato curry sauce seasoned with garam masala. In this recipe, roasted butternut is added to the mix, a nod to fall, giving it a hint of sweetness while adding extra nutrients and fiber. For vegetarians or vegans, the chicken can easily be replaced with chickpeas, tofu or paneer, which I enjoy just as well, but today I’ve made it with chicken. The traditional heavy cream is replaced with either plain Greek yogurt or coconut milk, making for a lighter meal without sacrificing the richness that the dish needs. Serve this over fluffy basmati rice or with naan bread and enjoy the warming flavors. An added benefit to this dish, are the leftovers, which get even tastier as the ingredients have time to meld- perfect for weekday lunches during the week.
It starts with fresh ingredients. Butternut squash, ginger, garlic, Serrano chilies and roma tomatoes.
Butternut squash is peeled and cut into 1 inch cubes.
It’s tossed with olive oil, garam masala spice and salt and roasted in the oven.
It comes out tender and crispy. Roasting, rather that steaming, helps prevents the squash from falling apart in the curry, giving it a good texture. It’s actually quite good just served like this too.
If adding chicken, use thigh meat, and bake it at the same time as the butternut…with a little olive, salt, and garam masala.
While the butternut is roasting, make the sauce.
Ginger, garlic and chilies are chopped finely in a food processor.
This is browned over medium heat.
Tomato paste is added to the ginger garlic mixture, and also “browned” to give the curry depth.
Fresh roma tomatoes are added in next. Rough chop them… the sauce will eventually be blended.
Add water and spices and let this simmer on the stove for 20 minutes, then blend until it’s smooth. Whisk in yogurt and finally add the roasted butternut and chicken to the pot. To serve, place in a bowl over rice and garnish with cilantro and a dollop of plain yogurt.
Roasted Butternut Tikka Masala
This fall-inspired recipe for Roasted Butternut Tikka Masala can be made with chickpeas or chicken. The fragrant tomato coconut sauce is infused with Indian spices. Vegan & Gluten Free! A healthy delicious dinner recipe, perfect for fall!
- Prep Time: 30 mins
- Cook Time: 30 mins
- Total Time: 1 hour
- Yield: 6
- Category: Vegan Dinner Recipe, Vegetarian, Entree, Fall
- Method: Stove-top
- Cuisine: Indian
Ingredients
- 1 small butternut squash, peeled and cubed into 1 inch cubes ( about 6 cups)
- 2 T olive oil
- 1 ½ teaspoons Garam masala Spice Blend
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 lb boneless Chicken thigh cut into bite sized pieces ( optional- Substitute 2 C paneer or 2 C cooked chickpeas)
- Sauce Ingredients:
- ⅓ Cup sliced ginger
- ¼ Cup garlic ( 10 cloves)
- 2 fresh serrano chilies- cut in half lengthwise
- 4 Tablespoons olive oil
- 2 Tablespoons tomato paste
- 1 teaspoon garam masala (see below)
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 8 roma tomatoes- rough chopped ( sauce will be blended)
- 1 ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon pepper
- 1 ½ C water
- 1 Tablespoon dried fenugreek leaves ( optional)
- ¾ Cup plain yogurt ( or 1 can coconut milk, or ½ Cup Cream)
- —-
- ¼ Cup chopped cilantro for garnish
- Serve with Rice or naan bread
- Easy Garam Masala Spice Mix- see note below
- 2 teaspoon ground cumin
- 2 teaspoon ground coriander
- 1 teaspoon ground cardamom
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground cloves
- Mix in a small bowl and store in airtight container
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400F. In a medium bowl, toss butternut with 2 T oil, garam masala and salt, until evenly coated. Spread out on a parchment lined sheet pan and roast in the oven for 30 minutes.
- (If adding chicken, place cut up chicken into the same bowl. Drizzle with 1-2 teaspoons olive oil, 1 teaspoon salt and 1 teaspoon garam masala, and toss to coat. Place on another baking sheet or or baking dish, and bake for 25 minutes or until cooked through. Broil for a minute or two to get deeper color.
- While butternut is roasting, make the sauce. Place sliced ginger, garlic and chiles in a food processor. Pulse until finely chopped. Heat 4 tablespoons oil in a heavy bottom pot or dutch oven. Saute garlic ginger and chili mixture over medium heat for 7-8 minutes, stirring often, scraping up brown bits with a metal spatula. Cook until golden. Add tomato paste, and sauté for 2-3 minutes, or until color deepens. Add spices, and cook for 2 more minutes. Add tomatoes, salt, 1 ½ C water and optional fenugreek leaves. Bring to a simmer, lower heat and simmer on low heat for 20 minutes. Blend the sauce in batches in a blender, covering the blender with a kitchen towel and firmly holding lid down ( to prevent an explosion). Return the blended sauce to the pot. Whisk in the yogurt ( or coconut milk or cream).
- Add the roasted butternut and cooked chicken( or chickpeas, seared tofu, or paneer) and bring to a simmer.
- Serve with rice ( or naan) , fresh cilantro and dollop of yogurt.
- Notes: If making the Easy Garam Masala, know that using whole seeds and toasting them, then grinding them, will make an even more flavorful spice blend. This is one is faster, but quite not as flavorful.
Nutrition
- Calories: 345
Keywords: Butternut Tikka Masala, Butternut Masala, Vegan tikka masala, chicken tikka masala, fall tikka masala recipe, butternut recipes
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This is about to become my new fav curry!! Holy yum!
This looks amazing – I love the sound of squash in this!! Perfect for fall!
I love tikka masala but have never made it from scratch before. Definitely a delicious recipe that I must recreate.. thanks for the inspiration!
Yum…I love the butternut squash addition! I love tikka masala, and have wanted to make my own for quite a while but for a hundred lame reasons haven’t yet gotten around to it. You totally inspired me to get in the kitchen and finally make it this weekend!
Awesome, love it!
I’ve made this twice and am making again tonight. Your photos look like you don’t peel the ginger. Do you?
You know, often I don’t peel the ginger, when the skin is thin and fresh. 🙂
Well, that makes it even easier! Thank you!
I’m surprised by the fat amount in the nutrition label. Is that for making with yogurt, coconut milk, or cream? Looks delicious!
I was too. Sometimes I think my nutrition calculator is totally off. I think I put it in with yogurt. In the recipe I actually used a low fat yogurt, but the calculator may have read it as whole yogurt.
Yummy, thanks for this recipe. My favorite dish.
Yummy, thanks for this recipe. My favorite dish.
I have been looking for a nice recipe like this… yours by far is the closest. Thank you!
Thank you Rachel!!
Thank-you so much for this yummy recipe. Made it tonight, and was a big hit with Hubby. Just changed to one Serrano, instead of two — we are wusses when it comes to heat. Thanks again.
Thanks so much for your feedback…appreciate it!!
do you add the fenugreek leaves before or after blend it?
Before, with the water- I updated the recipe to reflect…thanks and sorry about that!
I absolutely love this dish! I’ve made it at least 4 times, using paneer instead of chicken. Delist!
Oh perfect jen! thanks for sharing, paneer is great!
I am not a fan of ginger. Will it mess the recipe up if I don’t use it?
I wonder, if when it’s all in there, if you will be able to specifically taste it? The flavors round each other out and balance each other. What if you tried, starting with using less?
Wow, this was scrumptious!! Some minor substitutions due to availability (I used veggie broth, jalepenoes and a box of Pomi tomates) but I don’t think they changed the final product all that much. Our supper club tried to eat it as slowly as possible so we could savor the deliciousness longer!! Thank you again for sharing your wonderfully crafted recipes!
Ever since stumbling upon this recipe a couple of years ago, I have made it at least once a month. We change it up depending on the time of year– in winter we use canned tomatoes instead of fresh, and I also love that when I do my JAnuary Whole 30 we can use coconut milk and it still tastes amazing. We also made a big batch and froze it while I was pregnant so after the baby arrived we just dropped it all in a crock pot and had a delicious and healthy meal ready with no prep. This will forever be one of my go-to recipes! Love it!
★★★★★
Thanks so much and so good to know it works in a crock pot!