Chickpea curry

Here is something I tried today. It’s been raining all week and I wanted something comforting and warm. I also had a can of chickpeas (garbanzo beans) in my cupboard that I wanted to use. I looked through some recipes until I came up with one I could work with. Here is the result. It was relatively quick and delicious.

• Half an onion
• 1 clove garlic
• 1-2 tablespoons (25-30 ml) of curry powder (mine was mild), I probably could have added more
• 1 chili pepper (if you like spicy, you might add two)
• 2 tablespoons (30 ml) oil
• 4 medium to large tomatoes, diced into centimeter cubes
• 1 can (250 g) chickpeas, drained and rinced
• 1 cup (250 ml) stock
• fresh cilantro
• juice of one lemon

Use whatever appliance you have to grind up the onion, garlic, curry powder, and chili pepper. Add water a bit of water to make a paste.  I used my slap chop to chop them into tiny bits, then I added a bit of water and used the upright mixer.

Heat the oil in large pot or wok and cook the paste between seven and ten minutes, until it browns (how do you tell if a brown paste browns? I had the same question, but I soon found out.)

Add the tomatoes, chickpeas, and stock. Bring to a boil. Then simmer uncovered until you are ready to eat it. Minimum 20 minutes. I think the longer you cook it, the better it’s going to taste.

(If you had a slow cooker, you could probably add the cooked paste, the tomatoes, chickpeas, and stock into a slow cooker and turn it on low to cook for the day. I’m going to try that as soon as I get a slow cooker.)

Stir in the lemon juice and cilantro just before serving.

Serve over brown rice or couscous.

PS: I had some leftovers so I went out and bought some lean ground meat. I’m going to cook the meat and add it to the rest of the curry to make another meal.