Curried Chickpeas with Spinach

[apple_pathways]

It's been ages since I've posted a recipe here, and since I haven't much to say about anything else, I think it's the perfect time for one!

So, here's my take on Punjabi-style curried chickpeas. (I make no claims to authenticity, as I tend to use actual recipes as inspiration only--so if the recipe falls short of the experience of your grandmother's house in Delhi, the fault is entirely mine!)





If you're new to my recipes, let me apologize: I'm not good about measuring things. Unless I'm baking, I tend not to measure at all, but rather dump things in until I think it tastes good. I'll try to estimate the amounts of everything I used, but let your tastebuds guide you if you should try to replicate the dish, and feel free to add more or less of the spices according to your tastes!

Ingredients

• 1 large onion
  
• 3-5 cloves garlic
  
• 2 tsp. ginger paste, or fresh grated ginger
  
• About 3 Tbs. ghee, or olive oil
  
• 1 Tbs cumin
  
• 1 Tbs red chili powder
  
• 2 tsp coriander
  
• 1 tsp Garam Masala
  
• 1/2 to 1 tsp turmeric
  
• dried red chilis or crushed chili flakes, to your taste. (Omit if you don't like heat.)
  
• 2 large cans whole tomatoes, most of the juice drained
  
• 2 cans chick peas, drained
  
• small package frozen spinach (cut leaf)
  
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions

• Slice the onion into strips, about 1/4" thick. Chop up the garlic and grate the ginger, if you're using fresh root.
  
• In a large skillet, heat the ghee or olive oil. When the pan is hot, turn heat down to medium high and add the garlic. Stir for a minute or so until it gets fragrant, then add the onion and the ginger. I also add the spices at this point, as frying them draws out their natural oils.
  
• When the onions have browned, add the tomatoes and the chickpeas. Turn heat down to a simmer, and cook (stirring occasionally) until tomatoes break down. (About 15 minutes.)
  
• Add the spinach, and cook until heated through. Taste the sauce, and adjust seasoning.
  
• Serve over rice.

Comments

[planejane.livejournal.com]

LOL! I do a very similar dish (it's one of my favourites) but I use Patak's curry paste. Because I am a lazy bitch who hates cooking, but LOVES CURRY. Spinach and chick peas, ftw!

I bet your version is much tastier than mine.

[apple-pathways.livejournal.com]

I don't know: there's some damn tasty curry pastes out there! (Though I'm too much of a control freak to use one.) I was debating about whether to add peas or spinach, and I think the spinach was a good choice!

[apple-pathways.livejournal.com]

Also, I have to ask, since I was watching Jamie Oliver cook "courgettes" (Amer: "zucchini") today: had you ever heard of chickpeas called garbanzo beans before coming to the US, or is that strictly a North American thing?

[planejane.livejournal.com]

That's definitely a US thing. I'd never heard of garbanzo beans before moving here. :(

Also, eggplant = aubergine

[apple-pathways.livejournal.com]

For some reason, "Aubergine Parmesan" just sounds really wrong to me! ;) (I'm sure either option looks deplorable to an Italian, however.)

[inkdancer.livejournal.com]

I love making Indian food, especially Dal and Tikka Masala. I'll have to give this recipe a try!

[apple-pathways.livejournal.com]

I love Indian food, though I must confess: I never remember the names of what I've eaten! I tend to pick things out by sight/smell. (One of these days, I'm going to go to my favorite Indian restaurant, where the food is served cafeteria-style, and just write down the names of all my favorite dishes. They have a lentil dish I dream about!)

[inkdancer.livejournal.com]

Is the lentil dish yellow/orange with a bit of veggies thrown in? If so, it's Dal and I have a really good recipe for it.

[apple-pathways.livejournal.com]

Could be! It's more red, though: and I don't remember a lot of veggies in it. ANYWHO, I am always up for new recipes, so fling one at me!

[inkdancer.livejournal.com]

http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/recipes/1716

That's the recipe I usually use, although I love spicy things so I generally substitute habaneros for the jalapenos.

[evilhippo.livejournal.com]

Mmmmm, this sounds delicious. I'm going to have to give it a try next time I go grocery shopping.

[apple-pathways.livejournal.com]

Super easy, super delicious! And just what I needed after the crap I ate at a friend's birthday party last night. (Not that the food was bad--on the contrary! It was just really bad for me.) Other than the ghee (which really makes the dish, I think) everything in it is super healthy.

I'm gonna have to go over to your journal and read about your adventures in Portland. I looked at a couple of your pics, and they were amazing!

[evilhippo.livejournal.com]

Oh, I know what you mean. I've lived the last few days on a diet that was almost entirely fried (there were only two meals that were exceptions). It was all delicious (fried clams, mmm), but I've been craving salad ever since.

I actually haven't finished writing about the shenanigans that I got up to in and around Portland, so there isn't much more than the pictures yet. The Oregon coast is absolutely amazing, though. I'm hoping the rest of my companions get their pictures up, because I somehow went through two sets of camera batteries and didn't get any pictures for the last half of our trip up the coast.

[apple-pathways.livejournal.com]

Eeh, that's why I always get sick whenever I go on vacation! No matter how hard I try to find fruit and yogurt for breakfast, and to order salads whenever I can, I just can't avoid the inevitable tummyaches.

Coast! I love coasts. I need to make my way to a 'coast' soon! In the meantime, I'll live vicariously.

[evilhippo.livejournal.com]

I managed to avoid the tummyaches (goodness knows how I pulled that off in Europe, come to think of it), but I also ended up eating nearly 2000 calories for breakfast on Thursday. I probably should've scaled Mt. Hood on foot after that. Why is it so hard to find reasonable food when on vacation?

I wholeheartedly endorse coast visitation. This was my first time on the west coast, and I wasn't expecting cliffs and dunes and other dramatic things... I'm way more used to New York/New Jersey-style coasts. (-;

[nahara.livejournal.com]

*____* This looks amazing. All the things I love in one meal. OM NOM NOM. this is totally going in my memories. Keep the recipes coming, bb! <3

[apple-pathways.livejournal.com]

As soon as my vegetable garden is up and running this summer, this journal will be inundated with recipes again! As for lately, I haven't been cooking that much, though I did make an awesome minestrone a couple weeks ago. I need more inspiration!

[roh-wyn.livejournal.com]

Well done (and as my grandmother is from Madras and not Delhi, I won't complain, lol).

Tiny tip: after you're done browning the onions, add the tomatoes and stir-fry for a couple of minutes, and then put the onion-tomato mixture in a blender and purée it. You'll get the same consistency as a curry sauce, and all the spices will blend together really well.

[apple-pathways.livejournal.com]

If I had a blender, I would try that! As it is, I have only an ancient food processor that requires some fiddling and the application of a plastic butter knife to get it working. (The tab that locks the lid in place is missing.)

Thanks for the lack of complaining! I love to make a lot of Asian foods, but they tend to be my own fiddled-with, broken-down recipes that I find exceptionally tasty, but don't quite mimic the slaved-over, cooked-all-day deliciousness of the authentic versions they're based on. (That, and I don't mind mixing cooking styles: putting together Thai, Japanese, Indian, whatever flavors to suit my own tastes!)

I'm reading a book that has a character in it who loves to entertain, and cook for strangers. Her guests come from all over, and whenever she invites someone over for dinner, she'll make them a dish from their childhood culture. Which I guess is nice, but isn't that a bit presumptive? To take the food someone grew up on, whose grandmother spent 40 years perfecting, and make it from a recipe and serve it to them? I wouldn't have the balls. :P

[roh-wyn.livejournal.com]

I think guests appreciate the effort, actually, and for my part, it sometimes gives me ideas for my own cooking, lol. And like you, I'm fond of experimenting with foods, although my flavor profile is fairly typically Indian. Yesterday, I made mac-n-channa for dinner, both to see how far I could push American comfort food into Indian cooking, and to get my preschooler to try something a bit spicier than the usual mac-and-cheese he likes. It turned out surprisingly good. Here's the picture, for the curious:

Here!

[apple-pathways.livejournal.com]

If I were an amazing cook who were able to take on new and unfamiliar recipes, and reliably get them right the first time: I might try it. But it often takes me a bit of experimenting to perfect a new dish!

That mac-n-channa looks delicious! I'll eat anything with pasta in it. Did your son go for it?

I always wonder: I know that children who grow up in cultures whose cooking relies heavily on spices are fed spicy food at a young age, but I wonder exactly how young families would start feeding their toddlers spicy food? I can imagine there being dangers to introducing hot peppers too young.

If I ever have kids, I hope I can get them accustomed to eating spicy food! I would hate to have to cook the same bland, boring, "kid-friendly" fare every night for dinner. (Though I wouldn't object to a steady diet of Mac & Cheese. I LOVE the stuff! My stomach might say otherwise, though!)

[roh-wyn.livejournal.com]

When my kid was about a year old, I introduced first salt, then pepper and finally chili powder into his diet. In small quantities, all these are pretty innocuous. By about 18 months, I was feeding him the same food I was cooking for us, but I'd "cut" the spiciness for his portions using ghee or olive oil.

He eats a reasonable amount of spice for a kid his age, but there are still certain things he resists. And he does love his mac-and-cheese, lol.

[apple-pathways.livejournal.com]

I did some research on feeding spicy food to children, and got a lot of different answers from different sources, but there is a lot of anecdotal evidence for people feeding spicy food to children around a year old.