I love beans and pulses and use them a lot. They’re great in everything from salads to stews and I also use them to fill out otherwise meat based curries. Rather than buy tinned beans, which often contain a lot of salt, I like to buy mine dried and cook them gently in the slow cooker. Once they’re cool, I drain and bag them into meal size portions and freeze them for later use.
Today I cooked 500g (1.1 lb) of dried Australian chickpeas with just water and a bay leaf, and decided to make a curry for dinner.
This is a filling and healthy vegan dish, but if you want more protein and feel inclined, add a chopped hard-boiled egg. This slow cooking with the tomatoes first, reduces the liquid and makes the onion, garlic and ginger cook slowly, infusing the tomatoes with their flavour without risk of burning. The result is a more dry-style curry, which is lovely to eat with flatbread. As I often find with curry, the flavours improve and deepen overnight and after my generous bowl tonight, there’s still enough left for lunch tomorrow 🙂
Chickpea Curry (Serves 2)
Curry Base:
1 tab oil
1 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 teas ginger, grated or minced
400g tomatoes (bottled or tinned), drained
1 teas honey
2 cups chickpeas, cooked & drained
1-2 hard-boiled egg, chopped (optional)
2 cups shredded green leafy vegetables (silverbeet, spinach, mustard greens, kale or collards)
Spice Mix:
½ cinnamon quill
1 tab cumin seed
1 teas coriander seed
1 teas cardamom seeds
1-2 dried chillies
¼ teas dried turmeric, grated
Method:
In a heavy saucepan, heat the oil over a medium heat. Add the drained tomatoes, onion, garlic and ginger. Stir until the mixture is simmering and add the honey. Stir this through and reduce the heat.
In a spice grinder or pestle and mortar put all the dried spices and grind to a powder. Stir this into the simmering tomato base. Add the drained cooked chickpeas, cover and continue to simmer very slowly for about 10-20 minutes.
If you’re using it, add the chopped hard-boiled egg and stir it through. Just before serving stir through the shredded leafy greens.
Garnish with chopped Coriander leaves and serve with plain rice or flatbread (paratha, chapatti, roti, naan are all good). I used homemade sourdough flatbread, the same recipe as earlier in the week.
I chose to go without the egg, and with my own bottled tomatoes and dried chillies from last summer, fresh silverbeet from the garden and fresh made sourdough flatbread, this dish was rich, very filling and incredibly satisfying ❤
Debra Manskey 