Tag: chickpeas

Vikrant Kapoor’s Chickpea Curry (Channa Masala)

.Reading time 2 minutes.

Serves: 4

Zaafran used to be one of Sydney’s best Indian restaurants. My best mate Giles and I would often go there for lunch, overlooking Darling Harbour and the city.

As Darling Harbour (now demolished) slowly merged from a stylish shopping centre and destination to a tourist trap full of ugg boot and opal sellers, Giles and I stopped visiting. Though what great memories and food: nothing beats a midweek lunch and a bottle of cold white.

This is the second Vikrant Kapoor recipe I have cooked. The first was this tremendous barramundi, something that was simply 5-star.

This chickpea curry’s simplicity is deceptive. The clarity of the flavours is just awesome and it was just a perfect side to this Pushpesh Pant Chicken with Fenugreek Leaves.

Arguably, it was much more than a side. Brilliant.

Ingredients

1 large potato, unpeeled
1 tbsp ghee
1 large onion, chopped
1 large tomato, puréed
2 tsp ginger garlic paste
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp ground turmeric
1/2 tsp chilli powder
450gm canned chickpeas, drained
1 tsp salt
Coriander leaves, to garnish

Method

  1. Cook the potato in a pan of boiling water for about 10 minutes or until tender. Drain and allow to cool, then peel and cut into cubes. Set aside.
  2. Heat the ghee in a frying pan, add the onion, tomato, ginger garlic paste, cumin, coriander, turmeric and chilli powder and cook for 2 minutes. Add the potatoes and chickpeas and 1/2 c lukewarm water and cook for 5 minutes or until hot. Garnish with coriander.

Kwality’s Chana Bhatura

.Reading time 2 minutes.

Serves: 4

I wrote a long post some time ago about a meal we had in New Delhi which blew our minds.

The restaurant Kwality in Connaught, New Dehli, where we had this dish of chickpeas served with fried and puffed potato bread and my goodness, wasn’t it a revelation.

The chickpeas, soaked overnight in tea, and then braised with spices is literally perfection. Throw in that oily potato bread and this is just sex.

Nat keeps going back to many of the recipes we discovered on our Indian trip and this is one I am happy to go back to. Most happy.

Served with this Bhatura (potato bread), this is just heaven.

Ingredients

1 c white chickpeas, soaked overnight with a tea bag
1/2 tsp cumin
1 onion, finely chopped
2 cm piece of ginger, grated
2 cloves garlic, grated
2 tsp garam masala
2 tsp chilli powder
2 tsp dried mango powder (amchur)
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
1 tbsp coriander powder
1 tsp cumin seeds
2 tbsp vegetable oil
Salt to taste
Slided red onion to serve
Lemon wedges to serve

Method

  1. Discard the tea bag and boil the chickpeas until they are soft. Drain and keep aside.
  2. Heat the oil in a pan and add the cumin seeds. When they crackle, add the onion, ginger and garlic and sauté until the onion is golden brown. Add the garam masala, chilli, mango, coriander, cumin and turmeric powders and salt and sauté for another minute. Add the chickpeas and 1 c of water and mix well. Simmer for 15 minutes.

Tobie Puttock’s Roast Cauliflower with Chickpea Salad

.Reading time 2 minutes.

Serves: 4 as a side

This is an excellent salad.

A bistro-quality, this-is-excellent, Tuesday-night-just-got-better salad.

It is another Tobie Puttock recipe and it is super simple: like all things cauliflower, not only does it taste wonderful roasted, with a crispy, charred, nutty flavour, though it is satisfying.

Potatoes play no role here.

We love to cook new recipes every time we cook, though having a repertoire of interesting, wonderful salads to whip-up every time we just want a grilled piece of steak, is definitely a thing for us.

This salad makes the cut.

Honestly, get onto it.

Ingredients

1/2 large cauliflower
1 1/2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Sea salt and cracked black pepper
1 tsp dried chilli flakes
400g tin chickpeas, rinsed and drained
2 cloves garlic, unpeeled
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tbsp, hulled tahini
2 tbsp low-fat plain Greek-style yoghurt
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Juice of 1 lemon
2 tbsp warm water
Good handful of mint leaves, torn
Good handful of continental parsley, roughly chopped

Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 180c. Line 2 baking trays with baking paper.
  2. Use a small, sharp knife to remove the florets from the cauliflower and discard the core. Place the florets in a large bowl and season with 1 tbsp of the olive oil, a good pinch of both salt and pepper and the chilli flakes. Spread over one of the prepared baking trays and roast for 30 – 40 minutes until the cauliflower is becoming dark around the edges and crisp. Remove from the oven and leave to cool.
  3. Meanwhile, scatter the chickpeas and garlic cloves over the other lined tray. Drizzle with the remaining 2 tbsp of olive and shake the tray to combine. Roast for 20 minutes or until golden, remove from the oven and leave to cool.
  4. Squeeze the roasted garlic flesh into a bowl, discarding the skins. Mash the garlic with a fork and then add the cayenne pepper, tahini, yoghurt, extra virgin olive oil, lemon juice and water and stir to combine. Adjust the seasoning as necessary.
  5. Divider the cauliflower and chickpeas among serving plates, drizzle with the dressing and scatter the mint and parsley on top. Serve.

Moroccan-style Vegetable and Chickpea Stew

.Reading time 2 minutes.

Serves: 6 – 8 lunches

We don’t buy our lunches at work.

Instead, we cook something big on Sunday night – a stew, a mince, a dahl – and that is lunch for the week.

Nat repeatedly makes the point that there is simply no point in wasting calories during the week. Or to the point, wasting calories, at work, at lunch. Better to reserve the pastas and pastry for the weekends when you can have a few wines and mop everything up with bread and more wines.

I don’t disagree.

Thus why you should consider this stew and making it for your next week of lunches.

Working backwards, it is a calorie blackhole. You’ll burn more calories eating it.

Secondly, it tastes just great.

Thirdly, thanks to the chickpeas, it is filling and you won’t be searching around for a Rivita before four.

Save the money, save the calories and save the weekend for the big chicken sandwiches.

Ingredients

1 tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion, finely diced
2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp ground coriander
1 – 2 tsp chilli flakes
2 cloves garlic, minced
4 dates, pitted and chopped
2 medium carrots, chopped into 2 cm pieces
1 large or 2 small sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped into 2cm pieces
2 x 400gm cans of crushed tomatoes
3 cups of vegetable stock
1 yellow capsicum (pepper), stemmed and chopped into 2cm pieces
2 cups of cooked chickpeas
Salt and pepper
Couple handfuls of baby spinach
To serve: Greek yoghurt, coriander, lemon zest, brown rice

Method

  1. Heat the oil in a large pot over a medium heat. Add the onions, lower the heat and cook until softened. Add the spices and chilli flakes. Slowly saute until the onions are really soft.
  2. Add the garlic and saute for a minute. Add the dates, carrots and sweet potatoes. Season with the salt and pepper and mix. Add the tomatoes, stir and then the vegetable stock. Bring to a boil and simmer until reduced and thickening.
  3. Add the capsicum and chickpeas; check your seasoning. Simmer for another 5 minutes.
  4. Add the greens and cook for a final minute, adding olive oil, lemon zest and seasoning as need be.

Skinny Hummus

.Reading time 1 minute.

Serves: 4 – 6 as a spread

When I first looked up a low(er) calorie hummus, I searched ‘skinny hummus’ and received only results from a company called Black Swan who has trademarked the term. No recipes.

So in calling this hummus skinny hummus, I may be infringing on their trademark. Though any publicity is good publicity for robbydogcooks.com, so I’ll run with the title until such time that they call me.

Anyway as far as hummuses go, this is a really neat recipe. I added a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil (instead of the water as per the recipe), though next time I’ll go with the water; the oil adds to it, though not as much as being able to smugly tell people it has no oil.

Enjoy.

Ingredients

1 x 400gm can chickpeas, rinsed, drained
¼ c fresh lemon juice
2 tbsp tahini
2 tbsp water
1 tsp ground cumin
½ tsp ground coriander
1 small garlic clove, crushed
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Sweet paprika (to garnish)

Method

  1. Add all the ingredients except the paprika to a food processor. Process until smooth in consistency.
  2. Transfer to a bowl, garnish with sweet paprika and enjoy!