Curried Chickpeas with Indian Rice

Curried Chickpeas
(This dish is flexible according to taste, what’s in season, and what you’ve got in the fridge that’s getting tired)

Note: You can purchase all the ethnic ingredients at Superstore.

Ingredients:
2 cups of dried chickpeas or 2 cans of preserved chickpeas
(Instead of using two cups you can use 1 cup of chickpeas and a second cup of your favourite lentil or bean)
1 whole lemon
1 can of stewed tomatoes
½ a can or bottle of pasta sauce
2 small onions (optional)
Green Peas (optional)
Olive oil (3 or 4 tablespoons)
Honey (2 teaspoons)
Fresh Cilantro for Garnishing

Seasoning: Chilli powder, pepper, kosher salt, red pepper flakes (pinch), garlic (powder or fresh), dark mustard seed, Fennel seed and coriander seed (crushed in mortar and pestle or coffee grinder – do not powder)

Fry the onions in a couple tablespoons of olive oil in a LARGE frying pan. Add a dash of kosher salt according to your taste. Once the onions are browned, add your chickpeas and/or beans. Cook the chickpeas for about 10 minutes on a medium heat.

Next, add your stewed tomatoes with brine. Don’t worry about chopping up the whole tomatoes, they will cook down. At this point you can add the juice of 1 whole lemon and the ½ can or bottle of tomato sauce, and the seasonings mentioned above. Once it’s boiling, bring to a simmer and cook with closed lid for about: 1.5 – 2 hours with dried chickpeas or 30-45 minutes with canned chickpeas (if you boil the chickpeas before adding them to the recipe it reduced the cooking time but takes away a lot of the nutritional benefits of the chickpeas. You can do this in a slow cooker if it tickles your fancy, but I’ve never tried it.

Garnish with a fist full of fresh chopped cilantro and serve hot on top of Indian Rice.

Note: if you are making plain rice, a lot of seed that are used in the Indian rice can be used in your dish. I have left most of the seeds out of the chickpea dish so that the two dishes compliment each other without overpowering.




Indian Rice

This is a flexible recipe as well, traditionally it’s made with Basmati rice, but I have used brown rice, as well as a wild rice medley from Costco. All you need to do is adjust the cooking time. Rice with longer cooking times will assume the benefits of extracting more flavour from the seeds.

Note: You can purchase all the ethnic ingredients at Superstore.

Ingredients:
1 or 2 cups of rice (choose your favourite rice)
Olive oil (a tablespoon)
Kosher Salt (a pinch)
Dark cardamom seeds (3 for a 1 cup of rice and 4 or 5 for 2 cups)
Bay leaves (1-3)
Indian Bark Cinnamon (about 3 or 4 pieces depending on the size of the bark)
Dark Mustard Seed (a generous sprinkle)
Coriander Seed (a sprinkle – if you use too much coriander it will overpower the dish)
Fennel Seed (a sprinkle)
1 onion (optional)

You can either soak the rice first for about 30 minutes and then rinse, or go directly into the recipe.

If you like onions, fry them in the pot with a little olive oil and a pinch of kosher salt until onions are browned. Next add rice and seeds. Fry in oil until rice is browned and then add water (frying first reduces the need for too much water so I usually gage 1 rice to 1 cup of water regardless of what the package says, it varies depending on your choice of rice). Bring to boil, cover and then let simmer for 8-10 minutes for basmati, 40 for brown or rice medley.

Fluff with fork and serve with chickpea dish.