Thursday, January 21, 2010

Curried Chickpeas, Onions, and Kale in a Tomato Sauce


This recipe should be called "I bought a whole bunch of kale for a recipe and then forgot the recipe I needed it for, and now I need to use it asap."  But I have been making variations of this recipe for the past two years, and because I have yet to meticulously measure everything, it is different everytime.  Even in this attempt to write it down, every ingredient is an estimate.  While I do recommend using all the spices I listed, the amounts of certain spices are flexible (especially the spicy masala curry powder, and to a certain extent the mustard seed).

This is a quick meal to put together - I cut the kale and onions this morning before I went to class so that in my short break between classes and work I was able to make a warm, absolutely delicious, and satisfying meal.  It has a taste that is reminiscent of Indian food, but the tomato paste makes it a little more savory.  But you still get a nice delightful tingle of curry & sriracha sauce in the back of your throat… Mmm.  And the best part of this recipe?  It's low ingredient (and possibly pantry) friendly!  Maybe next time I make this I'll add some green onions...

And to John (the Kale-less wonder), try this to ease yourself into Kale.  Or have Sam make it for you.

Ingredients:

  • a dash or two of Olive Oil
  • 1 onion, diced
  • half of a bunch of kale, chopped
  • 1-15oz can of organic chickpeas, drained
  • 1 small can of tomato paste
  • 2-4 TBSP (approx) Hot Masala Curry Powder
  • ½ tsp yellow mustard seed
  • a dash of cinnamon
  • a dash (½ tsp?) coriander
  • 2 gloves of garlic, crushed
  • kosher salt
  • freshly ground black pepper
  • 1 or 2 TBSP Sriracha sauce

Directions:

  1. Heat oil in a large skillet and cook onions with the mustard seed for a minute or so.  Then add about 1 TBSP of curry power, cinnamon, and coriander to the onions and continue cooking until translucent.  Add in chopped kale and cook down (it will shrink dramatically in size, this is good).  Sprinkle a few pinches of kosher salt and grind the black pepper over the kale - mix in.
  2. Stir in chickpeas and crushed, cook for about 2 to 3 minutes.  Reduced the burner to medium heat and stir in tomato paste with the rest of the curry powder.  Stirring this in will take some effort, but just work to make sure "break up" the tomato paste and incorporate the vegetables/chickpeas into it.  Once all incorporated, drizzle Sriracha sauce and stir to incorporate.  
  3. Serve hot, but it also works wonderfully heated up the next day (trust me, I know, I'm not so good at "cooking for one").  I usually cook rice to serve this over, but I ran out of time.  While rice compliments this very well, it is also delightful on its on.


6 comments:

Agnieszka said...

Hi Katherine, beautiful blog! The first sentence your wrote - OMG, it happens to me all the time. I go to farmers market and can't resist buying all those gorgeous vegs. When I'm at home all of the sudden I can't find any recipe I need. Tomorrow is my farmers market day , so I have to guard your excellent recipe, because it is more than certain I'll be back home with a large bunch of kale. :)

Katherine Martin said...

Yeah - I have a problem with buying obscene amount of zucchini, corn, & berries in the summer, squash & apples in the fall...and kale all year round. If there was Farmers Markets anonymous, I would have to join.

VegeCooking Club said...

This made me laugh because I think that is where most of my recipes come from. I think of something I want to make, buy the ingredients, never make it and then thing OH MAN, I need to use this NOW!

Lindsey Frances said...

This is such a delicious sounding way to use kale.

p.s. I just found your blog. I'm a mostly vegetarian, so your recipes are really helpful!

Katherine Martin said...

Lindsey - I'm glad I'll be able to help! And if I could feasibly, and tastefully, incorporate kale into 75% of my recipes, I would. And I'm trying to post more recipes & less baked goods as it's the new year.

Dawn - I am in that spot more frequently than I wish I was... oy.

Miyoko Ohtake said...

Hi Kathrine. My mum sent your recipe to me and I used my big bag of CSA box chard to make it then later cooked down some spinach and added that in too and enjoyed it all with couscous: http://miyokoeats.wordpress.com/2010/04/27/indian-chickpeas-and-chard/ Great recipe. Thanks for sharing.

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