Chickpea Spinach Curry
10 July 2017 | 0 comments
A delicious plant-powered winter Chickpea Spinach Curry packed with warming spices and fresh greens, finished with creamy coconut.
Time for a mid-winter curry. This dish has fast become my partner’s favourite. One would think he is quite deprived by the way he carries on sometimes – when I put this in front of him the other night, he wolfed it down without a sound, then proclaimed – ‘Can you please put this recipe in a folder called ‘Meals Stipe Likes’ otherwise I’ll never see this again and I miss out!’
Pffft.
To be fair, I guess I tend to experiment with new dishes quite frequently (the life of a food blogger!), so it could be a long while before I circle back to making old favourites.
He loved this meal because it was so packed full of flavour, rich and incredibly satisfying. This is no mean feat, as I often wonder how on earth a man can eat so much.
Anyway. The fact that it is approved Dude-food aside, I love it because it sneaks in a generous two and half cups of greens per serve, not to mention a good amount of protein, fibre, and spices that stimulate the circulatory system.
And here’s a fun tip I picked up over the weekend on a course – having some lemon juice in a little water before a starch-rich meal can help up-regulate the enzyme amylase in your saliva, to promote proper digestion!
Finally, if you’d like to add a little therapeutic goodness to this dish, I suggest folding through a few nasturtium leaves and flowers if you have them in the garden. Nasturtium has a long history of both culinary and medicinal use, and has traditionally been used to treat upper respiratory tract infections, making it a fab addition to a warming mid-winter curry!
Plant-powered Chickpea Spinach Curry with warming spices, fresh greens + coconut. Click To Tweet
Serves two.
- 1 tablespoon coconut oil
- 2 Spanish peppers (alternative: red capsicum/peppers)
- 1 shallot
- 2 inches red chilli, fresh
- 4 cloves garlic
- 1 inch ginger, fresh
- 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
- 1 teaspoon coriander powder
- ½ teaspoon turmeric powder
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- ½ cup vegetable stock
- 400g cooked chickpeas (1 can)
- ½ cup coconut cream
- 4-5 cups spinach, fresh
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Prep: wash and thoroughly dry the Spanish peppers, de-seed and slice thinly. Finely dice the shallot, slice chilli, peel and mince garlic, peel and grate ginger.
- Heat coconut oil in a large skillet, low-medium heat. Add shallot and Spanish peppers and cook till softened. Add chilli, garlic and ginger, and cook another few minutes. Add cumin seeds, coriander and turmeric powder, cook till fragrant (up to five minutes).
- Add tomato paste, stock and chickpeas. Cook till chickpeas have heated through. Add coconut cream, stir to combine.
- Ensure spinach is washed and spun dry, then add handfuls at a time, cooking till the leaves have just wilted. You might like to place a lid over the skillet to help it along.
- Add salt and pepper to season and serve on a bed of rice.
