Dinner tonight: Jon’s Faux-roccan chickpeas

jonlasser

In an experimental mood, and desiring to eat more legumes, Laura and I decided to make Moroccan-inspired chickpeas for dinner.

Here’s the recipe:

Time to prepare: 30 minutes, with precooked or canned chickpeas.

Time to cook: 30 minutes, approximately.

Serves 6. (6 Weight Watchers points per serving.)

Ingredients:

  • 1 medium green pepper, cut in half and seeded
  • 1 medium purple pepper, cut in half and seeded
  • 1 1/2 tsp olive oil
  • 3 Tbsp fresh ginger root, roughly chopped
  • 1 medium onion, thinly sliced
  • 1/2 tsp table salt
  • 1 tsp paprika
  • 1 tsp smoked paprika
  • 1 Tbsp whole cloves
  • 1 tsp ground turmeric
  • 1 tsp ground cumin
  • 1 28 oz can whole Roma tomatoes, with liquid
  • 1/2 cup dried Turkish apricots, roughly chopped
  • 4 cups cooked chickpeas
  • 1/4 cup lemon juice, canned or bottled
  • Additional salt and pepper to taste
  • 1 1/2 cinnamon sticks, broken in half

Instructions:

  1. Broil peppers skin side up, under high heat, for 8-10 minutes or until skin starts to blister. Remove from broiler and set aside to cool.
  2. Add olive oil to a deep skillet or dutch oven and turn heat to medium-high. When hot, add ginger and stir for approximately one minute.
  3. Add onions and 1/2 teaspoon salt to ginger. Cook until soft, stirring occasionally.
  4. While the onions cook, slice the green peppers into thin strips. When onion starts to soften, add green peppers to mixture.
  5. Add spices and stir constantly for 1-2 minutes. Spices should coat vegetables.
  6. Chop tomatoes in can. Add chopped tomatoes (with liquid), apricots, and chickpeas. Add salt and pepper to taste. (If the beans are unsalted, you may need 2-3 tablespoons of salt.)
  7. Bring to a simmer and adjust heat to keep it there. Cover and cook 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add additional liquid if necessary to keep the mixture stewy.
  8. When apricots are tender, turn off heat and stir in lemon juice.

Notes:

Ideas for improvement: add teaspoon of red pepper flakes to spices, add tablespoon of garlic when adding ginger, top with chopped parsley, serve with dilled rice. Would also be tasty to brown chicken thighs in the pan at first, then take them out, add them back in to braise with the tomatoes, then remove, chop, and add back in around the time the lemon juice is added.