Curried Chickpeas with Carrots and Kale

Curried Chickpeas with Carrots and Kale

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon coconut oil
• 1/2 onion, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 cans chickpeas, drained
• 1 cup diced carrots
• 1/2 bunch lacinato kale, chopped
• 1 tablespoon curry powder
• 1 teaspoon cumin powder
• 2-3 cups water
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

• In a pot over medium heat, sweat the diced onion in coconut oil.  Add garlic and stir until fragrant.
• Add the rest of the ingredients (2 cups water if you like it thicker, 3 cups if you like more broth).  Bring to a boil, then reduce to simmer.  Cook, uncovered, for 15 - 20 minutes until everything is tender.
• Serve over brown rice.

Curried Lentils and Chickpeas

It's Meatless Monday.  I've fallen into a rut lately (just life and stuff) and have been resorting to old favorites like Goat Cheese and Spinach Stuffed Portobellos, Frittatas, Lentil and Pasta Soup, and even just scrambled eggs with toast (GF crackers for me) for Monday dinners.  Today I was feeling a bit feisty, so I thought I'd make something new.  Well, new to me.  I was jonesing for something curry, and this totally hit the spot.  And it's easy, too.  Yay!

Curried Lentils and Chickpeas


Ingredients:

• 1 cup dried chickpeas
• 3/4 cup dried lentils
• 1 tablespoon coconut oil
• 1/2 onion, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced 
• 1 tablespoon curry powder
• 1 teaspoon cumin powder
• 2 cups water
• salt & pepper to taste
• hot pepper sauce to taste (optional)

Directions:

• Rinse chickpeas and lentils in running water, then soak in separate bowls overnight.
• In a medium pot, sauté the onion and garlic in coconut oil over medium heat for a few minutes until soft and fragrant.
• Drain the chickpeas and lentils and add to the pot.  Add the curry and cumin powders.  Stir over medium heat for a minute.
• Add the water and salt & pepper to taste.  Bring to a boil, then reduce to simmer, cover and cook for about 30 minutes until the chickpeas and lentils are tender. Adjust salt and pepper as needed, and add hot pepper sauce (optional).  Serve over brown rice (or with whole wheat naan if you're not gluten-free).

Tonight I served this with a side of simple roasted cauliflower.  I'm a happy camper.

Garlic Shrimp and Chickpeas

Garlic Shrimp and Chickpeas
Taken from this recipe.


Ingredients:

• 2 15-oz. cans of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• 3 tablespoons of olive oil, divided
• Tastefully Simple Seasoned Salt
• 1 pound jumbo shrimp, peeled and de-veined
• Tastefully Simple Garlic Garlic
• 1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
• juice of 1/2 lemon

Directions:

• Pre-heat oven to 450 degrees F.
• Toss chickpeas with 1 tablespoon of olive oil and TSSS to taste.  Pour into a rectangular baking dish and bake for about 20 minutes until they are golden.
• In the meantime, toss shrimp with the remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil, TSSS, TSGG and lemon zest and let sit to marinate for at least 10 minutes.
• After they have baked for 20 minutes, remove the dish of chickpeas from the oven and place the shrimp on top.  Return to the oven and continue baking for 8-10 minutes until shrimp are completely pink and cooked through.
• Sprinkle with lemon juice before serving.

Roasted Garbanzo Beans

I do apologize for my long blogging hiatus. I was also on a cooking hiatus since school got really hectic as we're rolling towards the end of the semester. We ate out way too much and I can totally feel it in my waist. :-( So even though finals are only a couple weeks away and life is as busy as ever right now, I've decided to get back to cooking and eating healthy.

The challenge with this blog is not necessarily the cooking part, I think I've got that down, it's the cooking new foods part. I love trying new recipes and cooking methods, it's just that when I'm busy and crunched for time, I tend to fall back to my old favorites which are quick to not only think up and shop for, but to prepare as well since I don't have to research and refer to other sources. But I do have a long list of new items I want to prepare and try, so I will do my best to cycle through them on a more regular basis. :-)

I was baking a double-batch of kale chips tonight when my mind started to wander. Hmmm, I wonder what else I can roast up to a crisp? When I opened up my pantry, I saw a lonely can of garbanzo beans (AKA chickpeas) amidst cans of black, kidney and great northern beans. So over to the computer I went to search for a recipe. Ta-Dah! Roasted Garbanzo Beans! So easy and so yummy!

Roasted Garbanzo Beans
Adapted from this recipe.

Ingredients:

• 1 (15 oz.) can of garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained
• PAM
• Tastefully Simple Seasoned Salt

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
• Dry the garbanzo beans with a paper towel and place them onto a baking sheet in a single layer.
• Roast in the preheated oven for 40 - 50 minutes or until golden brown and crunchy, tossing the beans with a wooden spoon every 15 minutes or so to prevent sticking.
• When beans are nice and crunchy, remove from oven.  Spray the roasted beans very lightly with PAM and sprinkle with seasoned salt.  Toss and enjoy!

Ok, so one can of these suckers isn't nearly enough for a family of 3 plus Grandma.  I'll need to at least double it for next time.  ;-)