Jessica's sweet potato chickpea peanut stew - an easy winter meal

This recipe (from my friend Jessica) comes together so fast, is made in one pot (or crock pot), requires little chopping, and brings together delicious flavors. A real winner I keep making over and over since she first shared it with me. If you have some ginger, garlic, and a sweet potato on hand, you can probably make this with stuff you have in your pantry.

• 1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed (or about 2 cups from frozen)
• 1 sweet potato, cubed (I used 2)
• 1 1/2 t. curry powder
• 1/2-3/4 t. garam masala (depending on how spicy you like it)
• 1 t. cumin
• 1 T. minced ginger
• 2-3 cloves minced garlic
• dash of cinnamon
• 1 14 oz. can fire roasted tomatoes, in juice
• 1 can light coconut milk
• 2 c. vegetable stock (or 1 if using crock pot)
• 2 T. natural peanut butter
• 1/2 c. red lentils, drained and rinsed (can substitute quinoa, if desired)

Combine everything in a soup pot, bring to a boil, let boil for about 15-20 minutes, then put on low and simmer for about 1 hr. It's finished when the potatoes are nice and tender (and falling apart). If you have a crock pot, turn it on high for an hour, and then let it cook on low for 2-3 hours (or low 4 hours).

how to make beans in the slow cooker

The New York Times recently had an article One Pot of Beans, Four Dinners. And I was just thinking about writing a post about making beans in the slow cooker anyways. It's more economical and tastes better (and is healthier) than canned beans. Make one bag of dried beans, and then freeze what you're not using in 1-2 cup batches. I've done this with garbanzo beans and black beans so far and both turned out really well. Here are some recipe ideas, and tips for making beans in the slow cooker.

Slow cooker beans
This technique works with any beans except lentils. 

1. (optional): Soak beans overnight. Some people say this makes the beans easier to digest. So if you think of it the day before, soak the beans first by rinsing them and then covering with a few inches of water in a big bowl in the fridge.

2. (If soaked: rinse and drain.) Add beans to slow cooker, covered by about 2 inches of water, plus 1 teaspoon of salt. (optional: add aromatics such as a bay leaf, onion, garlic, or herbs)

3. Cook on low about 6 hours. If you soaked them, they might be done a bit earlier, so check around hour five.

4. Cool and then store.

Meal Ideas with Garbanzo Beans (Chickpeas)
Make this bright orange winter couscous from Ottolenghi
A garlicky pasta dish with sage and chickpeas
A raw carrot and chickpea salad with moroccan spices

  

Meal Ideas with Black Beans
This black bean quinoa salad with mango and lime tastes super fresh
Make a nice beef stew with black beans 
Try vegetarian tacos: black bean and sweet potato filling

  

moroccan-style quinoa with chickpeas and chard

This seemed like a good make-after-breakfast-and-bring-for-lunch salad...however, it's very very hot today. So I will now need to go for a swim before heading to the office for the day. Literally sweating over a hot stove, as the expression goes. I need to get more no-cook recipes to survive the end of August (oops - that's coming up pretty quickly... I mean the end-of-summer heat, which looks like it's extending into September).

ingredients:
oil
1 small onion, chopped fine
1-2 carrots, peeled and cut in small dice
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 tsp ground coriander
1/ tsp red pepper flakes
1/2-1 cup quinoa, rinsed (depending if you want this to be slightly larger)
1 1/2 cups broth (or water)*
3/4 cup canned chickpeas, rinsed (or whole can)
2 T golden raisins
salt and pepper
6 ounces kale, stemmed and chopped (or chard)
2 T pine nuts, toasted
1/4 tsp lemon zest plus 1 tsp juice
2 T crumbled feta cheese (which I didn't have...but would be delicious!)
fresh herbs to garnish (mint, cilantro, and/or thyme)

*use slightly less liquid if using chard (releases more water), and err on the conservative side. it's easy to add a bit more water while cooking, but a bit of a mess if you end up with too much water

instructions:
1. Heat oil in a saucepan over med-high, add onion and carrot, cook 5 minutes (until onion softens). Add garlic, coriander, and pepper flakes and cook until fragrant (30 seconds). Add quinoa and cook, stirring, until toasted and aromatic, about 3 minutes.

2. Stir in water/broth, chickpeas, raisins, and 1/8 tsp salt. Place kale on top, and bring to simmer, cover, reduce to low, and simmer until quinoa is cooked (about 15 minutes). Off heat, gently stir in pine nuts, lemon zest, and juice, and sprinkle with feta, salt and pepper. Drizzle with olive oil if desired.  I also garnished with a bit of fresh mint and thyme.

recipe from Cooking for Two, from Cook's Illustrated

moroccan carrot and chickpea salad with dried plums and toasted cumin vinaigrette

I got this great book from the library: Diane Morgan's Roots: The Definitive Compendium. It has sections on each root vegetable, with a little bit of "history and lore," information on varieties and nutritional info preceding the section of recipes. I am learning fascinating food trivia, such as: the first carrots were probably purple, originating around Afghanistan, before spreading into India, China, Japan, and then westward into Spain. They didn't "develop" orange carrots until the 17th century in the Netherlands. This plant history is giving me a whole new perspective on what is "native." It's just fascinating how much can happen in three centuries, the way plants are transported and grown in new places.

Oh, and one more fun carrot fact: The beta-carotene in raw carrots can only be absorbed about 10%, whereas cooking them increases this to 29%.

Anyways, this book is full of great recipes. Here's the first one I tried, with some small changes. Makes about 1 medium-sized bowl (serves 4 as side). It has great flavor and the mix of sweetness from the dried plums and crunch from the toasted almonds makes it really perfect. I adjusted the recipe to make roughly half of the original. Even with toasted the seeds myself it came together really quickly.

Ottolenghi's ultimate winter couscous

This recipe is from Yotam Ottolenghi's Plenty, a vegetarian cookbook. Thanks to Synne for introducing me to this Israeli-born British chef, who also regularly writes for The Guardian. The flavors are always amazing in his recipes. This one was great for using our winter produce. I love recipes that are just so vibrant. This one, with the squash, carrots, parsnips, and warm spices, is very orange and very beautiful. 

Garlicky Sage-Parsley Chickpeas and Pasta with Gruyere

The combination of chickpeas and pasta sounded weird to me at first, but the fresh herbs, red pepper flakes, garlic and a bit of gruyère cheese make this a really delicious - and super quick - lunch. If you haven't yet, listen to the latest show of NPR's Wait Wait Don't Tell Me while you cook. It has a food theme and has some really amusing moments. We especially enjoyed the White House Chef Sam Kass (apparently the President has to pay for his own groceries?), and skipped over Paula Deen ("no honey, i just wanted to be a wife and a mama")...