Chickpea and spinach curry

Tonights meal was inspired by the idea of using up as many of the ingredients I have in my cupboards as possible (oh and I haven't been shopping since getting back from my weekend away, so I have no fresh produce except some spinach my Mum gave me). I have been making curries for years in many forms and guises. I've always enjoyed chickpeas in curry, but until today I've never made a vegan curry. 

Over on The Year of Less Kelly is encouraging everyone to use up all the pantry staples that never normally see the light of day. I tried to do this a year ago in the run up to us moving house, but I never managed to get rid of all the surplus. Since then I have bought lots of pulses and pastas that I never use. Well, today started a renewed attempt to eat our way through those supplies... in particular a tub of chickpeas that were moved house with us (in fact I think they probably moved house with me when I moved in with Mr PTC three years ago).  I also wanted a nice healthy meal this evening after a weekend of indulging, and I have the added motivation of wanting to cook and freeze some chickpeas to use as tin-ready alternatives (more on that in another post).

So here we are, a vegan, super-healthy and Mr PTC approved chickpea and spinach curry. I should point out that 1. Mr PTC does NOT really like pulses but he LOVES this (win win win!), and 2. despite my normal advice to adjust the spiciness to your liking, this does need to have a fair bit of kick to it. Most of my spicy recipes can cope with a huge variation in their 'hot-ness' level, but this recipe really does need a bit of bite!

Please do try this. Its fabulous!

Chickpea and spinach curry

Serves 2

Preparation:  5 minutes

Cooking time: 25 minutes (plus extra for cooking the chickpeas if these are dried)

Cost: £3.16 (£1.58 per serving); or £1.37 (69p per serving) using dried chickpeas

1 tbsp olive oil (or equivalent for frying)

1 onion, finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1 tsp cumin seeds (or 1/2 tsp ground cumin)

1 tsp turmeric
1 heaped tsp tandoori powder
1 tsp coriander
1 vegetable stock cube (if you aren't bothered about this being vegan feel free to substitute for chicken, or use fresh stock)
400g tin chickpeas, rinsed and drained (or 50g dried, cooked to packed instructions)

4 tomatoes, chopped
4 large handfuls fresh spinach, washed and drained

100g brown rice

First cook the brown rice according to packet instructions (generally 25 minutes in a microwave).

While the rice is cooking, fry the onion and garlic in the olive oil on a medium/high heat for 2 minutes. Add the cumin, turmeric, tandoori  and coriander and fry for 30 seconds with the onion. Then add a splash of water and the stock cube. Finally add the chickpeas. Simmer for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

When the rice is nearly cooked (3 minutes away), add the spinach to the curry and place the lid on top allowing the steam from the curry to wilt the spinach. You might need to encourage the spinach a little by stirring occasionally. Once the spinach has wilted stir into the chickpea mixture.

Serve immediately with rice.

N.B. The cost of the meal is calculated on the day that this blog entry was published, using Sainsbury's online groceries as a reference for pricing. Each item is costed by weight used not by the total cost of a bottle/packet of that product.

I'm partying over at:
http://www.notjustahousewife.net/
http://ivyandelephants.blogspot.co.uk/

Thanks for stopping by,

Rose

Let me know what you think... leave a comment or send an email to passthecaffeine {at} gmail {dot} com