Domesblissity: chickpeas

Sunday, April 7, 2013

Moroccan Pumpkin & Chickpeas with Couscous

In an effort to eat less meat (for ethical reasons), I’m preparing more meatless meals. I do love the flavours of Morocco and have cooked a Moroccan Chicken and Chickpea Stew in the slow cooker before. This dish was prepared in as long as it took to boil pumpkin. It really was fast food. I got to use up lots of vegies I had in the fridge too. If you don’t have pumpkin, butternut squash or sweet potato would work perfectly.

I love eating food from ethnic cuisines such as Moroccan, Indian, Lebanese, Turkish, etc but it can be quite a bit to set up the spices you might need. You’ll find a crossover of spices in most cuisines with cumin, coriander, cinnamon, cloves, chilli and turmeric. Moroccan food can also have nutmeg, allspice, cayenne pepper and ground ginger. For $2 to $3 you can buy a small jar of premixed Moroccan spices at the supermarket. If you find yourself cooking these types of dishes all the time, it might be more economical to buy the spices in larger packets and make up these blends yourself.

Also, if you haven’t tried couscous before, give it a go. It really is yummy and there are so many things you can mix into it to compliment your dish. I’m sure the kids will love it too.

Moroccan Pumpkin & Chickpeas with Couscous

1 can chickpeas, drained
pumpkin, chopped into bite sized pieces
1 brown onion, sliced thinly
(any other leftover vegetables – I had baby spinach and a grated beet/carrot/broccoli mix)
2 tbs Moroccan spice blend (refer above, use as little or as many as you have)
2 tbs extra virgin olive oil
2 tbs Greek yoghurt
salt and pepper
enough water to just cover the pumpkin in a saucepan
cashews and/or fresh coriander to serve

Couscous:

Make up as per instructions on the box. Add 1 tablespoon of Moroccan spice blend to the oil and fry before adding couscous.

Fry sliced onion in the oil until just cooked.
Add spices and cook until they become aromatic.
Add pumpkin and other vegetables and stir. (I left the baby spinach until the end as it only needed to be heated through.)
Cover with enough water to just cover. Add salt and pepper.
When pumpkin is cooked, add chickpeas and any other vegetables. Heat through.
Once cooked, remove from heat and stir through yoghurt.
Serve on top of cooked couscous and garnish with dry roasted cashews and/or fresh coriander.

Sunday, March 3, 2013

11 ways to use Chickpeas (Garbanzo beans)

You’d think with all of these Mystery Ingredient Mondays I’ve been having my pantry would be starting to look a little empty. Well, no and I haven’t been buying anything. It really was full of unusual and hard to use things. I always have at least 2 cans of these in the cupboard but there’s about 4 now. Can you guess what this week’s mystery ingredient is? Chick peas or garbanzo beans. I love having them in the pantry. They are such an excellent, cheap source of protein. When you have little or no meat, just add chickpeas to your dish. I must admit, they are not that full of flavour on their own. Probably a mild nutty taste but its the ingredients and flavours you add that make the dish more flavoursome. Here’s some ways I use it plus other ways you might like to try. I’ll have a dish for you by this Friday to show you how I used them up.

add to stews, casseroles or slow cooker dishes for extra protein when little or no meat is available.
hummous (dip made from processing chickpeas with olive oil, garlic, tahini etc)
added to salads
added to soups and curries
mashed (as a substitute to mashed potatoes)
made into burgers