Chickpeas, Green Beans, and Spicy Chips

Chickpeas soaked for several hours before being cooked in unsalted water for three hours. With an added dried red chilli. The green beans were steamed for ten minutes. The spicy chips were parboiled for seven minutes in salted water, before being drained, and then dressed in tomato ketchup, olive oil, Oregano and Basil. Cooked under the grill for fifteen minutes (judge progress by eye). Served on some dark soy sauce. 

 

Minestrone Soup

Always a favourite, and a great way to use up surplus ingredients from another dish. In this case, some yellow pepper, batonned carrot, chickpeas, white onion, chilli, mustard seed, and basmati rice. I added tomato puree (three squirts), two spring onions, diced, a drizzle of olive oil, plus black pepper, and vegetable and chicken stock. And a handful of broken spaghetti. I added the herbs basil and oregano. Cooked for an hour before serving. 

 

Vegetarian salad, with Chickpeas and Rice, and Bistro Salad leaves

Chickpeas cooked until tender, then cooled, and dressed in red pesto sauce..Batonned raw carrot, and diced raw white onion dressed in tarragon. Basmati rice cooked with salt and two dried red chillies. Plus a bistro salad of lettuce leaves. Delicious and filling I made this dish just minutes before we heard on the wires that Sean Connery had died ( one of Edinburgh's most famous sons).  RIP. 

 

Chicken, Rice, and Blackbean Salad

Chopped chicken breast from the fridge. Served with basmati rice, black beans and chickpeas, red onion, plus a side-serving of carrot and green pepper. 

The chicken was roasted and cooled overnight. The black beans and chickpeas were soaked overnight, cooked, and cooled in cold water. The diced red onion was served raw. The carrots and green peppers were cooked and served cold. Dress in dried herbs of your choice, with a little black pepper.  

 

Chickpea and Sweet Potato Stew, with Spicy Chips

A chickpea stew with diced carrot, sweet potato and green beans. The chickpeas were soaked overnight in unsalted water until soft. Drained, and decanted into a pot of boiling water, along with the carrot, sweet potato and the green beans. Add some chicken or ham stock, and ground white pepper. Add a teaspoonful of gravy granules and stir through the stew. Cook at a low heat on the hob for an hour.

Served in this case with spicy chipped potatoes, grilled in the middle of the oven for around fifteen minutes. The chips were allowed to stand in a marinade beforehand for a couple of hours The marinade was made with sunflower oil, malt vinegar, tomato ketchup (or puree), salt, garlic, red chilli, dried coriander leaf, tarragon and oregano (the choice of herbs is up to you). When grilled the chips don't need to be turned, and they are less likely to stick to the roasting tray, compared to oven roasting.

Chickpea Curry with Pilau Rice

Black chickpeas were soaked in water for six hours, until they became soft. Then they were boiled, and I added diced carrot, diced leek, diced green chillies (3), tomato puree, a dessert spoonful of Madras curry powder, half a teaspoonful of powdered ginger, and three crushed garlic cloves. Plus the vegetable stock, and a quarter teaspoonful of turmeric. Cooked slowly under glass for two hours.

The basmati rice was cooked slowly with pilau rice spices, and a pinch of turmeric, for fifteen minutes, in a partially lidded pan.

Served with a garnish of coriander leaf.

Chickpea and Brocolli Risotto

A simple risotto, made with chickpeas, turmeric rice (Basmati), a quarter of a head of brocolli (diced), and one julienned red onion.

The rice was boiled for 12 minutes in water, a pinch of salt, a little olive oil, and two pinches of turmeric powder. Drained, and set aside.

The chickpeas were soaked overnight, and then boiled for twenty minutes or so until tender. Then they were fried in a little butter along with the red onion, for fifteen minutes.

After that, the diced brocolli was added to the pan, and cooked for about another ten minutes.

The rice and the chickpeas, brocolli and red onion were decanted to a bowl, and stirred together. Served with a little sweet chilli sauce. Can be eaten hot or cold.

Beef Chilli Egg Noodle

Egg noodles from the local Co-op. Stir fried in olive oil for ten minutes, along with some turmeric rice from the fridge, at an intitial high heat, and then lowered.

The beef chilli was pre-made with corned beef, chillli powder (half a dessert spoonful) two varieties of chickpeas, plus red kidney beans,
and onions.

All the chickpeas and beans were dried, and soaked overnight until soft. Sweetcorn from the cob can be added.

I added beef stock to the chilli, and diced garlic.

Delicious and filling!

Spicy Mushroom, Chickpea and Sweetcorn Stew

Made with chickpeas, sweetcorn, red pepper, chestnut mushrooms and spring onion. Thickened with half a teaspoonful of arrowroot, flavoured with herbes de Provence and vegetable stock. The sweetcorn came straight from the cob, though tinned sweetcorn will do just as well.

Dried chickpeas were soaked overnight, and then cooked with powdered red chilli and crushed garlic. Rinsed, and then simmered with the sweetcorn, diced red pepper, mushrooms, and chopped spring onion. The vegetable stock and the herbs were added last.

Served with a mixture of Thai black rice, and basmati rice. The black rice was cooked for fifteen minutes, and then drained. Fresh boiling water was added to the pot, and then the basmati. Half a teaspoonful of turmeric was added.  I used an ice-cream scoop to create the rice balls, as they do in Korean restaurants. Wonderful vegetarian dish!

Cajun Maque Choux

This is a variation on a well known Cajun dish from Louisiana, which is essentially a stew made with sweetcorn.

I browned some diced leek in sunflower oil (normally diced onion). I added some pre-soaked chickpeas (not a standard ingredient), cooked earlier in some turmeric and Cajun spices (I used a commercially available Cajun spice powder, which contained garlic, chilli powder, paprika and cumin. But you could easily make this up from your spice cupboard). Stir-fried together for a little time. Then I added boiling water, some powdered ginger, a pinch of cumin seeds, and vegetable stock. and the sweetcorn.

Diced green pepper is usually also an ingredient, but I used diced green beans instead. I also skipped the addition of tomatoes. Finally I added a large pinch of dried coriander, plus another dash of Cajun spices, and stirred them through. Allowed to simmer for about twenty minutes under glass, at a low heat.

Served with basmati rice (or American long grain). The dish was served with a dusting of coriander. Delicious! Can be served with diced chicken.

Chickpea Stew

A simple chickpea stew, made with diced fresh coriander, green chilli, and cardamom seed.

Dice a medium-sized red onion, and caramelise it in a pan with sunflower or olive oil. Add batonned carrot, three green finger chillies, and some cubed potato. Stir-fry at a medium heat for fifteen minutes, and then add boiling water.

The chickpeas were soaked overnight. Add to the pan along with tomato puree and the seeds from three crushed cardamom pods. Add some vegetable stock. Simmer under glass for at least half an hour.

Dice a large handful of fresh coriander (including the stems) and add to the pot. Stir through. Cook for another twenty to twenty-five minutes, and then add the other herbs - a generous pinch each of oregano, basil and parsley.

Serve with skinned or semi-skinned potato. Healthy and delicious!

Chickpea Stew with Chilli and Black Rice

A spicy chickpea stew, made with onion, a tin of tomatoes, diced potato and spinach. Plus chilli and garlic.

First dice and fry the onion, until it begins to brown. Decant the onion into a pan of boiling water with the potato, chickpeas etc. Mash the contents of a tin of tomatoes in a separate bowl, and add to the vegetables. Cook for at least an hour, stirring the mix occasionally. Add the herbs, the deseeded and diced chilli (2), and some freshly crushed garlic during the final fifteen minutes of cooking. Also add the chicken stock, the herbs basil and oregano.

The rice is presented in Korean style. A handful of Thai black rice was cooked for twenty minutes first of all, and then drained. A third of a cup of white long grain rice was added, along with fresh boiling water, plus half a teaspoonful of turmeric powder. Stir together thoroughly. Cook for another fifteen minutes before draining.

Press the rice into a small bowl with a teaspoon. Add the rice ball to the plate by holding the plate over the bowl, and inverting both. The rice will just drop out of the bowl.

Chickpea, Carrot and Spinach Stew

Made with dried chickpeas, soaked in cold unsalted water overnight. Stir-fried for a couple of minutes in sunflower oil, along with chopped carrot, courgette (zuchini), a hundred grams of green beans, one deseeded chopped green chilli, and a handful of diced spinach leaves.

Add about a pint of boiling water, add the chicken stock, and simmer under glass for a few minutes.Then add about 300g of tomato passata. Simmer for half an hour to forty-five minutes. Add the herbs of your choice (I used basil and oregano)

Serve with a toasted flatbread (I used a garlic and coriander naan).

Chorizo and Chickpea Soup

I used dried chickpeas for this recipe, so they were soaked in a dish of water overnight. I diced some cherry tomatoes, celery, carrot, onion, red bell pepper, one deseeded red chilli, and added some leftover boiled potato. I also added about 100g of diced chorizo sausage.

The ingredients were added to a lidded pot of water brought to the boil. Three squirts of tomato puree from a tube was stirred through, and the chicken stock added.

Simmer the soup for forty-five minutes. Add a generous pinch of oregano, and another of basil. Stir through. Served with a garlic and coriander flatbread, lightly toasted.

Chickpea Chilli with Mushrooms

Rehydrated chickpeas (allowed to stand in a dish of water overnight) cooked in a knob of butter.

The diced onion was cooked first, until gently browned, after which I added the chickpeas and the deseeded and diced medium-sized red chilli (one will do). Cook at a medium heat and stir frequently, for about ten minutes.

After that the quartered white mushrooms (five) were added to the dish, and cooked for about seven minutes.

The chopped basil leaves were added after that, and stirred through thoroughly. Cooked for a further three minutes, before being decanted onto the serving plate. Twenty minutes all told.

The serving plate was dressed with a spiral of soy sauce, and some black pepper. You can drizzle soy sauce on top if you prefer (or both).

Chole Palak (Chickpeas and Spinach)

A vegetarian chickpea and spinach curry, which is simple to create.

The other ingredients are: diced onion, garlic, ginger, cloves, cinnamon, bay leaf, ground in a mortar, which should be stir-fried until the onions are golden brown.

For the Palak sauce, I used some left over tinned tomato, two handfuls of spinach leaves, turmeric, three Indian finger chillies, Some asfoetida, garam massala curry powder, a dessert spoonful of ground coriander, and salt. Blend.  I added a dessert spoonful of cornflour for thickening. Maize or Gram flour may be used instead.

Add the chickpeas and the stir-fried ingredients to the Palak sauce, plus a handful of finely chopped spinach and some chopped potato (optional), and simmer for at least ten to fifteen minutes. Serve with basmati rice, cooked with a pinch of sumac. Delicious!

Potato Salad with Moroccan Hummus

Four components - a potato salad in Mayonnaise, a leaf salad with Iceberg lettuce, red onion, and diced rocket, cooked and chopped green beans (Egyptian dwarf beans to be precise) with Moroccan hummus (chilli and topped with some chickpeas), and finally some peeled tomato mixed with cooked and diced carrot, with cumin seeds, coriander and basil. 

Potato Salad with Moroccan Hummus

The potato, carrot and green beans were cooked a steamer, with the potato and the carrot in the bottom (20 minutes cooking). The beans were in the top half, and were steamed for ten minutes after being topped and tailed. The skin of the tomatoes (3) was cut, and they were blanched in boiling water for three minutes. After which the skin is easy to peel off. 

These ingredients were put aside to cool in cold water. The leaf salad with the onion was prepared (one quarter of a medium size red onion). Dressed in a little olive oil and lemon juice. Allow to stand for fifteen minutes and stir. 

After the vegetables had cooled, the diced potato was mixed with mayonnaise in a bowl. The tomato and carrot mixture was mixed in another bowl with a pinch of cumin seeds, coriander leaf and basil.  Then decanted into a serving bowl, as shown above. The green beans were decanted into a small serving bowl also, and topped with two teaspoonfuls of the hummus. 

Assemble on a plate, and serve. 

Lamb with Cashews and Ginger

Some bargain sell-by date lamb mince prompted this excursion into north african style cooking. I browned the mince for about half an hour with a little sunflower oil. after fifteen minutes I began to add rough-cut chunks of carrot, spring onion, tomato, chopped root ginger, three chillies, stoned and chopped dates, and some garlic. The whole dish was then allowed to slow cook in a saute pan for another ninety minutes. Then some chopped tinned tomato was added, along with two handfuls of unsalted cashew nuts, paprika, and lamb stock. The pan was left to simmer for another thirty to forty minutes. 

Ground almonds could be used in place of the cashews, along with a little cinnamon, and chickpeas. 

Lamb with Cashews and Ginger

Moroccan Style Chickpea Burgers

I didn't actually make these burgers (found in Sainsbury's freezer cabinets). But they are pretty easy to make. Mix  crushed chickpeas, gram flour paste, chopped peppers, cumin and coriander, and make your patties. They can also be made with finely chopped onion. Cook in the oven for about twenty minutes in a closed dish. Turned once or twice. Can also be shallow fried, as in the example illustrated.

Serve with a salad of chopped tomatoes, iceberg lettuce, red onion, and green pepper. 

Moroccan Style Chickpea Burgers