Chickpea, Spinach, Tomato Curry

Updates from P&B’s Vegan January series, two weeks in: my vegan cooking/baking quest thus far has turned my kitchen into unfamiliar territory, leaving me feeling a bit unsteady without a wedge of Parmesan or a carton of eggs to lean on. I’ve felt out of my depth, thwarted at every turn, my head filled with thoughts such as: Is nutella vegan and can I use it to make a dairy-free dessert?! (It’s made with skim milk powder, so no). Can I make truly good mashed potatoes without using dairy?! (Stay tuned). Can I make pastry with olive oil instead of butter?! (Yes, it turns out you can! Recipe soon!)

This week’s Chickpea, Tomato, and Spinach Curry is especially unique in that it is one of the rare non-Italian, non-American recipes on Pancakes & Biscotti, even after 9 years of blogging. Which fits well with this month’s theme, actually — if I’m already challenging myself by eliminating the ingredients I tend to rely on most, why not take a stab at another less familiar cuisine in the process?

Indeed: this curry carried me far out of my culinary comfort zone, calling for unfamiliar ingredients that I don’t generally cook with or even eat. I regularly sidestep the slices of fresh ginger served alongside my sushi, and am notoriously garlic-shy, preferring to leave the cloves whole and then search and remove them later, Where’s Waldo-style. Coriander is low on my list of herbs, I have a low tolerance for spicy food, and I tend to make rice only within the context of a risotto. Ingredients like turmeric and cumin seeds have never before occupied a space in my pantry, and I wasn’t sure where or how to use them, nevermind in what measure. And yet: this curry recipe by chef Meera Sodha was naturally vegan, and came highly recommended from Carla Tomasi. Therefore, I put my doubts aside and forged onwards with my (increasingly arduous) Vegan journey.

The verdict? Meera’s impeccable recipe guided me through any culinary unease, creating a balanced dish that allows all the ingredients I’m usually a bit iffy about to shine in just the amount. I may not like slices of raw ginger, but it’s lovely when grated into a curry; sometimes, it’s okay to leave the garlic where it is; I’ll never love coriander, but here in this dish, it works; I don’t do well with heat, but I appreciated the little kick; I've now learned to cook a good pot of rice. What can I say? I stand corrected on many accounts.

And so: this is one of those win-win dishes that manages to be both wholesome and nutritious and also incredibly craveable and delicious, even without meat or dairy. The tomato sauce is infused with spicy ginger, toasty garlic, and lemony coriander, with a pleasant, peppery kick from the chili powder. The mild chickpeas readily take on the many flavors of our rich, complex sauce, and mingle merrily with the spinach, which melts gracefully into the mix. A bed of basmati rice is the perfect way to not let one bit of our spectacular curry go to waste — so while not mandatory, it is highly recommended. Bottom line: this is a dish so delicious that it will be (happily) gobbled up by vegans, vegatarians, and omnivores alike, guaranteed. And if you’re like me, you may just learn a thing or two, in the process.

A couple of notes here: The original recipe by Meera calls for 500 grams of baby spinach; I found that was way too much, and used 300 grams the next time (up to you how spinach-y you want your curry). Feel free to cut down on the chili powder or increase it, depending on your tastes. For anyone living in Rome and who may struggle to find these sort of spices/seeds in the usual supermarket, I would recommend Isola delle Spezie (Via Marcantonio Bragadin 91) or Emporio delle Spezie (Via Galvani 11). I bet you could also substitute lentils for the chickpeas if you wanted. I have also been told that this would be great with a splash of coconut milk (where you would add the water in the recipe, after the tomatoes) — thanks to P. for this suggestion! Finally, if you’re not following a vegan diet, you can serve this with a dollop of yogurt, which tempers the spiciness nicely.

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Looking for vegetarian recipes? Click here.

CHICKPEA, SPINACH, TOMATO CURRY

Serves 4-6. Recipe from Meera Sodha’s book, Gloriously Green.

Ingredients:
3 tablespoons oil
1/2 teaspoon black mustard seeds
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
2 large onions, diced
5 cloves garlic, crushed
2 cm ginger, peeled and grated (I use a microplaner for this)
1 (400 gram) tin of plum tomatoes
2 (400 gram) tins of chickpeas, drained
1 1/2 teaspoons ground coriander
1 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon salt
300 grams (about 11 ounces) baby spinach, washed

Basmati rice, for serving — I use this recipe here, and omit the butter.
Plain whole-milk yogurt, for serving (if not going vegan)

Directions:
Put the oil into a large lidded pan over a medium heat and, when hot, add the mustard seeds and cumin seeds. Stir for a minute, and then add the onions.

Fry for 10-12 minutes, until the onions turn translucent and start to caramelize. Add the garlic and ginger, fry for around 3 minutes, and then add the tomatoes, breaking them up with a spoon once they’re in the pan. FIll the empty tin of tomatoes a third of the way up with water, and add that to the pan too.

Cook the resulting sauce for about 10-15 minutes, until quite dry and paste-like, and then add the chickpeas. Warm them for a couple of minutes, then add the coriander, chili powder, turmeric, and salt. Toss the chickpeas around and add the spinach -- it may seem like a lot, but it will shrink fairly quickly in a feat of culinary magic. Cook your curry for around 5 minutes, until the spinach is soft and tender. Serve over basmati rice, if you want, and a dollop of plain yogurt (if not going completely vegan).