Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Lemon Rice with Chickpea Pancakes filled with Curried Chickpeas

This is the first meal I can say I'm pretty proud of in a while.  I've made plenty that is tasty but this had the potential to be pretty.  It needed a little green though no?  Sprinkle of coriander perhaps.  This one is actually really easy.  You can make all or parts of this well ahead of time and just reheat as needed.

Lemon Rice with Chickpea Pancakes and Curry Chickpea Filling

This meal came together from a few different sources.  I have been making the lemon rice from Dino's Alternative Vegan for a while now.  Always very tasty and the Noodle likes it too.  As a side note, I recommend the podcast too although it's been a bit quiet as of late.  But I can definitely sympathize with running out of time everyday.  I don't really modify the recipe so much as leave things out that I don't have and it's always good.  I never have curry leaves around (my pantry space/refrigerator space is just too limited right now for little extras).  I also usually don't have the nuts on hand and just skip them although I suspect a teeny bit of nut butter would also be a tasty flavor addition if you are opposed to whole or chopped nuts.

The pancakes came from Madhur Jaffrey on BBC food.  I wanted something thin pancake-ish but with only chickpea flour to make the meal gluten free.  These were silly easy to put together and cook.  My mods to these was to leave out the chillies and the ajwain.  I used a dash of powdered coriander seed rather than fresh which I never have on hand and I cut the garlic back to two cloves.  I love love love garlic but I wanted to keep them toddler friendly.

The curried chickpea filling and the coconut sauce are based on recipes from reFresh by Ruth Tal.  I haven't made as many recipes from this book as I'd like but I've made this a couple times now and it's super tasty and easily kid friendly.  Well my kid as she loves loves loves coconut.

Curried Chickpea Filling
Based on "Curried Garbanzo Filling" reFresh by Ruth Tall (pg. 101)

2 cloves garlic, minced (more if you want!)
1 onion, small dice
1 carrot, small dice
1 bell pepper, small dice
1-2 medium hot chillies, minced (optional)
1 Tb ground cumin
1 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp tumeric
1/2 tsp cayenne (optional)
4 c (850 g) cooked/canned chickpeas, drained
1/4 c tomato paste (could use a fresh tomato or 2 here instead)

Heat a medium pot over medium heat.  Add veggies and spices and cook until soft, stir occationally.
Mash chickpeas (or pulse with food processor) but leave them a little chunky.  Add chickpeas and tomato to the saucepan and mix.  Continue to cook until heated through.

Spiced Coconut Sauce
Based on "Coconut Curry Sauce" reFresh by Ruth Tal (pg. 86)

1 onion,  small dice
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp salt
1 Tb garam masala
3 Tb flour of choice (wheat, spelt, rice)
2 c (500 mL) vegetable broth
1 can (400 mL) coconut milk
2 Tb tomato paste (or a couple chopped tomatoes)

Heat a medium saucepan over medium heat.  Add onion and garlic and cook 5 minutes or until the onion is soft.  Add spices and flour and cook stirring for 1 minute.
Slowly stir (or whisk) in the vegetable broth taking care to avoid lumps.  Then stir in the coconut and tomato.  Bring to a simmer and stir occasionally cooking 30 minutes.