« New Use for Torani Syrup | Main | Salmon and White Bean Salad »
June 24, 2007
Chickpea Curry With Dill
I recently picked up a nifty little cookbook called 5 Spices, 50 Dishes. This features 50 relatively simple Indian recipes, centered around the five spices of coriander, cumin, mustard seed, cayenne pepper, and turmeric. Not every recipe in the book uses all of these spices, and many recipes use additional spices, but they are the flavor backbone of the recipes.
The first recipe I made from this book was a black-eyed pea salad with cayenne pepper, cumin, cilantro, chilies, and mustard seed. It was pretty tasty, but I had to substitute ingredients liberally because I hadn't checked the recipe before grocery shopping, so I think it didn't quite taste the way it was supposed to. The second recipe was this chick pea curry. It caught my eye because, as the author notes, it uses dill as more of a vegetable than an herb. It uses a lot of dill. If you are not a dill fan, skip this recipe.
Ingredients
- ~2 tbsp. canola oil
- 1 medium yellow onion, finely chopped
- 1 tsp. cayenne, or to taste (I used a full teaspoon, and the recipe was fiery enough that we were glad of the yogurt/cucumber raita I'd made to go along with the curry, but not unbearably hot.)
- 1 tsp. ground coriander (the book calls for grinding your coriander fresh from whole seeds, which is undoubtedly better, but I haven't yet purchased a spice grinder and didn't want to do it by hand.)
- 1 tsp. grated garlic (I used a microplane grater, which produces a sort of garlic pulp)
- 1 tsp. grated fresh ginger (microplane as well)
- 1/2 tsp. ground turmeric
- 1 can diced tomato, drained (recipe called for fresh, but I didn't have any)
- 3 cups finely chopped dill leaves and tender stalks (about two bunches of dill. Chopping all that dill is the most time-consuming part of this recipe.)
- 1 15.5 oz. can low-sodium chick peas, drained
- 1/4 cup water
- salt, to taste
Steps
- Heat the oil in a medium sauce pan or a deep skillet over medium heat. Saute the onion until it has softened, about 5 minutes.
- Add the cayenne, coriander, garlic, ginger, and turmeric and cook, stirring, for 3-4 minutes.
- Add the tomato and cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes.
- Add the dill, chick peas, water, and salt. Cook, stirring, for 5-8 minutes or until the dill is tender.
I served this with a simple raita made by stirring together strained yogurt, diced cucumber, diced red bell pepper, finely chopped garlic, and a bit of ground coriander, salt, and pepper.
Serves about 4.
Posted by spaceling at June 24, 2007 08:44 PM
Comments
Post a comment
Thanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (sign out)
(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)