Thursday, April 23, 2009

Mashed Chickpeas with Tomatoes and Onion



My lentil curry with potatoes, carrots, spinach and chickpeas only uses half a cup of chickpeas, so I was left with over half a can's worth that were in danger of going bad in the refrigerator. I needed to do something with them, but what?

At first I thought I might make a small batch of hummus, but I wasn't really in the mood and I didn't have anything into which to dip them.

And then I remembered the Guyanese Channa I made a few years ago when I was similarly faced with an abundance of chickpeas. It was a lot of work to mash the chickpeas in the pan, but it was delicious and I always planned to make it again. This seemed like a good time.

I didn't feel like looking up the recipe and I was pretty sure I didn't have all of the ingredients on hand anyway, so I decided to improvise. I'm quite pleased with the results. In fact, I think I might like it better than the original.

This is such an easy dish to make, and it's full of flavor. Add a salad and you have a satisfying meal.
Home Cookin Chapter: My Recipes

MASHED CHICKPEAS WITH TOMATOES AND ONION

2 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 medium onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp cumin
dash sugar (optional)
1 14.5-oz. can diced tomatoes
1 14.5-oz. can chickpeas, preferably with skins removed
salt and pepper to taste

Heat oil over medium heat in 3-quart saucepan. Add onion and garlic and cook, stirring frequently, until onions have completely softened, about 10 minutes.

Add cinnamon, turmeric, and cumin and cook for another 2 minutes, stirring frequently.

Add tomatoes, chickpeas, salt and pepper. Taste and, if necessary, add a dash of sugar to counteract the acid of the tomatoes. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low and simmer for 20 minutes, until tomatoes have thickened.

With a potato masher or a fork, give the chickpeas a rough mash. They don't have to be completely mashed, but there shouldn't be any whole chickpeas in the pan.

Let simmer another ten minutes. Serve hot.

Created 4/19/09

Exported from Home Cookin 5.7 (www.mountain-software.com)

3 comments:

Lore said...

Debi this sounds wonderful! I know for a fact that chickpeas go well with cumin but I've never tried adding cinnamon to a chickpea dish. I'd definitely like to give it a try sometime. Thanks for sharing it with the Original Recipes Round-Up!

dejamo said...

Thanks Lore. I don't know where I got the idea to put the cinnamon in it, but once I did I knew it would work.

dejamo said...

Yes this is a healthy dish, Ben!

This cooks up really fast, too, so it's great when you're too tired to think too much about dinner.

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