My new favourite vegetarian dinner

[Diane]

Made this last night - very tasty, very easy (has to be for me to cook it). I think it is better with rice than the baked sweet potatoes. And I left out the peppers.

 

Braised Coconut Spinach & Chickpeas with Lemon

serves 4 as a main dish or 6 as a side

2 teaspoons oil or ghee

1 small yellow onion

4 large cloves garlic, peeled and minced

1 tablespoon grated ginger, from a 3-inch piece

1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes, chopped

1 large lemon, zested and juiced (about 2 tablespoons juice)

1 dried hot red pepper or dash of red pepper flakes (optional)

15-ounce can chickpeas, drained

1 pound baby spinach

14-ounce can coconut milk

1 teaspoon salt, or to taste

1 teaspoon ground ginger

To serve:

Whole roasted sweet potatoes

Cilantro leaves, to garnish

Toasted unsweetened coconut, to garnish

Heat the oil or ghee in a large, deep Dutch oven or heavy pot over medium-high heat. Add the onion and cook for about 5 minutes, or until the onion is beginning to brown. Add the garlic, ginger, sun-dried tomatoes, lemon zest and red pepper, if using. Cook for 3 minutes, stirring frequently.

Add the chickpeas and cook over high heat for a few minutes or until the chickpeas are beginning to turn golden and they are coated with the onion and garlic mixture.

Toss in the spinach, one handful at a time. This will take about 5 minutes; stir in a handful or two and wait for it to wilt down and make room in the pot before adding the next handful. When all the spinach has been stirred in, pour in the coconut milk and stir in the salt, ground ginger, and lemon juice. Bring to a simmer then turn down the heat and cook for 10 minutes or until the chickpeas are warm through. Taste and add more salt and lemon juice, if necessary.

Serve hot over roasted sweet potatoes, with cilantro leaves and toasted unsweetened coconut to garnish.

Serving note: This is thick enough to eat on its own with a fork; it's not terribly soupy. But it's saucy enough to eat over pasta, rice, brown rice, quinoa, or another grain.

[noworriesmate]

What's a dutch oven?? does anybody have one? - my boys said they made one once, can you get them in Australia??

 

​Daniel

[Diane]

LOL I had missed that - isn't it something to do with wind and bed covers?!!

[noworriesmate]

LOL I had missed that - isn't it something to do with wind and bed covers?!!

 

I was thinking it's a little like the chicken and egg question i.e. which came first the recipe or the dutch oven? - my guess is, if you make that recipe, you get the dutch oven for free!!

 

​NWM

[Lazy Cow]

Sounds very tasty, thank you.

 

Re. dutch oven, ewww the pair of you! We have one of the actual dutch ovens (as opposed to the covers/wind kind!) which we use on our pot belly outside. We bought it from a camping store but I'm guessing you both really know that.....

 

​LC