Saturday, August 20, 2011

Butter Chickpeas

I haven't been on my blog much at all lately, as we've been running around all over the place the past few weeks. I spent a week visiting my new little niece Maddy, was then home for 2 days before leaving for Anna and Willie's wedding in Boston and was then home for a day before Eliza came up from Boston to visit for a few days. This has been the flavour of our entire summer and I'm loving the chance to get to catch up with everyone once again. 

It's been great getting to see Eliza so much over the past couple of months, as we usually don't get to see her very often at all. And after making this Indian dish for her for dinner last night, tonight we're going to get a sitter (yay!) and meet her in the Old Port for Indian at Ghandi - a fabulous Indian restaurant for those of you in the area who like good quality Indian food.

My friend Heather made this for us for dinner a couple of months ago and it was absolutely fantastic. I made it last night for dinner for Eliza and realized that it's also super quick and easy to make. I think that I'm going to make a few batches of this without the potatoes to freeze for once the baby comes (since potatoes don't freeze well). You'll need to include the garam marsala in this recipe, as it is key to the flavour of the recipe. You may have to hunt for this a bit, but would definitely be able to find at at a bulk food store, such as the Bulk Barn or, in our part of the woods, you can get it at Mourelatos or Adonis.

Heather serves this with delicious whole-wheat chapati, which she picks up in the freezer section of Maxi.  But since Eliza is gluten-free, I served it with short brown rice, which is a bit of a sticky rice. You just have to soak it in a bit of water for a couple of hours prior to cooking it.

2 medium potatoes, peeled and diced small (use a variety of potatoes that will hold its shape when cooked, such as red potatoes)
2 tbsp. olive oil
1 medium onion, diced
1 tsp. fresh garlic
2 tsp. curry powder
2 tsp. garam marsala
1 tsp. powdered ginger 
1 tsp. cumin
1 - 1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 10 oz. can of tomato soup
1/2 C milk
1/3 C butter
1 can of drained chickpeas


1.  Boil potatoes until completely cooked. You will have to watch them to know when they are cooked, but I think it took about 15 minutes or so to cook mine. You want to make sure that they are cooked, but not overcooked, so that they won't lose their shape once they are mixed into the rest of the mixture.

2.  Fry together the onion, garlic and spices until the onion is cooked.

3.  Add the tomato soup, milk, butter and chickpeas.  At the last minute, stir in the potatoes and heat until warm.

3 comments:

Kristy said...

Yummy! I was hoping for a recipe like this one!

Ashley said...

I made the butter chickpeas today. SO DELICIOUS!!! I used soy free margarine instead of butter and coconut milk (the milk replacer not the creamy canned stuff) and it turned out really good. Thank goodness I found a soy free tomato soup cause it made my day eating it, haha.

Ashley said...

I am making this again - a soy free, dairy free, legume free, wheat free version. Use the above changes, and also use chicken instead of chickpeas, and make tomato soup from tomato paste, coconut milk (again, not the cream but the kind that you buy in a box like rice, hemp or almond milk) and salt - add 1 1/4C of this soup mixture in.