Chickpea curry

Two posts in a row inspired by the blessed St Hugh!  His latest campaign points out the fact - and I'm afraid I do tend to agree with him that it is a fact - that we cannot carry on eating as much meat as we do without meat farming becoming ever more intensive.  I doubt that I would ever completely give up meat and fish, but I do intend to carry on eating meat as ethically as possible and try to have at least one vegetarian day per week.

The fact that this epiphany comes at the end of the month when I'm trying to make store-cupboard meals rather than go shopping is purely coincidence, of course!  Plus I'm working nights at the moment and I don't have the energy to do anything complicated.

Indian food has a huge variety of vegetarian dishes so I thought I'd start there, with a really simple chickpea curry.  Chickpeas are a handy ingredient to have in store, either dried or in tins.

I had dried ones, so I started out by putting 80g in fresh water to soak overnight. 

They then need 45 minutes to cook, so get them on the boil a while before you want to eat.

When the chickpeas are nearly done, get started on the rest of the curry.  Chop an onion and fry it in a wok until caramelised.

While that's cooking, prepare a spice mix of a pinch of salt and a teaspoonful each of cumin, coriander and turmeric, and chop up a couple of big tomatoes and a chilli pepper.

Add the spice mix to the onion and stir for a minute until it's all coated, then add the tomatoes and chilli pepper and stir.  Add a splash of water, then add the cooked chickpeas, a teaspoonful of preserved ginger and a pinch of garam masala and simmer over a low heat for a few minutes.

We had it with fresh bread, as my girlfriend had bought a nice loaf today, but pitta bread, naan bread or rice would do just as well.  If I had a coriander plant, I'd have served with a couple of coriander leaves on top but I haven't so I didn't.

It would have been nice with some spinach thrown in too, but um...  I forgot.

Taste verdict
I used fresh chilli peppers off the chilli plant which gave it a good kick, and it was the right decision to use fresh tomatoes rather than tinned - they gave it a lovely fresh flavour.  We didn't miss meat at all - it's a complete dish.

I used the instructions on the packet of chickpeas (40g per portion) but it made far too much - these quantities would have fed three or four.

Financial verdict
An onion - 20p
Two tomatoes - about 20p
Cumin, coriander, turmeric, ginger, garam masala, bread - pennies, from store

For information, a 500g packet of chickpeas costs 79p in Waitrose, and I've costed the chickpeas on the basis of the 40g per portion that I used.  In reality, you won't even need that much - this was really filling.

A truly value 23p per portion


The skinny
If using dried chickpeas, prepare them according to the packet instructions.  They will need soaking overnight

Cook the chickpeas

Chop an onion and fry in a wok until caramelised

Add spice mix of coriander, cumin and turmeric and stir

Add two chopped tomatoes and a chopped chilli pepper and stir

Add the cooked chickpeas, a teaspoonful of ginger (or some fresh ginger, if you prefer) and a pinch of garam masala

Stir for a couple more minutes then serve with rice or bread

WeightWatchers ProPoints
4 for the curry, plus whatever carb you choose to serve with it