This isn’t rocket science and it isn’t fancy but it has been on the menu at home this week and I have really enjoyed it and so wanted to share it with you. It is another quick midweek meal requiring little in the way of forethought or planning and better still few dishes to clean up.
In full disclosure I did soak and cook the chickpeas for this meal as I definitely prefer them this way, but having said that I know most people would simply prefer to use the tinned variety and that is great – no judgement either way.
I have made this to feed two people but as always adjust the quantities to the number of people you want to serve or make more so you can have leftovers for lunch tomorrow.
The Curry paste I used was a home made one gifted to me by the lovely Angela, but I would happily have used any prepared curry paste. Be prepared to taste for spiciness but the coconut milk and the broccoli help to soak up the spice so don’t fear if it seems a little to spicy.
CHICKPEA AND BROCCOLI CURRY
Quantities to feed two people
Ingredients
- 1 small brown onion finely chopped
- 1 Tbsp ginger micro-planed
- 1 clove of garlic micro-planed
- 1/2 red chilli chopped as you like.
- Optional 1 kafir lime leaf.
- 1 Tbsp Curry paste or powder.
- 1 165 ml tin of coconut milk or cream + tin of water.
- 1 tin or 1+1/2 cups of chickpeas
- Broccoli – flowers and stalks chopped and kept seperate to cook at different times.
- Salt and pepper to taste
Warm a large pan with a couple of tablespoons of cooking oil.
Saute your onion until starting to brown.
Add the chilli, ginger, garlic, curry paste or powder and kafir lime leave and saute carefully for a minute or so until aromatic taking care not to burn.
Add your chickpeas and allow to saute with the other ingredients for a further minute or more – you may want to add another tablespoon of oil at this point to moisten the ingredients. I haven’t done so here but while I was eating this I thought that next time I would possibly use a potato masher and mash about half of the chickpeas to mix up the texture a little.
Add the coconut milk or cream and an equivalent amount of water, cover the pan and allow it all to simmer gently until you are just about ready to eat.
You may need to add a little more water to keep things saucy if you want it to wait a while as you prepare the rest of your dinner.
Add your broccoli and if there are carnivores present you can as I did on this occasion add a salmon fillet for each person cover the pan and simmer for approximately six to ten minutes by which time both the broccoli and the salmon should be cooked.
For convenience – ie – they were in the refrigerator already, I served these with Naan breads, yogurt and a simple tomato sambal. Chapati, popadoms, brown rice or any other grain would also be delicious as would your traditional Indian chutneys and sambals.
