GREENS: Spinach, Potato & Chickpea 'Roti'; Collards with Rice; Collards With Potatoes and Mushrooms; Chard with Tortillas

SPINACH, POTATO & CHICKPEA 'ROTI'

One of my favourite things to eat when we're out is Chickpea and Potato Roti - Jamaican style. Well, I don't know anything about that (never having been there) but as you know I love hot and spicy food. So one lunchtime I scrambled together some spinach out of a frozen pack, added onions and garlic browned in a pan to go with it, and tossed in some pre-cooked chickpeas out of my freezer along with a sprinkling of this and that from my Indian spices. Well, so far we had a 'stew' (smelling wonderful, I admit) but nothing to set it off. Fishing in the freezer for some tortilla wraps (desperate, wasn't I?), I quickly steamed them up and used them as an impromptu 'roti' to enclose, more or less, the vegetables that were simmering in the pan.Needing some salad-type things, I sliced heirloom tomatoes and, for the sake of the greens, quartered a lemon. The result was delicious - and quick to prepare. I have made it, with various greens from the refrigerator, several times since :) Leftovers work well too!

The next dish, also inspired by the perceived need to Eat More Greens was simple:

COLLARDS WITH POTATOES AND MUSHROOMS



Rather than curried, this dish had the advantage of chilies and cumin to spice it up. The usual suspects - garlic and mushrooms - worked together with some lovely fresh collard greens from the market, and a lone 4 or 5 ounce potato was finely diced to cook with them in the same amount of time. Mushrooms, barely cooked at all, completed the picture. A little garnish, and the very simple meal was a delight.

COLLARDS WITH RICE



Similar to the dishes above, above is another dish with lots of lovely greens, cooked with the usual suspects and probably a few more:)

Well, someone put me onto the idea that not everyone is as lucky as we are and is able to tolerate gluten. (That's the stuff in many flours, folks, which plays riot with some systems.) We don't eat a lot of bread, but I was feeling rather smug about using the whole wheat tortilla wrap earlier (see above) and thought maybe I should get out of that. What to have instead? Well, I can't buy corn tortillas easily here (perhaps I shop in the wrong places), so I was going to have to make corn tortillas myself. I got a little yellow corn flour (that I _did_ find) and found recipes on the net.

Whoooooooo-ooooo! Are you all laughing now??????? Did I have any clue as to how difficult it was to make a corn tortilla? Nooooo, I did NOT! LOL So here, a very humbling admission, is my first attempt at tortillas.



Not a pretty sight, are they? ;) What didn't fall apart got stuck to the pan or got overcooked! However, I still have some corn flour left and I will - I definitely will - keep trying, because the taste was great all the same.

I put a couple of the more acceptable results to have as flatbread with my lunch of greens with whatever (can't recall just now). Not bad. Truly, not bad!



By these little acts of humility shall thee know them!

Sweet Potato & Carrot Casserole With Apple, Spiced Chickpeas, Salad

Last Sunday lunch was a comedy of errors! I foound this great (I thought - and no doubt it is!) recipe in Finlayson's 125 Best Vegetarian Slow Cooker Recipes (a book I highly recommend, by the way.) and thought Why Not! It takes a can of (crushed) pineapple (which we don't use, but all the better reason for trying the recipe), so my dh said he'd run down to the Convenience Store (we have two of them in this block alone) for it. Meanwhile I started on the recipe - tried to give a shout out the door to pick up some carrots too (I said it was a comedy!) since it required six, but he'd already left in the elevator. Never mind, I had a couple of small carrots plus lots of sweet potatoes. I was okay for a chickpea topping, since I tend to keep cooked chickpeas in the freezer. Well, wouldn't you know it: neither shop had pineapple - crushed, sliced, chunked or in any form whatsoever, and there wasn't time to wait for the market to open. Also, of course, no time to use the slowcooker anyway - AND we had an appointment early afternoon so had to have our lunch earlier than usual (I remembered just in time).

So what I did was use sweet potatoes and a little carrot, sliced, mostly cooked in a pan on top of the stove. Deciding to abandon any idea of Finlayson's interesting recipe, I flew by the seat of my pants. I layered the veg in a casserole with three apples (I believe they were galas) sliced but not peeled, sprinkled each layer with nutmeg, cinnamon, the zest of a big orange and heaven knows what else, mixed a little flour with a little sugar and a little orange juice to drizzle through the whole thing and put it in the oven to bake for however long I thought it'd take. When I figured it was nearly ready I put some orange chunks on top and a sprinkle of sesame seeds to add 'interest'.

Didn't have a hope! But it started to smell wonderful and we found it was delicious - and it's worth going back to soon to try to work this recipe out properly. It took a couple of days to get through, but we didn't leave a scrap.

I paired this dish with a spiced chickpea dish (the recipe I couldn't make required a chickpea topping and I'd already thawed them). The Indian spices were a nice match with the fruity taste of the sweet potato and apple dish, if a little unconventional. (Er, just a bit!)



This was quickly thrown together - onion, celery, green pepper, coriander, cummin, cayenne, fenugreek, turmeric, and whatever else my hand lighted on, topped with coriander leaves (cilantro).

We had a salad while we waited for the main course to finish cooking.

Nigerian Chickpea Stew With Peanut Sauce

This is a great dish that was posted by my wonderful co-host, Linda, on my Vegan World Cuisine group (http://www.care2.com/c2c/groups/disc.html?gpp=10159&pst=688573)on Care2. You can find the recipe on the "West Africa Mains and Sides" thread.:
Nigerian chickpea stew with peanut sauce. The recipe can easily be adapted to non-fat cooking by sauteeing the onions, etc., in stock or water. No big deal. There is 1-1/2 Tbsp peanut butter in the sauce, but spread over 6 servings that's a very small amount. I went for it! The photo, however, was taken before I remembered to sprinkle the top with spirulina. That adds a great extra taste.

Today we had it for the second time (will power exerted not to eat it all up on three consecutive meals!), and because we were late home from town we simply made some couscous rather than rice, which was ready by the time the stew was reheated.

To go with it, the dh made a light salad of baby spinach, a little onion, celery, sliced pear and craisins, which we dressed with a mix of rice vinegar, balsamic vinegar, a tsp of minced ginger (out of a jar) and a tsp of mirin.

CHICKPEA CURRY (CROCKPOT STYLE)

We had this for lunch yesterday. It's a favourite here, in some version or other, simple like this one or perhaps with a different bean (red kidney beans are nice, although I prefer chickpeas) and/or with the addition of some chopped vegetables. It should serve 4.

CHICKPEA CURRY (CROCKPOT STYLE)

1 medium onion, diced
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
1 inch ginger, grated
2 or 3 red thai chilies, finely chopped
1 tsp cumin
1-1/2 tsp coriander
1 tsp turmeric
2 cups cooked chickpeas, drained
14 oz diced tomatoes
1/2 tsp garam masala, or to taste
salt to taste
cayenne to taste - if needed

Steam-saute onions, ginger, and garlic for 5 minutes in a little water in a skillet. Place onion mixture and all other ingredients except for garam masala, salt and cayenne in a crock pot. Cook on low for 6-9 hours - or on high for a comparatively less time (3-4 hours, depending on the age of your crockpot).

Before serving, add salt to taste along with the garam masala. If you require more ‘heat’, this is a good time to stir in a little cayenne. Garnish with chopped coriander leaves and serve with brown basmati rice, vegetable dishes, and other accompaniments.

SWEET POTATO & CHICKPEA CURRY, APPLE SALAD

This recipe is adapted from one in Neal Barnard’s Turn Off The Fat Genes (2001), p. 285. Recipes are by Jennifer Raymond.

We halved the recipe, and found that we needed to do quite a bit of fiddling with the spices to get the flavour balance right for us. We also substituted tomato sauce for crushed tomatoes, giving a stronger tomato flavour :)

SWEET POTATO AND CHICKPEA CURRY

1 Tbsp ‘lite’ soy sauce
1 small onion, sliced
1 cup diced sweet potato
1 medium carrot, thinly sliced
1 medium celery stalk, thinly sliced
1/2 red bell pepper, diced
7 ounces (or about half can) tomato sauce (original asked for crushed tomatoes)
1 cup cooked chickpeas/garbanzo beans
1 tsp brown mustard seeds
1/2 tsp turmeeric
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp coriander
1/2 tsp dried ground ginger
1/4 tsp cayenne powder

Brown basmati rice for serving, cooked.

Heat 1/3 cup water and soy sauce and add the oniion and sweet potato. Cook on high for around 5 minutes. Add carrot, celery, and bell pepper and cover for three minutes or so.

Add the tomato sauce (or crushed tomatoes if you prefer), chickpeas and about 1/3 cup water and stir. Add the spices and stir to mix well. Cover, reduce heat to medium, and continue to cook, stirring occasionally. You may need to add a little more water to prevent the mixture sticking to the bottom of the pan.

When the vegetables are tender (around 10 or 12 minutes), your curry is ready to serve with the cooked rice and a salad of your choice. Serves 4.

APPLE SALAD

My APPLE SALAD (above) was a simple one:
1 sliced apple, some thinly sliced raw onion rings, a little thinly sliced cucumber and a spoonful of craisins
dressed in a seasoned rice vinegar and balsamic vinegar (equal amounts)
- but you could make it as elaborate as you please :)

Chickpea Gumbo

The recipe is not mine to give, but I can point you to the website where I found it :) Go to:

http://www.fatfreevegan.com/soups/chickpea_gumbo.shtml

for a wonderful recipe for Chickpea Gumbo (the chickpeas/garbanzos stand in for seafood here). It is absolutely delicious. I made it in the fat-free version also suggested and it worked splendidly, but those who are not concerned with such things could, I'm sure, try the original with oil for the sautee.

There's a great illustration of it on the site, which is just as well since my own attempts at a photo came out decidedly blurry! It serves as proof of my good intentions only LOL

SPICY CHICKPEA AND VEGETABLE STEW

This was our main meal yesterday - with huge leftovers, I might add.

SPICY CHICKPEA AND VEGETABLE STEW

2 Tbsp oil
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 Tbsp curry powder (use your own mix, if you have it, or a good commercial brand)
1-1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp ground cardamom
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/8 tsp ground allspice
1 small fresh red chilli, finely chopped (or more if you like it HOT)
1 Tbsp finely chopped fresh ginger
1 Tbsp wholemeal plain flour
2 cups water
1 large vegetable stock cube, crumbled
1 medium carrots, chopped small (carrot cooks in its own good time, so keep it small)
1 medium potato, chopped
1/2 small cauliflower, chopped
250 g green beans, chopped
1 medium apple, peeled, chopped
425 g chickpeas, drained (I use two cups my own pre-cooked chickpeas)
200g carton plain soygurt *
2 Tbsp chopped fresh coriander leaves (cilantro)** - or more to taste
1/4 cup chopped roasted cashew nuts

Heat oil in large pan, add onion, stir over medium heat for about two minutes or until onion is translucent. Add garlic, curry powder, other spices, chilli and ginger, and stir over medium heat for 1 minute. Stir in flour, stir over high heat for 1 minute.

Remove from heat and gradually stir in the combined water and stock cube, stir over high heat until mixture boils and thickens slightly from the flour.

Now add the carrots, potatoes, cauliflower and green beans, cover, simmer for about 10 minutes or until vegetables are tender.

Add apple, chickpeas, soygurt* and coriander/cilantro leaves, stir over medium heat until heated through.

Sprinkle with nuts before serving and add another sprig or two of the coriander leaves/cilantro if you like.

SERVES 4 generously.

*NOTE 1: I cannot readily buy plain soygurt, so I often make do with a substitute such as thinned-out vegan sour cream OR I zap soft silken tofu in the blender with a squeeze of lemon and use that. Works just fine :)

**NOTE 2: For those who cannot abide cilantro (coriander leaves) - and it seems to be a genetic thingie - you could leave them out or add a little chopped basil or parsley for flavour and color.