It was one of those quiet, cool winter mornings when I thought of making this delicious, body-warming dish and you’ll love the ease of digestability with this one. It’s got just the right blend of warming and carminative spices to soothe the digestion system and make easy work of metabolizing and drawing all that protein and goodness out of the food. So what’s in this afternoon delight? Let’s see…
Health benefits of chickpeas
The benefits of chickpeas are numerous, and the fact that they’re so tasty makes them an irresistible food for anybody serious about their health. Chickpeas are a type of ?? rich in protein, fibre, iron, calcium, potassium, B vitamins and more. Protein helps us build up and fortify our muscles and bone, fibre is essential for bowel regularity as well as regulating blood sugar levels (great for diabetics), iron helps our immune and nervous systems function as well as lifting our physical endurance, calcium is important to cardiovascular function and bone density, and potassium helps reduce the impact of a high salt diet on the cardiovascular system (your heart and blood vessels).
B vitamins are so diverse and play so many roles in the body from energy to mood and menstrual regulation to hormone metabolism and more. They’re pretty essential too!
Chickpeas are especially important if you happen to have high cholesterol, mood fluctuations, diabetes, cancer (chickpeas are antioxidant), constipation, stubborn weight gain, anaemia (low iron), poor immune function and stress. Probably a few of us included there!
So how do make this delicious dish? Let’s go!
Caption
Delicious Chickpea & Sweet Potato Curry
There are a few stages in making this amazing curry, First a bit of roasting in the oven, then some spice grinding and frying/simmering, then a splash of dry pan roasting. It’s lots of fun and smells better and better with every step. get that apron on!
Recipe time!
Delicious Chickpea & Sweet Potato Curry
Ingredients
- 11-12 cherry tomatoes
- 1.5 tsp cumin seed
- 1 tsp fennel seed
- 1.5 tsp coriander seed
- 1 tsp turmeric powder
- 1 tsp garam masala
- 1/2 tsp ras el hanout
- 2-3 Tbsp sunflower oil
- 1 tsp black mustard seeds
- 1 onion (chopped)
- 1 large sweet potato chopped into small pieces (around 1cm squares)
- 1 cup vegetable stock
- 1/2 tsp pink Himalaya salt
- 1 can chickpeas, drained
- 1/2 cup green peas
- 1 cup sunflower seeds
- 1/2 lime (juice)
- 1 Tbsp chopped parsley and coriander leaf for garnish
Instructions
- Pop the tomatoes into a dry pan in the oven, on 190 C for 15 mins to soften and cook
- Then combine spices in a mortar and pestle. Think about all the transformations about to take place internally for you as you grind.
- Turn on a pan with oil and mustard seeds, once they’re popping add in the onion and sautee for a few minutes before adding the spices. The aroma is now intoxicating! Add the sweet potato, salt, tomatoes, 1 cup of vegetable stock and stir to combine. Let simmer for 15 minutes covered, or just until the potato is cooked.
- Add the chickpeas and simmer for a further 5 minutes. Add the peas after this. A couple minutes more to simmer and the curry is ready. Turn off the heat and cover.
- To prepare the sunflower seeds: Put a cup of sunflower seeds into a dry pan, on medium heat. Keep the seeds moving until they are roasted and crispy on the outside. Or, until you smell the aroma of roasting seeds. Divine!
- Serve topped with a squeeze of lime juice, the sunflower seeds and a garnish of finely chopped parsley and coriander leaf.
Roasting the cherry tomatoes brings out their flavour nicely
I love my stone mortar and pestle, it’s such a nice way to work with herbs!
The roasted sunflower seeds are super easy to make and add some crunchy depth to any dish.
Lip smackin’ delicious.
A warming winter dish like this is just what we need to comfort and nourish us in the cold, dry months so I really hope this little dish brings you some joy. Consider premixing the spices for future batches, it’ll save you time. X Sulin
Hey there! Welcome to my world of totally natural and powerful healing medicines. Medicines from nature. Medicine from Source. I’m a naturopath and herbalist with extensive clinical experience working with a range of health conditions including hormonal, metabolic, mental health, sleep and more.
I’ve brought together years of clinical and teaching experience, academic skill and curiosity to bring you this blog. I hope you enjoy it! If you do, leave a comment, I’d love to hear from you!