Chickpea Piccata

This dish is soooo good.  Thank you once again dear Isa.  One of my favorite comfort foods (creamy mashed potato) all fancied up and tasting devine.  My taste buds are very happy right now.  And it is very simple and quick to prepare.  This is definitely going on regular rotation in our house.

You can find the recipe here on the Post Punk Kitchen web site: Chickpea Picatta.
(As per Isa's spelling of Picatta).

I served this with lots of rocket (the recipe called for arugula which I had never heard of but a quick google revealed that it is rocket.)  I made a half serve of Thermomix mashed potato - so creamy!  That's 500gm of potatoes.  I used Vitasoy Calciplus milk and plenty of Nutelex for the potato. 

Dear husband was a bit dubious about the flavor of the capers diffusing through the whole dish so I left them out and then used them to garnish.  This worked really well.  I sprinkled a little of the brine from the capers over mine along with a drizzle of truffle oil.  Heaven!

According to the recipe this should serve 4 but actually dear husband and I managed to polish it off for one meal.  This amount would make a great entree for 4 people, but I can't see it stretching to 4 adult sized mains.  I can't wait to make this next time we have an omnivore over for dinner. 

Iron Chef Challenge: Chickpea, Ginger and Peanut Curry

Here is my response to the Vegan MoFo Iron Chef Challenge #1.  The challenge was to come up with an original recipe using chick peas.

Before I present my offering - a disclaimer.  I had been planning to make Ginger Peanut Soup for dinner tonight.  It is a fabulous recipe that a friend gave me recently (thanks Sarah!) and we love it.  Not wanting to miss out on the Iron Chef fun I decided to mod the recipe, including of course, adding the all important chick peas.

So my recipe is not really one that I have created from scratch.  I did adjust the amounts of some of the ingredients and I added potatoes, coriander, a little lemon, coconut milk and of course chickpeas.  Will this be acceptable for the challenge or am I disqualified?

Challenge aside, the result was a delicious, creamy, satisfying, multicultural, soupy curry.  We had it on its own, however you could serve it with rice, naan or even couscous if you wanted to. 

Ingredients
3 tablespoons oil (I used peanut oil)
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed or chopped
1 tablespoon fresh ginger, grated
2 potatoes, diced
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 cups cauliflower, divided into small florets
2 cups broccoli, divided into small florets
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can chickpeas
2 cups vegetable stock
⅓ cup natural peanut butter
1 tablespoon chopped fresh coriander (cilantro)
½ cup coconut milk
Squeeze of lemon juice (about 1 teaspoon)
Salt and Pepper to taste

Method
1. Saute the onion, garlic, ginger, potatoes and cayenne pepper in the oil for ~ 10 minutes.
2. Add the cauilflower, broccoli, tomatoes, chickpeas, stock, peanut butter and coriander.  Simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally
3. Add the coconut milk and lemon juice.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.  Serve with a drizzle of coconut milk.