Chickpea Curry

When I'm away, Paul eats more fast food.  When Paul is away, I eat more delicious vegetarian dishes.  He's out tonight and we all know what that means:  Pajama pants, Love Actually, and a delicious vegetarian dinner.

Two weeks ago, my bestie Eleanor caught me looking at her Cooking Light magazine.  To our mutual happiness, she sent me home with a massive stack of Cooking Light magazines.  Once in my possession, I knew that if I opened one I would lose at least half a day to the stack and I had too much to do with Thanksgiving and the Advent Workshop approaching.  Both are now successfully behind me and as a reward I spent half of yesterday with magazines all over my floor, armed with sticky notes and a pen, blissful in recipe heaven.

I have a lot of food magazines that I've collected over the years, most of which have been read cover to cover but their recipes remain untested.  

It ends tonight!  

For my first magazine dinner, I decided to go with a gorgeous curry that was insanely fast to make.  It literally takes less than 10 minutes.  It's mild, creamy, and incredibly satisfying.  

Chickpea Curry

from Cooking Light Magazine

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp canola oil
• 1 large onion, diced
• 1 1/2 tsp garam masala
• 2 15 oz. cans chickpeas, rinsed and drained
• 1 15 oz. can unsalted crushed tomatoes
• 1 (6 oz.) package fresh baby spinach
• 1/2 cup plain greek yogurt (the recipe calls for 2%, I used fat-free and it was 100% fine)
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup chopped cilantro

Heat a medium dutch oven over medium-high heat.

Add oil to pan; swirl to coat.

Add onion and saute 5 minutes, or until tender, stirring frequently.

Stir in garam masala; cook 30 seconds, stirring constantly.

Add chickpeas, tomatoes, and spinach; cook 2 minutes or until spinach wilts, stirring occasionally.

Remove from heat and stir in yogurt and salt.  Sprinkle with cilantro.

Serve over rice.

I accidentally added too much yogurt, which was a delicious mistake, and I prefer it without the rice.  Next time, I would love to try it with some hot garlic naan.  YUM!

According to Cooking Light, a 1 1/4 cup serving of curry with a 1/2 cup of brown rice has the following stats:

Calories: 305;  Fat: 5.8g;  Protein: 12.2g;  Carb: 52.8g;  Fiber: 9.5g;  Chol: 2mg;  Iron: 4.7mg;  Sodium: 676mg;  Calc: 118mg


Pictures updated: 2/7/14