Thursday 20 March 2014

Veggie Wednesday 3. Chana Masala.



Elaine over at Bramble Rambles reminded me recently about Chickpea Curry; I've been meaning to try this for ages.

The version I've followed is from 'Rick Stein's INDIA' (above), and is simplicity itself. Unfortunately I can't put up a link to Rick's own recipe (there isn't one), but here is Manju Malhi's recipe which is almost identical.

If you don't have the long list of individual spices, you could always use a good quality curry paste like Patak's 'Rogan Josh'; it combines all of them anyway.

When I started my Veggie Wednesdays, I wrote down a short list of all my favourite dishes that I thought would adapt to being meatless. Looking at the list, I've noticed that they are all either North African, Indian, or Italian. Not one English dish is amongst them.

It's normal that veggie dishes should originate from poorer countries, where meat would be beyond the financial limits of many, but it's strange that there are no 'classic' English veggie recipes..... unless, of course, you know differently.


Above was my yesterday's version of Rick's 'chana masala', and it was very good (stupid me, I forgot to add the lemon juice).

Rick suggests, in his book, that it is the most common 'curry' eaten in India. I thought that honour would have gone to rice-n-dahl, but I'll believe him.


13 comments:

  1. I can see that I am going to have to up my game; this looks far nicer than any chickpea curry that I have made. I'm glad you enjoyed it.

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    1. It was very good, but lacked the slight acidity that the lemon would have added. Silly me!

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  2. Stein's book is very good, isn't it. He's one of the few cooks on telly that I trust.

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    1. I have several of his books, and they're all a 'good read' (as well as being useful).

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  3. This thing about the British and vegetarians Cro - I think theat vegetarians are still regarded with suspicion here in the UK> My son has been veggie since he was 14, as are all his family. No way would the farmer go veggie but I don't care for meat so I try to tread a fine line between the two. Curries are definitely a no-no for the farmer though.

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    1. My youngest is veggie, and has been since an early age (one of his teachers got to him). We were veggie for a year or so as students, but I'm too much of a foodie to say no to meat full time!

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  4. That looks yummy. It looks like a dish that my veggie family would enjoy.

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  5. Yummmm!! My husband made us a chickpea curry last week, very similar recipe. I love chickpeas - they're my favorite legume along with lentils and lima beans.

    What is ini that jar of "Pickles Assortis"? (you know me and my obsession w/pickle/s!)

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    1. It's a quite spicy (hot) mix of mango, lime, carrot, green chilli, and a type of small green Indian cherry (karonda) that I 'remove'. It perks-up a mild curry.

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    2. Sounds wonderful!!! We like 'hot' here in this household. I'm on a search now for that recipe so I can make some for husband, though I have to admit the mangoes we get here in the US are pretty awful (my DiL is from India and she says that the US carries one or two varieties - the types that are the most ship-able and are quite tasteless)

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  6. May have mentioned this before my good fellow, but food just isn't food if there's no meat.

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  7. That looks very good. Would make an excellent lunch.

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  8. Will definitely try it! I love chickpeas!!! Glad I can find them here, too, now, in my childhood I only knew them from France. In Germany the traditional meal consists of some meat that you mostly bury in lots of gravy, or fry covered in breadcrumbs in lots of butter, accompanied by a starch side dish and eventually some vegetable (in cream sauce) or a small salad. But the most important is the meat. Even in veggie dishes like lentils with noodles or spätzle there has to be bacon or a sausage.

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