The other day I had little time to prepare a quick lunch. As it usually happens in these situations, I turned to one of my safe-meals, but not to a specific dish per se, but a cooking method.
I had a bag of pre-cooked and frozen chickpeas, some frozen peas, fresh carrots and ginger. While going through my pantry for peanut butter, I remembered I also have some sun-dried tomatoes I could also use. So this dish, which I dubbed vegan chickpea and peanut goulash, was born.
How to prepare chickpeas in peanut sauce
This dish was inspired by Asian delights I love to prepare and eat. To be more precise, Indian food 🙂 This means the preparation starts with heating the spices (and lots of them!) on the oil and then gradually adding veggies, stirring in the sauce and then adding chickpeas. Before serving, you pour over the lemon juice and enjoy the unexpected aroma it brings into the dish.
As mentioned, I already had cooked chickpeas. If you don’t, use the canned ones, as cooking them from scratch will demand much more time. And this is a quick meal. Did I mention simple?
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A word of two about the ingredients
As an Indian-style dish (or at least, this is how I perceive it), these chickpeas in peanut sauce require plenty of spices. Start with asafoetida, as this specific spice is very intense in both taste and smell, and heating it helps to reduce the pungent flavour. If you don’t have it, no problem: make sure not to leave out garam masala, cinnamon, curry, cumin, and coriander seeds. If you’re a fan, add chilli pepper flakes. I decided to leave them out this time.
When it comes to veggies, for me, only ginger is obligatory. The rest from the recipe is pretty much what I had at the time. You can sub them with broccoli, cauliflower, spinach, pepper, even potatoes or squash. I am a big fan of green peas, and they fit perfectly as a counterbalance to the slightly sour tomatoes and zesty ginger.
You will notice there is no coconut milk nor cream; this is deliberate. I wanted to extract all fats and richness I could from the peanuts, so coconut milk would be an overkill. This way, the meal is creamy yet crunchy and less fatty.
Enoguh chat. Let’s cook!
Chickpeas in crunchy peanut sauce with peas and dried tomatoes
Course: Lunch, DinnerDifficulty: Easy3
servings10
minutes20
minutesOut of dinner ideas? Try his juicy, yet crunchy Indian-style vegan goulash aka chickpea in peanut sauce with green peas and dried tomatoes!
Ingredients
400 g cooked chickpeas
1 medium size carrot
1 thumb size piece of fresh ginger
2 spring onions or 1/2 of regular onion
100 g green peas
2-3 tablespoons of peanut butter
4-5 tablespoons of unsalted peanuts
2 handfuls of sun-dried tomatoes without oil
Juice of 1/2 lemon
2 tablespoons of plant based milk
Mixed spices: garam masala, cumin, coriander seeds, curry, asafoetida, cinnamon, black pepper
Olive oil for cooking
Salt
Directions
- In a large pan, heat the spices on a spoon or two of olive oil. If you are using asafoetida, wait for a few minutes until it releases the aroma.
- Add the grated ginger, sautee for a couple of minutes and then add onions, carrots, and peas. Add tomatoes, a cup of water, stir and let it cook for about 5 mins.
- Reduce the heat and add the peanut butter. Stir and cook until it melts and distributes evenly, and then add the plant milk. Add more water if needed. Make sure the mixture doesn’t stick or burn.
- In the meantime, chop the peanuts into tiny bits in chopper or blender. Add them to the mixture together with cooked chickpeas, stir again thoroughly. Taste to see if the veggies have softened. Don’t overcook.
- Add salt to taste and more pepper if needed. Now pour the lemon juice, stirr all well and serve over rice, buckwheat or grain of your choice.