Paprika Chicken with Chickpeas

It has been almost a full year since I've posted. I'm sorry! Will you forgive me because I have a delicious recipe for you?! Adapted from this recipe. It was sent to me by a co-worker who had made it and loved it. The first time I made it I followed it exactly and it was good. Then I went to make it again, with some adjustments and it was better. Then I went to make it again with just a little more tweaking and it was the best. So now I feel like sharing it with everyone so they can enjoy it too. Also I want to start blogging again, so I thought this was a good start.

Ingredients:
2 tbsp (smoked) paprika ---- I put smoked in brackets because my paprika is in a mason jar and has been filled so many times I don't know if its regular or smoked or a mix of both. 
1 1/2 tsp salt
3/4 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp garlic power
1/4 tsp oregano
2 lb chicken thighs (I used skinless, boneless... original recipe uses skin on bone in. Either works!)
1 medium yellow onion, thinly sliced
1 red pepper, thinly sliced
1 14 oz can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
2 Tbsp + 1 tsp olive oil
Zest & Juice from 1 lemon
Parsley for garnish
Feta for garnish
Optional: Spinach

Directions:
1) In a large bowl stir together paprika, salt, garlic power, pepper and oregano. Add chicken thighs and coat well. Set aside.
2) Preheat the oven to 350 F
3) Place thinly sliced onions and red peppers in the bottom of a casserole dish large enough to hold the chicken with room in between. Toss with 1 tsp olive oil and spear them out evenly.
4) Add drained chickpeas, lemon zest, lemon juice and remaining olive oil to chicken and mix well making sure everything gets some spices on it.
5) Arrange chicken & chickpeas on top of the onions and peppers. Try and get the chicken on top of everything.
6) Bake for 55 minutes uncovered. Then carefully broil for a few extra minutes (making sure to watch) to get a little extra color on top.

I served on a small bed of spinach (which wilts from the heat of everything once you plate) and topped with parsley and feta! Seriously... don't miss out on the feta. The extra cook time (55 minutes + broil vs the 40-45 minutes from original recipe was key for me. Chicken didn't dry out and it gave the chickpeas more time to soften up as I found they were not quite cooked with the 40 minutes).

Spinach and Chickpea Curry

Spinach and Chickpea Curry
Serves 4-6
Ingredients:
1 tbsp olive oil
1 large white or spanish onion, thinly sliced
1 one inch piece of ginger, minced
3 cloves of garlic, minced
2 tsp garam masala
1 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper (or more or less to taste)
3/4-1 can of chickpeas (drained and rinsed)
28 oz of diced tomatoes or whole tomatoes crushed in your hands
pinch of sugar
1/2 package of fresh baby spinach
salt and pepper to taste
optional: fresh coriander to top, squeeze of lemon to top

Heat olive oil in a large lidded pan over medium heat. Add the onions and fry until translucent. Add the garlic and ginger and cook for a couple of minutes, stirring frequently. Add the garam masala, cumin and cayenne pepper. Stir so that the onions have coating of the spice. Cook for a minute until the spices as a little toasted. Add the diced tomatoes or crush the whole tomatoes into the pan. Add pinch of sugar. Give it a good stir and cover. Simmer on low-medium heat for 20 minutes. Add the spinach in batches, stir until wilted. Serve on rice or with naan. Right before serving squeeze a little lemon juice on top.

This was very delicious and ready in 30 minutes! Super easy. I happened to have a left over baked chicken breast that I diced up and added at the point of adding the chickpeas just to use it. If you wanted to add chicken that wasn't left over, I would fry it up first with some salt and pepper in the olive oil, remove it from the pan and start from the beginning. Adding it in at the same point after you've added the chickpeas.

Mediterranean Baked Sweet Potato

This was pretty delicious. Definitely very different than anything I've made before. The chickpeas were on point. I would just snack on them by themselves.

The original recipe had this a vegan recipe, but feta is clearly a wonderful addition.

Ingredients:
4 medium sweet potatoes
1 15oz can of chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1/2 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 teaspoon each cumin, coriander, cinnamon, smoke paprika
optional: squeeze of lemon juice
1/4 cup hummus
juice of 1/2 lemon
1 teaspoon dried dill
3 cloves of garlic, minced
unsweetened almond milk to thin
1/4 cup cherry tomatoes, diced
1/4 cup parsley, minced
2 tablespoon lemon juice
Feta for topping

Preheat oven to 400 degrees and line a baking tray (or two depending on the size) with aluminium foil

Rince and scrub potatoes. Cut in half length wise and rub with olive oil. Place face down on the baking tray. Toss rinsed and drained chickpeas with olive oil, cumin, coriander, cinnamon, paprika and a small squeeze of lemon juice. Put the chickpeas on the baking sheet as well (or on another one if you don't have the room). Bake for 20-25 minutes. Chickpeas will be nice a crispy and you should be able to poke the sweet potatoes easily with a fork.

While the sweet potatoes and chickpeas are roasting, make the garlic sauce. In a bowl mix hummus, lemon juice, dill, and garlic. Add enough almond milk to thin so you can pour it. In a separate bowl, mix chopped tomatoes, parsley and lemon juice.

Top sweet potatoes with garlic sauce, chickpeas, tomato-parsley garnish and feta.

Homemade Falafels

I made homemade falafels for my brother and I the other night. So homemade that we soaked our own chickpeas... enough chickpeas to feed an entire village. What on earth am I going to do with all these fucking chickpeas? Thanks a bunch brochacho. Seriously though. We needed 1 cup. He did an ENTIRE bag. Probably close to 10 cups. No exaggeration. ANYWAY.

I had honestly never had falafel before this (besides a drunk bite of Lindsey's Falafel wrap the other night) so had no idea what to expect or had no ability to judge their authenticity. End result, they were delicious. Authenticity rating from my bro - "shockingly legit". 

Ingredients:

1 cup raw dried chickpeas, soaked overnight

1 cup chopped falt leaf parsley

1/2 cup chopped cilantro

2-3 cloves garlic

1 tsp coriander powder

1 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp black pepper

1/2 tsp hot paprika

salt to tase

1 tsp lemon zest + juice of half lemon

1 tbsp olive oil 

sesame seeds to sprinkle on

vegetable oil to deep fry 

Directions:

Soak 1 cup of raw dried chickpeas over night (approximately 12 hours) in plenty of water. The chickpeas will double in size as they soak. Drain and rinse the chickpeas. Add to food processor. Peel cloves of garlic and add to processor. Add parsley and cilantro. Add the spices (coriander powder, cumin, pepper, paprika), lemon zest, the lemon juice and olive oil. Pulse the food processor, shaking it to make sure the ingredients are well combined. The texture should still be grainy yet combined. 

Line a baking tray with aluminium foil. Using your hands form the mixture until small balls and line them on the baking tray. It is important to note that the mixture isn't the easiest to shape and falls apart fairly easily! Handle with care. At this point you can lightly sprinkle the falafel balls with sesame seeds. Heat vegetable oil in a deep pan (like a wok). When the oil is nice and hot lower a falafel ball at a time with a slotted spoon into the oil. You can have more than one going at a time. Deep fry until a light golden brown on all sides. 

We served our falafels in pita pockets with lettuce, cucumber, onion, tomato, hummus, tzatiki, and tahini sauce. Next time we will get better pitas because these ones sucked. 

Chickpea, Coconut, and Cashew Curry

My sister made this curry over the break, but I was out for dinner that night so only got a little taste when I got home. One of my housemates is a vegetarian so I cooked this for dinner tonight for us.

As the note at the top of the page says, you can use 1 tablespoon of curry power or garam masala to replace the spice mix. When my sister made it she used garam masala, but I only had curry powder on hand. Even though I knew this was an option, when I went to add the curry powder my mind blocked out the '1 tablespoon' so I counted how many teaspoons were in the spice mixture list and therefore put 4 teaspoons of curry powder in (which is a little over the 1 tablespoon asked for).

I didn't have any 'red or green chili' and was unclear about the kind of chili wanted so I just used red pepper flakes (as suggested by my sister).

I was apparently out of it while cooking and when I read 'add salt and lime juice to taste' I thought it meant as a garnish on the dish... so after I sprinkled a little on top of our dishes and we tried a bite we decided it was good, but a little on the bland side. I then re-read the directions and realized you were actually supposed to incorporate in the curry. I've since fixed it and imagine the left overs will be even more delicious than dinner was tonight!

Not going to lie, the carnivore in me wanted chicken in this... even my (recently) vegetarian housemate said it'd be delicious with chicken. Next time I make it perhaps I will either incorporate chicken into it or make some for the side if i've got vegetarians to serve!

Tonight I served the curry on top of some rice and extra spinach.