Moroccan Chickpea Stew

If you’re looking for a nutritious, deeply flavorful stew that can be easily made in your Instant Pot (or other pressure cooker), this is one of the best I’ve made in a while. Adapted from a Melissa Clark recipe with a similar title, I put in a hefty amount of anti-inflammatory turmeric, flavor-forward garam masala and a whole can of diced tomatoes which are rich in the antioxidant lycopene. This stew is extremely flavorful and warming. Chickpeas and kale add a good amount of fiber too.

I hope you enjoy this as much as I do. It’s good the second day, as is the case with most soups and stews, and can be thinned with a little extra water as needed.

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Moroccan Chickpea Stew
Adapted from Moroccan Chickpeas + Kale in Melissa Clark’s Dinner in an Instant (pg 103).

Notes: I make this stew in my Instant Pot and wrote the recipe that way, but you could easily sauté all the vegetables in a large stock pot and cook the chickpeas over the stove. If you’re cooking over the stove, add enough water to cover the chickpeas and keep an eye on them, adding a bit more water if necessary. Stove-top chickpeas (if soaked) will cook in 60-90 minutes. Chickpeas that are NOT soaked will pressure cook for 50 minutes and stove-top cook for approximately 90-120 minutes. Soaking improves digestion and saves energy. I recommend it!

Special equipment:
Instant Pot or other pressure cooker

1 lb dried chickpeas
Filtered water to cover by 2-3 inches

3-5 tablespoons olive oil
1 large yellow onion, chopped
4-5 large cloves of garlic, finely chopped
2 large carrots, diced
1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger
2 1/2 teaspoons sea salt
1 tablespoon ground turmeric
1 teaspoon (sweet / regular) paprika
1 1/2 teaspoons garam masala
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
Good grinding of black pepper
14.5 oz can diced tomatoes (the whole can / do not drain)
5 1/2 cups filtered water
1 bunch kale, de-stemmed and chopped (I use Lacinato here)
Cilantro or parsley, to serve (optional)

About 24 hours before you plan to make your stew, put your chickpeas in a pot and cover with filtered water by about 3 inches. The chickpeas will expand quite a bit; you can add more water if they’re dry at the top.

When you’re ready to start cooking, drain the chickpeas and rinse well.

Turn on the sauté function on the pressure cooker and add a glug of olive oil. As it starts to heat up, add the onion and sauté for 5-7 minutes, stirring frequently. Next add the garlic, stirring, until fragrant. Add in the carrot and ginger and stir this until fragrant as well. If things are looking a little dry, add another glug of olive oil. Next, add the sea salt, turmeric, paprika, garam masala, cumin and black pepper and stir well. When all the spices have been incorporated, pour in the entire can of diced tomatoes and stir again.

Add in the drained chickpeas and 5 1/2 cups of filtered water. Secure the lid onto the pressure cooker, turn the knob on top to the “sealing” position, and set it to cook on high pressure for 15 minutes; let the pressure release naturally when finished. (If the chickpeas aren’t quite done at this point, you can pressure cook for another 5 minutes or so, releasing the pressure manually afterwards.)

When the chickpeas are cooked, stir in the chopped kale. I find that the heat is enough to soften the kale without any additional cooking.

Carefully taste for salt level and add more as desired. You can serve this as is or garnished with chopped cilantro or parsley.

Serves 4-6

Quick Smashed Spanish Chickpeas

I love this recipe because it quickly turns a can of chickpeas into something special. I usually make this for lunch or dinner along with some quinoa, salad and cultured radishes, but you could also use it as a bean dip on a Friday night with a glass of wine. I haven’t done that yet but now that I’m thinking about it, I’m excited to try :)

This takes about 10 minutes to make so it’s definitely busy weekday friendly. It can easily be scaled up to use more than one can of chickpeas for a larger group.

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Quick Smashed Spanish Chickpeas
Adapted from the Smashed Chickpeas recipe (pg 51) in Jamie Oliver’s Food Escapes.

Note: I start with an unsalted can of chickpeas in this recipe. If you’re working with a can that already contains it, I would hold off on adding the salt and then salt to taste at the end.

Olive oil (Spanish if you have it, NO worries if you don’t)
1 large garlic clove, finely chopped
14.5 oz can chickpeas with the liquid
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/2 tablespoon raw apple cider vinegar

Pour a glug of olive into a small skillet or saucepan over medium heat and add the garlic. Let it sizzle for a couple minutes, stirring every 30 seconds or so, until the garlic is fragrant and just barely starting to brown around the edges.

Pour in the chickpeas and their liquid and bring to a simmer. Let cook for a couple minutes then remove the pan from heat.

With a potato masher (or something along those lines) coarsely mash the chickpeas, then add the sea salt, oregano, smoked paprika and vinegar. Stir well.

Finish with a drizzle of olive oil and sprinkling of smoked paprika for presentation, and people will probably think you labored over this for much longer than you actually did :)

Serves 2

Hummus

This is classic hummus the way I usually make it.

For increased digestibility, I first soak my chickpeas for 24 hours and then cook them with a small piece of kombu seaweed and cumin seeds (this is the Whole Life Nutrition approach). The cumin seeds also impart flavor as some of them make it into the hummus. The seaweed adds minerals but doesn't impart any taste.

Also, your hummus will be the creamiest if you use your chickpeas as soon as you’ve cooked them. You can certainly store them in the fridge for a day or two if needed, but if possible make your hummus right away.

This recipe makes about 6 cups of hummus, which I divide into 3 2-cup Pyrex containers for the freezer.

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Hummus

Recipe updated 12/30/2019

Special equipment:
Food processor

To soak and cook the chickpeas:
1 1/3 cups dried chickpeas
Filtered water for soaking and more for cooking
2-3 inch strip of kombu seaweed
1 1/2 teaspoons whole cumin seeds

To make the hummus:
1 large garlic clove, chopped
Juice of 2 lemons, possibly more to taste
1 1/4 teaspoons sea salt
1/3 cup olive oil
2/3 cup tahini
Cooked chickpeas (see above)
Bean cooking water (or filtered water) for consistency

Garnish:
Olive oil
Sumac or smoked paprika

Place the chickpeas in a pot and cover with about 2 inches of water. Leave them to soak uncovered for about 24 hours.

STOVETOP COOKING METHOD:
Drain and rinse the chickpeas, return them to the pot and add new water to cover the beans by at least an inch. Bring to a boil. Once boiling, skim off the white foam then reduce heat to low and add the kombu and cumin. Cover and cook for 1-1.5 hours. Bean cooking times can vary a lot. Start checking for doneness around the hour mark, but be prepared to cook for longer if needed.

PRESSURE COOKER METHOD:
Drain and rinse the chickpeas, place them in the pressure cooker and cover with at least an inch of filtered water. Add the kombu and cumin seeds to the pot and cook on high pressure for 12 minutes. Let the pressure release naturally.

When the chickpeas are done, discard the seaweed but keep the chickpeas and cumin seeds in the cooking water.

To make the hummus, place the chopped garlic, lemon juice and sea salt in your food processor and let it sit for 5-10 minutes. Add the olive oil, tahini and chickpeas (you can either remove them with a slotted spoon or strain them, but if you do the latter be sure to preserve the cooking liquid). Some of the cumin seeds from the cooking water will inevitably make it into the hummus and that's OK; they add flavor. At this point, process what you have into a thick and chunky hummus, then start adding the cooking water (about 1/4 cup at a time) and continue to process until you have a smooth consistency. I usually add well over a cup of the chickpea cooking liquid as I like my hummus to have a pourable consistency. Keep in mind that it will thicken slightly over time as well. Also note that the longer you run the food processor the creamier the hummus will be; I often run it for several minutes for the smoothest possible hummus.

Makes about 6 cups of delicious, homemade hummus, perfect for a freezer stash.