curried sweet potatoes & chick peas

Here’s a meal that comes together pretty quickly but tastes like it’s been stewing on the stove all day. The aromas of the spices warm your house without scaring away the kiddies (it’s not spicy at all!). Make some basmati or plain rice to eat alongside this delicious hearty stew.  My little ones (now 3 and 1) love sweet potatoes so this one was a winner in our household.  You can actually serve this as baby food (mild warmth from ginger but not spicy! plus ginger has great benefits for the tummy) – just make sure to remove ginger pieces and gently smash the chick peas and sweet potatoes with the back of a spoon so that it is soft but still has a bit of texture.

It’s a great stew that freezes well and is perfect to pull out at a later day for a quick lunch when you’re in a crunch.  We actually served left overs to some friends the other night and they loved it so much I decided to post this recipe.

prep: 10 min    cook: 1 hr    yield: 6

what you need:

• 2 large sweet potatoes
• 1 can chick peas (540 mL)
• 3 cups vegetable or chicken broth (homemade best!)
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 2 shallots
• 1 thumb sized piece of fresh ginger
• 2 tsp cumin
• 1 tbsp turmeric
• 1/4 tsp kosher salt
• freshly ground pepper
• *optional if serving to adults only – you can add cayenne or red chilli flakes
• cilantro for garnish
• 1 tbsp grape seed oil (or other cooking oil)

what to do:

1. Wash and peel sweet potatoes and chop into bite size chunks.
2. Remove skin from garlic and shallots, then chop finely. Remove skin from ginger and thickly slice.
3. Drain and rinse chick peas with cold water.
4. In a large pot (preferably a dutch oven or heavy soup pot), heat up oil on medium.
5. Add shallots and ginger, sauté until fragrant. Add garlic and spices. Be careful not to burn the spices and garlic, continue stirring and add a little bit of oil if it seems too dry. Once you smell the fragrant aromas, add chick peas and sweet potatoes, stirring to mix.
6. Immediately add your 3 cups of liquid. Stir to combine, then close the lid. Turn the heat to high then once it comes to a boil, turn it down to simmer for 45 min.
7. When serving, be sure to remove the ginger pieces so that no one gets a big bite of ginger. Serve with chopped cilantro on top, alongside rice. Enjoy!

pie pie the sous-chef