Cumin Stewed Chickpeas with Hearty Greens

If you’ve got a bunch of greens growing in the garden, make this deliciously satisfying, healthy, and inexpensive meal! I often use swiss chard, but you can use any hearty greens like kale, beet greens, broccoli leaves, etc. This time I used a combination of baby Red Russian Kale leaves and turnip greens. Delicious!

For the chickpeas, you can buy canned for convenience, but dry beans, lentils, and chickpeas are more cost effective (usually about 1/3 of the cost of canned). You can soak overnight and cook on the stove, but that requires some planning–so I almost never do it this way. Instead, you can quick soak by boiling for one minute and then letting them sit for one hour, then cook, or you can cook them without soaking at all if you have a pressure cooker! To pressure cook, use 2 cups of dry chickpeas and 8 cups of water, set the pressure to high for 40 minutes and do a 25 minute natural pressure release.

Or, if you own a pressure canner, you can have the cost-savings of dry and the convenience of canned! Can a bunch of chickpeas and they’ll be ready on the shelf to use when you want them. Be sure to follow safe canning procedures and a tested safe recipe.

Cumin Stewed Chickpeas with Hearty Greens

Recipe by Heather O'SheaCourse: MainCuisine: VegetarianDifficulty: Easy

Prep time

10

minutes

Cooking time

20

minutes

Total time

30

minutes

Ingredients

• 1 Vidalia Onion, chopped

• 4-6 Garlic Cloves, chopped

• 1/4 cup Olive oil

• 1 tbsp Ground Cumin

• Pinch of Red Pepper Flakes (optional, to taste)

• Paprika (optional, to taste)

• 2 cups cooked, rinsed Chickpeas

• Bunch of Hearty Greens (kale, swiss chard, turnip greens, beet greens, etc.), chopped

• Salt & Pepper (to taste)

• Fresh Cilantro and/or Green Onions (optional)

Directions

• In a heavy bottom pot, heat the olive oil and then add the chopped onions and garlic. Cook until softened, stirring often to avoid browning.
• Add the cumin, paprika, and red pepper flakes and stir, cooking for 30 second, then add the chopped stems of your greens (optional) and cook 5 minutes until softened, stirring often.
• Add the rinsed and drained chickpeas and a dash of salt and a little water. Mash the chickpeas with a potato masher until they’re more of a stew consistency. Add more water if necessary.
• Add the chopped greens a handful at a time, stirring and letting them wilt a little in between handfuls.
• Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve by topping with a drizzle of olive oil, some more ground cumin, paprika, and red pepper flakes, and some chopped green onions and/or cilantro (optional)