Okra and Chickpea Stew and my New Kitchen!

Guess what? I moved to San Francisco!

I live in the Haight, home of the Summer of Love and the Upper Haight Farmers' Market.

Here is the kitchen:
So I went to the farmers' market and bought some okra. Why not? I thought, this will give me a reason to look up a recipe for okra.

But smitten kitchen didn't have one.

And our blog didn't have one.

So I tried TasteSpotting, and I found this Okra and Chickpea Stew Recipe on a blog called Roti N Rice.

I didn't have a bunch of stuff in the recipe, so I'll note below what I substituted / skipped.

Okra and Chickpea Stew
12 oz okra, trimmed
1 can chickpeas, rinsed and drained (I didn't bother rinsing or draining)
4 oz roasted lamb, cubed (I didn't have any lamb - omitted)
2 tomatoes, cubed (I had about 1 cup of cherry tomatoes)
2 tbsp tomato paste (didn't have any - omitted)
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
¼ tsp tumeric (didn't have any, so I used a combination of: garam masala, cumin, and chili powder)
2 tbsp olive oil
1½ cups water (didn't use any -- used the water from the chickpeas instead)

salt and pepper to taste In a heated pan, add 2 tsp olive oil. Sauté onions and garlic until soft. Add lamb, pepper, and tumeric. Cook for about 2 minutes. Stir in tomato paste. Add chickpeas and water. Bring to a boil. Add okra, reduce heat to medium and let simmer for 10 minutes. Remove and serve immediately with basmati rice.

even with all the omissions / substitutions, the recipe came out really good!

yeah!!!

we ate it with a kale salad with pluot and pepperjack cheese.

it's like you're there!

I made smashed chick pea salad and ate it in a sandwich

Last night I left work exhausted and STARVING. All I wanted was to get home as fast as possible and make something quick and easy and satisfying that didn't require picking up too many groceries. Before leaving, I checked Smitten Kitchen, and this was the latest post. I had almost all the ingredients at home so I decided to give it a try.

It was perfect. All the things I wanted. Quick, easy, satisfying. And I had enough for lunch the next day. Here is the recipe with my notes:

Smashed Chickpea Salad

1 15-ounce can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
2 tablespoons pitted, halved and very thinly sliced black olives
1 tablespoon finely chopped red onion
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
Zest and juice from half a lemon (I definitely used all the juice of both halves)
Couple good pinches of salt
A few grinds of black pepper
A few glugs of olive oil (the original is quite oily, like bread-soaking oily, I went a little lighter. Both ways are delicious)

Mix everything but the olive oil in a small to midsize bowl. Very lightly smash the chickpea mixture with the back of a fork or a potato masher. You’re not looking for a hummus-like puree but something closer to a coarse chop with a few smaller bits to hold it together. Add the glugs of olive oil, mix it lightly and enjoy. I don't own a potato masher, and I didn't find the back of a fork effective because those damn chick peas are so slippery, so I used the bottom of a can. Worked fine. As the recipe says, you don't really need to get them fully mashed.

This would have been fine alone on toasted bread, but Smitten had a few serving suggestions, like spreading tahini on the bread and layering some roasted red pepper. I put crumbled feta and sliced avocado on my sandwich.

This is Smitten's picture, not mine, as I was cameraless. But this is pretty similar to what it actually looked like. Just imagine avocado instead of red pepper:

This was a tasty but messy sandwich. Especially the one I packed for work the next day. A little awkward to eat at lunch with colleagues. Next time I make this I'm going to figure out a way to make it bind a little more. It also doesn't really need the bread--I had to stop myself from eating it straight from the bowl.