Spinach Chickpea with Garlic

Lately I have been experimenting with vegetarian recipes that I have been grabbing off the Internet and many of my Indian cookbooks.

Following is a nice dish with spinach and chickpeas. It makes a nice side dish or lunch on its own. (I found this on a blogsite, so I cannot take credit for it as my own.)

1 15 ounce can chickpeas, drained
8 oz baby spinach, chopped
2 teaspoons olive oil
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 1/2 teaspoons cumin
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 lemon, juiced

Heat olive oil in a large saute pan. Add garlic. Saute until fragant and lightly colored.

Add spinach and saute till spinach begins to wilt.

Add chickpeas and saute until all the spinach is wilted.

Add the remaining spices, mix thoroughly. Continue cooking for a few minutes to allow flavors to blend. Stir.

Remove from heat. Add lemon juice. Stir.

Serve either hot or at room temperature.

Hot Spicy Curry with Muscles

Yummy. Once again my FAVORITE Indian cookbook in the whole wide world , A Taste of India, provided a kick-ass recipe.

Last weekend I made a hot, spicy curry to steam muscles in.

The recipe included fried onions, tumeric, corriander, garlic, cayenne pepper, shredded coconut, lemon juice and water. Once the curry simmered down a bit, FRESH muscles from our local Price Chopper were added and steamed. Wow. What a wonderful dish. Aromatic, tasty, pleasant to view. A success!

Recipe:

2 T vegetable oil
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 T ground coriander
1 t cumin
1.5 t cayennne pepper
.5 t mustard seeds, crushed
1/8 t black pepper, crushed
1 bay leaf crumbled
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2/3 cup grated unsweetened coconum
1/4 cup lemon juice
1.5 t salt
1 cup water
2 pounds muscles, cleaned and debearded

Heat oil and fry onion, coriander, cumin, cayenne pepper, mustard seed, black pepper, bay leaf and garlic for 2 or 3 minutes. Put in coconut and fry another minute or two. Add lemon juice, salt and water. Simmer 10 minutes. Add muscles and cook until done.

Yum :-)