One of our favourite meals is chickpea curry and naan bread. It is a thrifty meal once you have the spices, and great if you are vegetarian because a grain and a pulse together make a complete protein. It is really tasty with rice, or just with the naan bread.
Chickpea curry
Ingredients
2 onions, sliced
4 cloves garlic, crushed
oil for frying
1 teaspoon chilli powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon paprika
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon ground coriander
1 tablespoon garam masala
2 tins chickpeas, drained
2 tins chopped tomatoes
Fry the onions and garlic over a medium heat until soft and translucent. Add the chilli powder, salt, turmeric, paprika, ground cumin and ground coriander and stir for 1 minute. This releases the flavours of the spices and it will smell divine!
Add the drained chickpeas and chopped tinned tomatoes. Simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the garam masala and simmer for a further 10 minutes.
Serve with rice or naan bread (recipe below), yummy with a dollop of natural yoghurt on top!
Naan bread
Ingredients
250g plain flour
2 teaspoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
120ml milk
2 tablespoons oil
melted butter to brush the bread
Sift the flour, sugar, salt and baking powder together into a large bowl. In another bowl, mix the milk and oil together. Make a well in the flour and pour the milk and oil mix into it. Mix together, adding the dry ingredients gradually, until you have a dough. Add more flour if too wet, more milk if too dry.
Knead the dough on a floured surface for 8-10 minutes until smooth and elastic. I like to cheat on this step and put the dough into my breadmaker and set it to knead! Let the dough sit for 10-15 minutes in a covered oiled bowl.
Cut the dough into 5 equal pieces. Roll out on a floured surface until thin. The traditional shape is a teardrop, but any shape will do! Pre heat a baking sheet in a hot grill. Brush the naan breads with melted butter and grill until brown. They usually cook quickly, so keep your eye on them. Hopefully your grill is better than mine and your naan bread will be evenly brown!
Enjoy!
