Sweet Potato Curry With Spinach and Chickpeas

Kozmic Blues's Note:

This a wonderfully full flavored, vegetarian curry. The recipe is adapted from a recipe that I received in an email from Vegetarian Times.

• Total Time: 30 mins
• Prep Time: 5 mins
• Cook Time: 25 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 6

• 1/2 large sweet onions, chopped or 2 scallions, thinly sliced
• 1 -2 teaspoon canola oil
• 2 tablespoons curry powder
• 1 tablespoon cumin
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 10 ounces fresh spinach, washed, stemmed and coarsely chopped
• 2 large sweet potatoes, peeled and diced (about 2 lbs)
• 1 (14 1/2 ounce) can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 (14 1/2 ounce) can diced tomatoes, can substitute fresh if available
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro, for garnish
• basmati rice or brown rice, for serving

Directions:

1. You may choose to cook the sweet potatoes however you prefer.
2. I like to peel, chop and steam mine in a veggie steamer for about 15 minutes.
3. Baking or boiling work well too.
4. While sweet potatoes cook, heat 1-2 tsp of canola or vegetable oil over medium heat.
5. Add onions and sauté 2-3 minutes, or until they begin to soften.
6. Next, add the curry powder, cumin, and cinnamon, and stir to coat the onions evenly with spices.
7. Add tomatoes with their juices, and the chickpeas, stir to combine.
8. Add ½ cup water and raise heat up to a strong simmer for about a minute or two.
9. Next, add the fresh spinach, a couple handfuls at a time, stirring to coat with cooking liquid.
10. When all the spinach is added to the pan, cover and simmer until just wilted, about 3 minutes.
11. Add the cooked sweet potatoes to the liquid, and stir to coat.
12. Simmer for another 3-5 minutes, or until flavors are well combined.
13. Transfer to serving dish, toss with fresh cilantro, and serve hot.
14. This dish is nice served over basmati or brown rice.

Reviews

[Dulcet Kitchen]

A good start to a great curry! I followed the directions with a few additions:

1) Prior to sauteing the onions I sauteed about a teaspoon of black mustard seeds in the vegetable oil--until they started crackling.
2) I added about a teaspoon a fresh grated ginger and one serrano pepper, minced, when sauteing the onion.
3) For the spice mixture I used: 1tbs mild curry powder, 1tbs garam masala, 1tbs cumin, 1tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp red pepper, 1/2 tsp salt.
4) I ended up adding a total of 1 1/4 cups water--kept evaporating.

Same basic recipe, but still could've used a little more kick. Anyhow, I'll certainly be making it again with the said changes. THANKS!

[tamalita62]

Delicious! We love sweet potatoes and never even considered using them in a curry. I followed the recipe as written, but I think I would add more spices, including some garlic and pepper flakes. the tomatoes were very tasty. Thank you!

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I have to amend my review! We had this again last night and though I thought I had all the ingredients, I didn't, so had to improvise. I ended up using pinto beans instead of chick peas, and bulgur wheat instead of rice. It was a hit!

[berry271]

Had for supper on Saturday night. Not too complicated to put together, and great flavor. We served with Jasmine rice which was very nice. Does anyone have suggestions for how to get the rice grains separated (like in Indian restaurants, instead of sticky/fluffy? My husband and I have really been enjoying Indian cuisine, and although we are not vegetarian, I prepare meatless dishes at least once a week, so this was wonderful. I do not understand people who doubled the spices and still found bland. We prepared as is and thought the dish to be very flavorful.