Directions
I wish I’d thought to take a video of my family having this for dinner. Aaron will pretty much eat anything, but if he told me once during this meal, he told me twenty times “I really like this.” or “This is really, really good.” in between bites. Emily, my oldest, went up for seconds…and thirds. (If you know Emily, you know she eats like a bird, so this is kind of a big deal.) Avery, well…Avery took a few bites and didn’t moan about it too much, so I’m looking at that as a win.
I love when I can throw something healthy, and meat-free at my family, and call it a success. This spicy, flavorful stew was delicious, and since it all comes together in the crock pot, the simplicity made it even tastier.
I started by cooking down a couple of the veggies on the stove top first. I spent a few minutes, stirring up my chopped onion and carrots over the heat until they had started to soften. Then, I added in some curry powder, brown sugar, ginger, minced garlic, and a diced chile pepper.
I stirred that mixture around for just about a minute more, to bring out the flavors, and toast up those spices.
Then, the mix went into my slow cooker along with some canned chickpeas, cubed red potatoes, cut fresh green beans, salt, pepper, red pepper, a can of diced tomatoes, and a can of chicken broth. You could easily swap out vegetable broth for the chicken, but I happened to have chicken broth on hand so I went with that.
I love it when dinner is colorful. Isn’t that pretty? It makes you feel healthier just looking at it!
At that point, it was time for my slow cooker to do the work, so I popped the lid on the top and let it cook on HIGH for six hours.
Six hours later, my house smelled incredible, and I had this amazing thick, chunky stew on my hands.
It wasn’t quite done, though.
Time to add a few handfuls of baby spinach and a cup of light coconut milk to finish it up.
I stirred both in, and when the spinach had cooked down and wilted a bit, I was ready to serve it up.
I served it over quick cooking couscous, along with a lemon wedges. Squeezing that lemon over the top before digging in just gave it this amazing burst of flavor right at the end.
It’s hearty enough to settle the rumblings of a hungry, winter stomach, but light and fresh enough that you don’t feel too badly about sneaking that scoop of ice cream after the kids go to bed. That’s my kind of dinner!
SLOW COOKER VEGETABLE AND CHICKPEA CURRY
Adapted from Cooking Light
- 1 Tbsp. olive oil
- 1 1/2 cups chopped onion
- 1 cup (1/4 inch thick) slices carrot
- 1 Tbsp. curry powder
- 1 tsp. brown sugar
- 1 tsp. grated fresh ginger
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 chile pepper (Original recipe called for a Serrano, I used a milder pepper.)
- 2 cans chickpeas, drained
- 1 1/2 cup cubed red potatoes
- 1 cup (1 inch) cut green beans
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 1/4 tsp. pepper
- 1/8 tsp. ground red pepper
- 1 (14.5 oz) can diced tomatoes, undrained
- 1 (14 oz.) can chicken or vegetable broth
- 3 cups fresh baby spinach
- 1 cup light coconut milk (NOT cream of coconut)
- lemon wedges and cooked couscous for serving
- Heat the oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and carrot, and cook for 5 minutes or until tender. Stir in the curry powder, sugar, ginger, garlic and chile pepper. Cook 1 minute more, stirring constantly.
- Place the onion mixture in a 5-6 quart slow cooker. Stir in the drained chickpeas, and all of the ingredients through the broth.
- Cook on HIGH, 6 hours, or until the vegetables are tender.
- Add the spinach and coconut milk, stirring until the spinach wilts.
- Serve over couscous, with lemon wedges.
- ENJOY!
