This colorful chickpea-dish is a lovely variation on the delicious Indian Chana Masala, only this recipe is somewhat more Sattvic because of the extra crunchy vegetables. It is a perfect stew for every season, because you can actually process all kinds of vegetables in it. This spicy summer version has carrots from my kitchen garden, celery and peas.
Start by heating a lot of coconut oil. First add a teaspoon of cumin seeds and then add sliced fresh pepper and ginger. Then add some of the following herbs to roast: turmeric, garam masala, curry and a number of cardamom-beans (you can get them out later). Then you bake the pre-cooked chickpeas* with the roasted herbs and add some salt and pepper. After that, add a lot of fresh sliced tomatoes and continue to stir well. While stir-frying, add the sliced celery, carrots and green peas. Deglaze with a cup of strong veggie-broth and let it simmer with fresh coriander, a dash of agave syrup and a good squeeze of lemon. At the end you add a big piece of butter or ghee: the sauce will bind a bit and it will give a delicious creamy and full flavor. Do not forget to take out the cardamom-beans again! Don’t overcook the veggies: in less then 5 minutes they will be perfect and crispy with still a lot of prana in them.
A very tasteful and fast one-pot dish, especially if you like the Oriental style. You can serve it with rice or quinoa, but with papadum or Turkish bread it’s much faster and it gives a nice ‘touch’ to the recipe.
*It is always better not to use canned food, so I recommend for the Sattvic lifestyle to always have some of your own beans, chickpeas or lentils in the freezer. The chickpeas of this recipe were washed very careful and then soaked for 8 hours in water. Then I washed them again and cooked them for half an hour. The last 5 minutes I added some salt. After cooling down I divided them over some recycled plastic yoghurt trays. It takes some time and effort but this way I never have to use canned food and my own prepared beans and chickpeas have my own good and light energy of preparing them carefully and with a lot of love. The level of prana will increase that way, and it is much healthier of course.
YOGA LIFESTYLE 