It was time for a chick pea inspired dish and I saw a picture of a chick pea dish the other week in what looked like a tomato based sauce, so it gave me an idea for my new dish.
Normally I only use chick peas for curried dishes, so this was new for me. But I knew my smoked paprika, turmeric and garlic combination would work with chick peas and a tomato base, so along with my favourite vegetables that I always throw in it was a go.
Ingredients used to make 8-10 portions:
400g of organic dried chick peas (soaked overnight beforehand they equate to roughly 2x 400g tins)
3 x bunches of spring onions
1 x bag of carrots
12 x salad tomatoes
1 x 300g pack of white mushrooms
3 x small white onions
3 x bell peppers (red, green and yellow)
1 x 500g jar of tomato passata
Herbs and spices used:
2 x teaspoons of smoked paprika
2 x teaspoons of turmeric
2 x teaspoons of garlic salt or crushed garlic
1 x teaspoon of mixed herbs
1 x veg stock cube
1 x pint of hot water to mix with stock cube and spices
Everything can go in the pot at the same time, except the jar of passata which can go in once your carrots and chick peas have softened. (you can put it all in at once if you want to leave it unattended until it's finished).
It took 6 hours in my slow cooker on high to cook to a consistency I was happy with and I added a small amount of veg gravy granules right at the end to thicken a little more.
I had bought a bag of baby spinach but decided to not put it in to cook as you usually find it shrivels into almost insignificance, so instead I put some uncooked in the bottom of each take away/food storage container that I portioned the final cooked dish into. The spinach will cook sufficiently when you reheat your portions.
As said, I got 10 portions out of this batch and it's ingredient quantities so adapt to suit your required portion need. If I hadn't put spinach at the bottom of each container it would more likely have been 8-9 portions.
Enjoy.