Chickpea is a legume and high in protein, so it is a great item to include into your diet if you are a vegetarian.
There are a variety of chickpeas and as this is suppose to be an easy dish I use the canned version. You can also use garbanzo, ceci, chole, chana - so long as it belongs to be the same family and is ready to eat, it works.
For this dish I blend the chickpea to thicken the sauce and create a nice smoother texture.
Ingredients (Feeds 4)
250gm ready to eat chickpeas
3 tbsp tomato paste
7-8 pips garlic chopped
1 small onion chopped
1/2 tsp black pepper powder
1-2 tbsp chilli powder (cayenne works but it lacks that kick)
5-6 mini sweet peppers - remove the seeds and cube (you can use a yellow / orange bell pepper as a substitute)
1 packet baby spinach
1/3 packet conchiglie or more commonly know as shell pasta (penne, orecchiette work as well - look for a pasta that can hold the sauce better)
Season with salt & Italian mixed herbs
Method:
First cook the pasta just slightly al dente cause you are going to cook it in the pasta sauce again and you don't want it soggy. Reserve some of the pasta water.
Drain the chickpea - we don't want the water. Give it a quick wash and then blend it to a nice smooth paste.
Heat up some olive oil and saute the garlic then add the onions and fry till fragrant.
Add pepper powder and chilli powder with a bit of the pasta reserved water to make a paste. Cook without burning.
Pop in the cubed sweet peppers and cook for about 1 min.
Add in the blended chickpea and tomato paste. You can use more tomato paste to balance out the flavours to your liking but I don't want the tomato to overpower the taste.
Season.
Bring it to a good boil and then dump in the shell pasta and gently coat.
Add in the baby spinach.
You can add some of the reserved water if necessary but you don't want a watery consistency, just enough to ensure that all the pasta has sauce in and around them.
Only cook till the spinach is done and check for taste.
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