Spiced Spinach with Lentil and Rice Pilaf

Indian Spiced Spinach with Lentil and Rice Pilaf

from Vegetarian Dinner in Minutes, Linda Gassenheimer, Chronicle Books, 1977.

I needed something to go with a dish of curried chickpeas. This looked as if it would be just right.

Linda Gassenheimer’s book is divided into sections according to the cuisine. This one comes from a section entitled ‘Foods of the Far East’. I dare say since this is a US publication the ‘Far East’ is from the American perspective although it’s not really east of that country. Perhaps it comes from the period of European colonisation.

Both dishes were easy to make. The spinach, though not looking terribly appetising, was full of flavour. 

The rice and lentils with its spices and raisins was a pleasant change from plain boiled rice.

Taste: ✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔✔

Curried Chickpeas with Fresh Ginger and Coriander

Curried Chickpeas with Fresh Ginger and Coriander

from The Gourmet Vegetarian Slow Cooker, Lynn Alley, Ten Speed Press, 2010.

For vegetarian food to be slow cooked seems quite odd. Vegetables don’t need to be cooked for a long time whether it’s slowly or not. Of course, there’s always dry beans. They can do with a good slow cook.

But then, to add ‘gourmet’ to the slow cooked gave me a bit of a laugh. I just couldn’t imagine a gourmet meal coming out of a slow-cooker. So I had to give it a go to see just what the cookery book recipes were like, especially since the cover also has the line ‘Simple and Sophisticated Meals from Around the World’. Just a bit of advertising blurb, I know, but here we have on one page ‘gourmet’, ‘simple’ and  ‘sophisticated’ teamed with ‘slow cooker’. Interesting.

The book is arranged in sections according to the area the recipes come from: India, Mexico and the Southwest, Asia, Italy, France, Greece and The Middle East. It is an American publication and so the Southwest is presumably the south west of the US.

I wanted something to go with potato croquettes so chose to cook the curried chickpeas. The recipe was very simple: add the chickpeas and water to the cooker and cook. Later in the process fried onions and spices are added. And later lemon juice and seasonings. No problems at all in this.

And it turned out to be very tasty. Not gourmet certainly, nor sophisticated, but certainly simple to make. I’d certainly make it again.

Taste: ✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔✔