Just in case you have had enough of meat heavy meals in the past few days I have a fun recipe that I took the inspiration from ‘Eat St.’ on the Food Network. I saw an episode quite some time ago about a food truck that made bunnies. Bunnies are simply hollowed out buns that act as bowls and are street food popular in South Africa. The one that really stuck in my head was a chickpea curry. I knew that I could make it friendly enough to sit on the stove by itself and by freeing up my cooking time I even made the buns 🙂
I’m going to apoligize right now for the brevity of my posts this week. I’m writing REALLY late at night after busy toddler is asleep and everything else is done. I’m trying to get a few extra jobs done around the house during the holidays including painting the back hallway, doing paint touch-ups, a really deep clean of all the rooms, a bit of primping and making the basement livable for the first time since we started our renovation. The recipes in the next two weeks are truly the type of recipes when you have too many irons in the fire. Don’t get me wrong-happy irons, but far too many.
I started by soaked 1 1/2 cups of dried chickpeas overnight (just use a 28 oz can if you don’t want to soak-we’re trying to watch our salt content though in hopes of being kind to my father-in-law’s kidneys though).
I took: 2 tsp cumin, 2 tsp. garlic, 3 cubes of frozen cilantro (or 2 T. fresh), 1 tsp. brown mustard seeds and the same of cardamon. I also cut 2 inches of frozen ginger into matchsticks.
Next for my vegetables. I’ve got: 3 parsnips, 1/2 a red onion, 1 medium carrot and 2 apples (I’m using tart brambley’s).
I started by toasting the mustard seeds until they popped in 1 tsp. of oil and then added my veg. 1 HEAPING tablespoon of curry paste (I’m using mild but if you love heat then use hot) was added and the veg were stirred until coated.
I added 3 kaffir lime leaves (these are now available at most bulk stores).
Then came my chickpeas.
Added my lovely ginger.
And enough chicken stock (use veg if you’d prefer) to cover.
Let burble away until thickened and the vegetables are soft about an hour.
Meanwhile I made a batch of buns using my basic bread recipe.
I dusted them with a few mustard seeds.
Hollowed them out.
Finally, I filled them with curry and enjoyed! You can make these just as easily with storebought buns. Happy eating 🙂
