Chickpea Curry with Greens & Cardamom Ice Cream with Roasted Pears

Happy Thursday, my friends! This past weekend, my mom was in town (she just left yesterday afternoon, and if any of you want to come over and give me a condolence hug, it would be greatly appreciated). We hightailed it out to Stone Barn Farms to check out the fall foliage and autumn harvest, and boy, were we in for a treat. We saw...

geese migrating,

sheep grazing,

sprouts sprouting,

and leaves turning.
To say it was fall at its most glorious would be an understatement. When we came home, we were in the mood for a quick, hearty stew that was easy and would use a few of the ingredients that we picked up at the farmers' market on Saturday. I knew just the thing, since I have been making and eating this dinner over and over and over for a few weeks now. The best thing about this stew is that it is versatile. No fresh tomatoes? Use canned. No kale? Use spinach, dandelion greens, collard greens, or chard. Easy peasy lemon squeezy.

Chickpea Curry with Greens

Ingredients

1 cup dried chickpeas, soaked overnight, then cooked with 1T salt for 1 hour over medium-low heat, drained and rinsed

2T canola or olive oil

1 medium yellow onion

2T mustard seeds

2T curry powder

2T pudini masala

5 fresh tomatoes, chopped into 1" cubes

1 bunch of greens, like spinach, kale, chard, or collards (I used cavolo nero, or dinosaur kale). 

Directions

Heat oil in a medium saucepan over medium high heat, and add onion. Saute until translucent, and add spices. Continue to cook until the mustard seeds start popping, then add the tomatoes. Let simmer until the tomatoes release their juices, about 5 minutes. Add chickpeas, simmer for another 10 minutes, and then add the greens. Simmer until the greens are tender but not overdone (this time will depend on the greens you use). Serve over rice, barley, or quinoa, and enjoy in good company!

But you didn't think I would leave you without dessert, did you? I made this ice cream last week to feed my new obsession with cardamom. I don't even have pictures of the process because it was a spur of the moment, throw-it-together type of thing, but holy cow, it is so good. I nearly lost a finger to the ice cream maker. 

Cardamom and Roasted Pear Ice Cream

Ingredients

1.25c heavy cream

1.25c whole milk

.5T vanilla

.5c sugar (you may want to use a tablespoon or 2 more if you like things on the sweeter side)
1T ground cardamom (if you are using whole, i would smoosh 5 seed pods and do things a bit differently--I'll give you a heads up in the directions)

Roasted pears (3 small pears, cut into 1/4" cubes, roasted with 1t sugar and 1T water at 350 degrees for 30 minutes, completely cooled)

Directions:

Heat milk, sugar, vanilla and cardamom (if using whole, just put the whole smooshed seed pod in there); let cook for 5 minutes taking care not to let it boil over. Let the milk mixture cool completely (strain if using the whole seed pod).
Whip the whipping cream until it holds soft peaks; fold into cooled milk mixture. Put the mixture in the ice cream maker, and let run for 25-30 minutes, adding the pears in the last 5 mins. This would also be super good with finely chopped candied ginger, so feel free to add that, too. 

Enjoy, pretties! See you tomorrow, when Elisabeth will be bringing you all sorts of holiday-related goodness! Have a lovely day!

Comments

[Meg Blocker]

I love Stone Barns so much! I visited last spring and got to see the very newborn (day-old, in some cases) lambs. Very cute. And I love the cows.