Collard Greens & Chickpea Stew, is the fifth in a series of six recipes inspired by Vegetables From Down The Road.

In India this dish is usually made with spinach and/or mustard greens.  The gorgeous collard greens, in my farm fresh vegetable basket, inspired me to put in a Southern American twist.  I had never seen collard greens in India, but they are widely available here in Texas.  People in Texas love collard greens.

INGREDIENTS:

• 15 large collard leaves
• 1 1/2 cup of dry chickpeas
• 3 inches of ginger root
• 2 inches of fresh turmeric (if you can’t find this use 1 tsp of turmeric powder)
• 1 medium sized red onion
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 3 peppers (use whatever variety you have on hand.  Here I used, 1 fiery Scotch Bonnet and 2 mild orange baby bells.) Mixing up the type of peppers lets you control the heat level and results in a more complex flavor.
• 2 red hot Indian chilies for garnish (optional.) My husband eats the garnish.
•  1 Tbsp of tomato paste
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 1 tsp black mustard seeds
• 1 tsp smoked paprika
• 2 tsp garam masala
• 3 Tbsp grape seed oil
• 1 bay leaf
• salt and pepper to taste

PREPPING THE CHICK PEAS:

• Soak the chick peas overnight.  They will double in size.
• Drain the soaking water
• Place in a crock pot along with a bay leaf and cover with water
• Turn crock pot to high and cook until tender
• Add salt to taste towards the end of the cooking process

PREPPING THE OTHER INGREDIENTS:

• Remove the collard green leaves from their stems (Don’t throw the stems away.  Chop them up and use them in recipes in place of celery.)
• Dice the red onion
• Mince the ginger, garlic and peppers

COOK:

• Coat a heavy duty stainless steel skillet with grape seed oil, place it on medium heat.
• Add the onion, ginger, garlic and peppers.  Saute until translucent, about 4 minutes.
• Add the cumin and black mustard seeds.  Cook until the seeds start crackling.
• Grate in the fresh turmeric.  If you are using turmeric powder, add it later in the recipe with the other powdered spices.
• Saute until golden brown
  

  
• Make a hot spot in the center of the pan by pushing aside the veggies
• Add tomato paste to the hot spot and let it cook for about a minute
• Stir the cooked tomato paste into the veggies
  

  
• Add the collard greens
• Saute them for about 5 minutes
  

  
• Add the smoked paprika, garam masala, and the turmeric if you are using the powdered form.
• Saute for another 5 minutes to let the powdered spices cook and blend

Drain the cooked chick peas and add them to the pan.  If you don’t want to cook the chick peas from scratch, use two 12 ounce cans of cooked chickpeas.  Please drain and rinse the canned chick peas well.

Stir the chick peas in and cover with the lid.  Turn off the heat and let the flavors marry for about 15 minutes.  In Hindi, we call this process of letting the flavors marry, “DHUM”.

Transfer to a beautiful platter and garnish with the red hot Indian chilies.

This is a great vegan dish to make for a party.  It can be made in advance because it actually tastes better the next day.

Serve this stew as a side dish with your choice of protein, or it can be served as a vegan main dish with some pilaf.  I like serving this to my vegan guests with Buckwheat Pilaf.

I hope you are enjoying this series of recipes.  I am having a lot of fun creating them.  Next Saturday, I will post the last in this series of six recipes inspired by Vegetables From Down The Road.

Please leave your feedback in the comment section.  I always love to hear from you. 😊