Real Cooking

It's not that I don't ever cook. In fact, I eat at home most of the time and cook chicken for salads/toasted sandwiches, and I have a go-to spinach/black bean/feta recipe that I make a lot. But I've been trying more new things lately, getting tired of my old standbys with no break. The NYT has been running some comfort recipes. My pantry looks as if I don't really cook a lot, so I had to substitute rice for small pasta and swiss chard for kale (better to my mind anyway). I was skeptical as this was cooking, but it ended up really nice and especially good with an egg on the side. So I marked the moment in my journal.

For anyone who would like to try it, I'm writing out the recipe as I did it below.

Chickpea Stew

olive oil
1 med. yellow onion (or a handful of white onion chopped in my case)
2 tsp. fresh rosemary (this I DID have, right out my door in the new herb bed!)
1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes
1 can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1 1/2 c. tomatoes (either canned or diced -- I used small ones cut up)
4 c. swiss chard or other greenery
vegetable or chicken stock as needed
cooked rice to add (or pasta, or whatever -- jasmine rice was lovely)
grated cheese for topping (which I forgot, and with the egg didn't need it)

Brown the onion (plus garlic, if you want it), add tomatoes and chickpeas and cook till soft. I probably did 10 minutes. Add rosemary, red pepper flakes. Smash about half the chick peas to thicken the stew. Salt and pepper to taste. Add in rice and swiss chard and wilt down. I added a little vegetable stock at this point to keep it a little liquidish, and I simmered covered for another 5 minutes or so while I cooked the egg.