Seasonal local food recipe No 79: Kale and chickpea curry
From Sarah Raven’s Garden Cookbook. Serve with basmati rice and cucumber raita (yoghurt, garlic and chopped cucumber). It’s really tasty.
Serves 8
Preparation and cooking: about 40 minutes
Ingredients
1 large onion, finely chopped
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
a little vegetable oil
1 heaped tsp medium curry powder
25g fresh grated ginger
2 green chillies or 1 red, finely chopped
salt and black pepper
25g chickpeas, soaked overnight and cooked till tender, or 2 x 400g tins
400ml tin of coconut milk
250g button mushrooms, halved
juice of 1 lime
2 lemon grass sticks
15 medium kale leaves
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp Thai fish sauce
large bunch of coriander
Method
Fry the onion and garlic gently in the oil until soft. Add the curry powder, fresh ginger, chilli, salt and pepper and stir.
Next, add the cooked chickpeas (drain and rinse tinned ones if using), coconut milk, mushrooms, lime juice and lemon grass sticks, and simmer for 30 minutes.
Remove the stems from the kale and chop the leaves into strips. Steam them for 5 minutes and then add them to the chickpea mixture. Add the soy and fish sauces.
Scatter with coarsely chopped coriander. This is best served warm when all the flavours seem to sing out.
