Crock Pot Crazy Part One: Vegetable and Chickpea Curry

With my life being crazy busy these days (grad school is ROUGH), I've been looking for ways to eat delicious food, be healthy, and not spend 5 million hours in the kitchen. This weekend, I spent two days using my beautiful crock pot to fill my fridge/freezer with delicious food for this coming week, as well as taking one pot of it to the church during General Conference.

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 1/2 cups chopped onion 
• 1 cup (1/4-inch-thick) slices carrot
• 1 tablespoon curry powder
• 1 teaspoon brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon grated peeled fresh ginger
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 serrano chile, seeded and minced (Walmart in Portales didn't have these... I got a jalapeno instead)
• 3 cups cooked chickpeas (garbanzo beans) (I used 2 cans)
• 1 1/2 cups cubed peeled baking potato 
• 1 cup diced green bell pepper 
• 1 cup (1-inch) cut green beans
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/8 teaspoon ground red pepper
• 1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes, undrained 
• 1 (14-ounce) can vegetable broth
• 3 cups fresh baby spinach 
• 1 cup light coconut milk 
• Lemon wedged (I didn't do this... I forgot to buy one.)

Preparation

1. Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add onion and carrot; cover and cook 5 minutes or until tender. Add curry powder, sugar, ginger, garlic, and chile; cook 1 minute, stirring constantly.
2. Place onion mixture in a 5-quart electric slow cooker. Stir in chickpeas and next 8 ingredients (through broth). Cover and cook on HIGH 6 hours or until vegetables are tender. Add spinach and coconut milk; stir until spinach wilts. Serve with lemon wedges.

Robin Robertson, Cooking Light 
OCTOBER 2004

Let me tell you! It was YUMMY! Warm, healthy, wholesome. Perfect for the freaky cold spell we had this weekend!