Zesty Thai Coconut Chickpeas — The Healing Root

Hello everyone!

This is a must-have-up-the-sleeve Thai Chickpea Recipe to have up your sleeve ...

It’s been a while and a half since I last posted a recipe or blog post, and for that I apologize. I have been so inundated with Uni work and teaching – there I was thinking I was getting the “balance” thing so right with work, play, relationships and the blog but alas the blog had to take a breather just so I could keep afloat :) Thank you all so much for sticking around regardless and for being patient! I appreciate the love and support from all of you glorious souls, more than you know.

So once again, I found myself on a Tuesday evening (my night for cooking for the house) and at a loss of what to make. It had been a crazy day and I really wasn’t feeling all that inspired. However, I knew a few things: 1. I wanted to make something delicious. 2. I knew I wanted to make something using chickpeas. 3. I knew I wanted to create a new recipe for the blog. So there I was, in the kitchen, tying my apron on when I saw the tin of coconut milk peering out at me from behind the soy sauce on the shelf in the pantry. And inspiration struck.

And so this quick, easy and delicious recipe came about. It is hearty, delicious, protein-rich and very fragrant. It is a perfect side dish pairing well with rice and an assortment of some other veggies (like green snap peas, blanched broc and cauliflower etc). I ate them with an assortment of veggies, rice, avocado and my favorite cumin roasted carrots with a turmeric tahini sauce (recipe coming soon).

But before we get into the recipe, I would like to share some exciting news about an upcoming challenge that I will be participating in and I hope you will join me! My wonderful friend Jess, who is a vegan dietician (changing lives!) based in Cape Town (known as The Green Dietician), is holding a 30 day “GO-GREEN” challenge. For those of you who have flirted with veganism for a while but haven’t had the push, the drive or the desire to take the full leap to fully commit, this is the perfect time to give it a 30-day try out with the support of a qualified plant based dietician. It’s 30 days of your entire life, so in the bigger picture it really is not a lot of time, but who knows what could transpire as a result of giving these 30 days a solid try? It could change your life forever and you could feel better than you have in your entire life, it could inspire you to make permanent lifestyle changes and orientate yourself towards living a greener and more sustainable life, it could inspire you to become more conscious of what you put into your body as it directly effects your mind, your consciousness, your energy and THE PLANET. It could also have none of those personal effects, but how are you to know if you don’t give it a good ol’ bash?

I for one, am SO excited to go on this journey for the next 30 days. For those of you that are already living a plant based lifestyle, this can be a 30-day challenge for you to focus on your individual health goals such as: eating more wholefoods, exercising/moving more, cutting out all processed foods, leaving those sugary-fatty vegan junk food items out of the kitchen (and cupboards and bed side tables!), getting fitter, stronger, leaner, healthier – whatever you’d like the 30-day challenge to be for you.

I will be sharing my meals and my experiences along the journey via my Facebook and Instagram page both of which you can find under: The Healing Root. And of course I will be sharing my journey on the blog with you all! And Jessica will be available to any and all of your questions regarding health, veganism, protein etc so if you have any questions you can ask me to ask her or you can simply give her a follow and ask Jess directly: @the_green_dietitian

What are my goals for this 30-day challenge?

I generally eat a very healthy, wholefoods diet with minimal if any processed foods.

· However, for these next 30 days (starting from Monday) I would like to try and eat raw in the day and then a cooked meal in the evening – I find I feel so fantastic on days where I eat predominantly raw throughout the day by default. I do not eat only high carb foods though, as I feel imbalanced if I eat only fruit. So I tend to eat a lot of fruit in the morning, with a green juice and then for lunch I start off with some more fruit and then eat a big salad with avocado, nuts, seeds and a tahini dressing – with all the raw fixings like raw corn, bell peppers, kale, tomatoes, etc for lunch. If I don’t do fully raw then I add some blanched veggies! Then for dinner I will likely have an assortment of veggies, whole grains and baked sweet potato with more tahini sauce!

· I am also going to cut out any food from a box or tin – from tinned tomatoes and chickpeas to soy/almond milk. For these 30 days if I want a tomato sauce, I will make from scratch. If I want milk, I will make from scratch. I want to try move more to a completely whole food diet for this month and see if I experience any changes!

· I am pretty addicted to soy sauce – so for these 30 days I am going to try and reduce my intake of soy sauce (not that soy sauce is bad for you – but I feel I am too dependent on it for my meals, so I would like to just take a young break from it to experiment more with other flavors in my cooking).

· I would like to ensure that I make time daily for my yoga practice which includes: asana, pranayama and meditation. This is vital for my overall wellbeing and health. For the most part I find time each day to do my practice, but sometimes when things get very hectic with teaching classes around town and Uni work I find a day or two completely pass me by before I can even register it. I can immediately feel the difference when I’ve missed a practice or two. I have currently established the most beautiful sacred yoga space in my garden, so I have been lapping up the time spent doing yoga outside and it has taken my practice to new levels of connection so for the 30 days I’d like to continue exploring the spaces within while being outside.

· As we are moving into Summer I can’t wait to get outside into nature more – more hikes, runs, walks, dancing! The 30-day challenge is a great way to MOVE more and propel me into the outdoors again!

How does it work?

The challenge will be starting from this coming Monday the 2nd of October. There will be a big online community of people to support and share in the experience which will be great for additional support! If you’d like to join us in sharing your experience of your challenge, you can hashtag #mygreenbody on your social media endeavors. There are 9 basic “rules” to the 30-day challenge, I won’t go into them in depth here but if you are interested in finding out more information about what the challenge entails follow this link:

https://thegreendietitian.co.za/blog-1/2017/9/27/my-green-body-challenge-the-rules

NOW BACK TO THE MAGICAL CHICKPEAS!

Ingredients:

· 1 teaspoon freshly grated ginger

· 2 cloves of garlic

· ½ tin of coconut milk

· 1 tin chickpeas

· ¼- 1/3 cup chopped leeks (depending how leek-y you like it)

· 1/8 cup tamari (or soy sauce)

· 1 tablespoon of water

· ½ teaspoon dry chili

· 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar

· 1 tablespoon of water

· 1 teaspoon cornstarch

· 2 scallions/spring onions chopped

· Salt and Pepper

Method:

1. Finely chop the garlic and grate your ginger. Prepare your leeks. Measure out the rest of your ingredients for effective time use (particularly nifty trick if you’re pressed for time).

2. Place a saucepan on medium heat. Place the ginger, garlic and chili into the pan with 1 tablespoon of water. Cook until tender and fragrant. Add in your leeks (adding 1 more tablespoon of water if needed). Cook for about 5 minutes until the leeks become slightly tender.

3. Add in the tamari. Cook for a minute. Add in the coconut milk. Stir well.

4. While it is cooking, combine 1 tablespoon of water with the 1 teaspoon of corn starch. Stir until there are no more lumps and bumps. Add it into the pan with the coconut milk and cook for another 2 minutes until slightly thickened.

5. Turn the heat off, add the apple cider vinegar and then taste. Add some salt and pepper if needed (for my taste buds I did add some salt and pepper and I would recommend it).

6. Wash and drain the chickpeas. Place the drained chickpeas into the sauce and mix well. Top with chopped spring onion/scallion.

7. SERVE and ENJOY. <3