Aug 8, 2011

Yummy Monday: Spinach and Chickpeas (+ baby food!)

This is a quick and delicious mash up of two super-healthy foods: spinach and chickpeas. (I know I've already done a chickpea recipe, but I did warn you that I love, love, love them!) I found the recipe in a vegan cookbook (totally don't remember the name) and made it a while ago and loved it. Then last week I wanted to make it again, but didn't have the recipe on me. I did what I could from memory, and it turned out a little differently but was still very tasty. Give it a try!

Oh, and at the end, I'll tell you what I did to let Adelaide have a little taste of the family meal too!

Spinach and Chickpeas

9ish ounces of spinach (I used regular spinach here, but baby spinach is better)
1-2 cans of chickpeas, depending on how much you like them!
1/2 cup of veggie broth
3-4 cloves (or more) garlic, crushed
1 tablespoon olive oil

ingredients

Heat the olive oil and saute the crushed garlic for about a minute.

sautee garlic

Add your chickpeas.

add chickpeas

Add broth.

add veggie stock

Let simmer for a couple of minutes. Use a potato masher or the back of a spoon to mash about half of the chickpeas.

simmer

Add spinach and wilt.

add spinach

Look at the simple, healthy, messy goodness!

wilt

Plate it up! I cooked some brown rice topped with sauteed baby bella mushrooms to serve with it, plus a couple of yeast rolls. Not including waiting for the rice to cook all on its own in the rice cooker, I spent maybe 15 minutes from start to finish on this meal. Super quick and very delicious!

plated


Baby Food Version

I saw this idea while blog hopping and loved it! Use a mason jar screwed in to the top of your blender instead of the big ole honkin' glass blender part for smaller servings of things! I am anticipating using this trick A LOT when I go back to work as morning smoothies are a definite breakfast option I turn to when I don't have time to sit down and eat (which I very well see as a part of my working mommy future)! Whip up a smoothie in a jar and boom! Take it to go! No dirtying up more dishes than you have to!

blender

Anyhow, I just spooned a little bit of the Spinach and Chickpea mixture into the mason jar (just to try the idea out), pulsed the heck out of it, and this is what it turned into:

blended

Then I actually did dirty up another dish because getting that little baby spoon down in the mason jar would've been a little difficult. But here it is, Adelaide-ready form:

baby food


Looks tasty, huh? I did try a bit and of course it tasted just like the grown up version. Adelaide wasn't a huge fan. I could see it in her face: Wha? Mama? What's this weird stuff? So I just spooned it into yet another, smaller, washed and reused baby food jar and stuck it in the freezer. I'll try again another day. And another and another if I have to!

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Interested in sharing a recipe? Shoot me an email - I'd love to feature you!

4 comments:

  1. I can't believe I've missed out on this blog all this time. I'm going to share the blog with my friends as I believe as many people as possible should have access to this wonderful resource you are sharing with us! I am so bored with food right now and looking forward to making this recipe for my hubby tomorrow night :) You are a SUPERMOMMA!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Aww Meaghann, thank you! :) I hope the dish was yummy for you, if you ended up making it!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I'm also raising my baby veggie and now that she's 6 months, am looking for lentil and pulse recipes to make for her. How old was your little one when you gave her this?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. About 7.5 months here... at first she didn't like it, and I don't remember how she reacted the next time I gave it to her... but now she LOVES chickpeas whole or roasted... still not sure about spinach :)

      Delete

I love comments! I read every single one and try to respond to most of them (during the baby's naps or in between loads of laundry). I value any and all thoughts, advice, and tidbits that you want to share!