Pressure cooker chick peas

 

Another fine recipe based on one from Susan Voisin at Fat Free Vegan Kitchen! I cooked the chickpeas in the pressure cooker and have made real progress with learning to use it thanks to The Veggie Queen. This time I got all of the steps right and ended up with perfectly cooked chickpeas in a very short time. 

I  had half of a huge raw sweet potato leftover in the refrigerator and nearly a pound of okra that had to be used really soon. I found this recipe at Fat Free Vegan and changed it some, of course. First, I liked it much better without the peanut butter that the recipe says to add at the end of cooking. I tried it both ways because the broth tasted so good without it. I would not include it or the liquid smoke flavoring. With enough smoked paprika, the liquid smoke, which I do not have, was unnecessary. I had no green peppers either, only half a red pepper, so I made half of the recipe. The next time I would use a green pepper.  I left the celery at 2 ribs, used regular diced tomatoes, and Sriracha Hot Sauce because I like the heat it gives to the food.

Although the recipe recommends cooking all of the ingredients until the sweet potatoes are close to falling apart, I found that after 90 minutes, they still were not near falling apart and finished the cooking at that time. 

So this is what cooking is supposed to be like. Start with an idea, use what you have on hand and like to eat and then make the recipe your own.

Stop wasting food!

Ever since I read the book "Hungry Planet" by Peter Menzel and Faith D'Aluisio, I have been haunted by the image of a woman and her children in an African country sifting sand to be sure to capture each piece of grain. Thinking of the hunger in their eyes as I sweep into the trash perfectly good food that I just don't want to be bothered with. What are a few grains of rice in the midst of the abundance we enjoy? Lately, I have been much more careful with even the grains of rice, picking up uncooked grains that end up on the floor, washing them and using them.

I have tried to become more conscious of my consumption of food, more aware of what I am buying, cooking and throwing away. Since I have never really cared much for leftovers, as opposed to planned overs, I confess to throwing away huge amounts of food. Thinking more about waste and the health of the planet, I have been trying to make use of leftovers in meals that taste good and are satisfying.

Today I think I hit the leftover food jackpot. The combination of foods that ended up together was so outstanding that it deserves a recipe of sorts.

I had in the refrigerator leftover cooked jasmine rice, roasted sweet potatoes, half a can of coconut milk, and a serving and a half of 3-can soup. 3-can soup is made with a can of drained and rinsed black beans, a can of Ro*Tel tomatoes, and a can of diced tomatoes.

The rice was a couple of days old and a little dried out, so I poured the coconut milk over the rice in a saucepan, added some fresh ginger and slowly heated it. I warmed the sweet potatoes and the 3-can soup separately. When everything was heated, I put servings of each component in a shallow soup bowl and began to eat. The flavors were perfectly balanced and remarkable. Hey, this should become a stew! So I stirred it all gently together so the sweet potato did not become mush and lose it distinctive role. At last, I got through a day without wasting food, and I can't wait until I have this combination of leftovers again.