Chickpea Ratatouille with Baked Sweet Potato

Humble peas making a big impact!

This is one of my favourite chickpea dishes, formulated in my economical student days living in Newtown. Originally called Chickpea Jumble, I think the name Ratatouille adds a bit of class.

Humble chickpeas are chock-a-block full of iron and protein and are also very inexpensive. An average can of peas doesn’t cost more than $1.50, so considering the nutrients you get a lot of bang for your buck.

This nifty little recipe serves two comfortably, or three at a stretch, and takes an hour if you include all preparation. If you are short on time skip the sweet potato and serve with couscous or flat bread…or you could just have it all!

Ingredients:

• 1 large sweet potato scrubbed and cut in half (or two small potatoes as is). Leave the skin on.
• 1 small to medium-sized onion chopped roughly
• 4 garlic cloves chopped finely
• 1 red birds eye chilli chopped finely (see spice-shy variations below)
• A splash or two of olive oil
• 1 tin of chickpeas drained
• 2 medium-sized vine tomatoes diced
• 3- 4 tablespoons of tomato paste
• Water as needed (roughly ½ a cup)
• A pinch of sugar and a pinch of salt
• 1 teaspoon of cumin
• 1 hand full of fresh basil (MUST be fresh – I am very suspicious of dried basil)

TO GARNISH

• House made hummus (my recipe is coming, but in the meantime try this)
• 3/4 cup of yogurt (or soy yogurt) mixed with ½ teaspoon of cumin and a pinch of salt

Method:

Preheat oven to 200 degrees or 180ish fan forced. Before starting to chop anything, put the sweet potatoes in the oven as they take forever. Before you do, skewer them with a fork several times to ensure even cooking. It should take about 50-60 minutes for the potato to be soft. To check, you can gently cut the potato in half as you’ll serve the meal like this anyway.

After this, heat oil in a medium-sized pot or saucepan to a moderate heat. You can tell it’s the right temperature when you add the onion and it sizzles lightly (test with a small piece and then just go for it!).

Cook the onion for a couple of minutes until soft and transparent, and then add garlic and chilli. Fry this, stirring constantly, until your garlic is light brown before adding the chopped tomatoes. Fry until your tomatoes are soft and falling to bits.

Next add your chickpeas and tomato paste (or tinned tomatoes if you are going this route) and water until you have a nice consistency. Add your sugar (around ½ tsp), salt and cumin, and then lower the heat to a simmer for 10-15 minutes with the lid on.

Keep simmering and stirring until your potatoes are almost ready, then stir in the basil and check the flavour is ok. If the spice feels too intense, simmer for longer and add a pinch more sugar.

In the last few minutes before your potato is cooked, add your china ware to the oven as this dish is best served on a hot plate.

When the potato is cooked, gently slice down the middle so it makes a little nest for the ratatouille. When served up, add a generous dash of yogurt and hummus  and a sprig of basil.

Variations and tips:

Budget tip:

If you want to make the recipe below on a shoe string, used 1 tin of crushed tomatoes instead of the vine ripened ones, and skip the tomato paste and water as the tinned toms have plenty of liquid.

Shy-of-spice tip:

This recipe is pretty spicy. If you are meek when it comes to chilli, either simmer the ratatouille for longer, or remove the seeds from the chilli before frying it up. Alternatively you can use half a chilli.

Time-poor tip:

You can put the sweet potato in the microwave for about 5 minutes and then just bake it for ten minutes at the end to get the outsides crisp.

Cute little spuds!