Much to J’s chagrin, we had to come into town for a week because I was giving a conference paper last week and supposed to attend a two-day meeting this week. The paper went well, but I came down with a rather strange flu this week and had to duck out of the meeting. Before the flu struck me down, we managed to paint most of the loft! And when I say “we” here, I actually don’t mean “just J” as I usually do because, in this case, I actually helped.

Okay, I painted the small bathroom, but whatever.

I was also missing my cabin cooking, so I sprouted a small package of chickpeas…which proceeded to expand to six or seven cups of fabulously sprouted beans. And then I peeled those suckers and made two kinds of hummus and a really tasty stew adapted from this recipe.

If you check out the chickpeas in the picture below, you can see the sprouts!

Chickpea and Black Bean Stew

Ingredients:

1 ½ Tbsp olive oil

1 pkg. Yves Meatless Ground Round

1 onion, chopped

1 red pepper, chopped

2 jalapeno peppers, seeded, peeled, and chopped

1.5 cups carrots, peeled and chopped

1 Tbsp chili powder

1 ½ tsp ground cumin

1 tsp ground black pepper

1 (28 oz) can diced tomatoes, undrained

1 c. frozen corn

1 (15 oz) can black beans, drained and rinsed

1 (15 oz) can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed (I used sprouted, cooked chickpeas)

3 TBS. Better Than Bouillon NO beef Paste

1.5 cups water

1 cup hot salsa

Directions:

In large soup pot or Dutch oven heat oil over medium high heat. Add Yves Meatless Ground Round and stir until browned, about 10 minutes. Remove from pan and set aside.

Place onions, red pepper, jalapeno peppers, and carrots in Dutch oven and saute for 10 minutes, until onion is translucent and vegetables are tender. Add chili powder, cumin, and black pepper.

Add diced tomatoes, corn, black beans, garbanzo beans, and BTB paste, water and salsa. Stir to combine, and bring to a boil.

Reduce mixture to a simmer. Place about 1 ½ cups in food processor and puree for 1 minute, or until smooth. Return to stock pot and add cooked Meatless Ground Round back to mixture. Simmer over medium-low heat for 20 minutes or until cooked through.

Serve with a dollop of guacamole, a dollop of salsa, and chopped cilantro. For J, I’m going to top with grated cheddar as well (and I’d add his favourite–sour cream–if we had any!).

And here’s dinner…yumyum!