What interns eat: Chick Pea and Carrot Tangine

The "what interns eat" theme is meant to bring you recipes that encompass the basic truths of being an intern:  we are broke and overworked, but still need to eat (preferably something healthy and fast). Most months I'm broke because I pay too much in rent, and I'm paying almost a fourth of my paycheck to my student loan payments. I know the rent issue is my own fault, but I really love my neighborhood and living alone in my well decorated box of an apartment.

cheap and health ingredients ready for tangine 

It's January, and probably like the rest of American population, I participated in both the materialistic and spiritual part of Christmas. I bought nice gifts to demonstrate affection for the people I love and then spent the remainder of my money on throwing a party to bring in the new year (and some nice gifts for myself...). Thus when it came time to go grocery shopping, I looked at my bank account and realized to save money I would need to eat my way through my pantry and the old stuff in my refrigerator. 

(Other New year's resolutions: exercise regularly; read more for leisure; join instagram; try to hedge my growing cynicism of our broken health care system; volunteer once a month; give away 1/4 of my overflowing closet) 

Beans are the quintessential example of cheap and healthy eating. As previous posts indicate, I eat a lot of curry based foods because they are easy to make, difficult to mess up, and I can make a huge amount, freeze half and have dinner for the next time I am broke. 

Currently, my refrigerator is full of food left over from my new year's party which is more snack food than dinner foods. Luckily these left overs do include some fresh foods like berries and grapes; I also have some left over vegetables from a veggie tray. In my mind, the way to bridge these left overs was BEANS. My pantry always has lentils, kidney beans, and garbanzo beans. Now that I have mastered the art of the pressure cooker, I rarely buy canned beans since I can make tender beans in less than an hour. 

Tanjine: picture from Amazon.com

 Even though I have a food blog, and some days I can get it together to improvise something delicious from random ingredients, I often end up googling different ingredients to see what the internet brings me. This morning I entered "chick peas + carrots + recipe" into google, and near to top of the results was an easy for tangine. Tanjine (or Tangine) refers to a North African stew cooked with a tanjine, but when it comes to recipes on the internet, it mostly means a slow cooked north African stew that I think of like a curry with North African flavors. 

Flexibility is the name of the game when it comes to eating from what you already have in your fridge and pantry. You have to be open to substitutions in your cooking. I didn't have onions or currants, so I used celery and chopped dried apricots and the finished product came out just fine. I'll be eating it topped with sour cream since I don't have yogurt. 

celery instead of onion

Chickpea and carrot tangine, modified from Vegetarian Times

olive or vegetable oil

1 cup thinly sliced celery

3 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped

5 carrots peeled and thinly sliced

1/4 cup currants or 6 dried apricots, fig or dates, chopped into cubes

2 cans of chick peas or 3 cups of cooked chick peas

1 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp turmeric, 1 tsp cumin, 1/4 tsp cayenne

2 tsp honey

2 cups water

salt and pepper to taste

1/2 cup yogurt or sour cream

parsley or cilantro for garnish

1. Prepare the vegetables: Thinly slice and then chop one small onion or 1 cup of celery. Smash and mince 3 cloves of garlic. Peel 5 carrots and slice into thin rounds
2. Chop the dried fruit into small pieces
3. In a saute pan, over 1/4 cup oil over medium heat, add the celery/onion and garlic, and saute until soft about 2-5 minutes.
4. Then add the dried fruit, carrots, 3 cups of chick peas, cinnamon, turmeric, cumin, cayenne pepper, and honey.
5. Pour over the ingredient, 2 cups of water. Stir to combine.

half way done

6. Simmer the mixture, half covered, over medium heat (gently bubbling at the edges of the pan) for 20 minutes or until the carrots are soft and the ingredients have melded. Stir every 5 minutes to check if the tangine is sticking to the bottom of the pan.
7. Season with salt and pepper to taste (about 1 1/2 tsp for me, as I added a bit too much honey)
8. Cook uncovered for 5 more minutes for some liquid to evaporate.
9. Let sit for a few minutes to cool and meld.
10. Serve over rice or plan, garnished with sour cream or yogurt and cilantro or parsley.

Ready for lunch on Monday