green bean, chickpea, and peanut curry with grilled lebanese flatbread

Oh man, a twofer! I meant to post this forever ago, and then I forgot that I'd written it up. Whoops.  

Slightly tweaked from "Green beans with chickpeas in groundnut sauce", from 1,000 Vegetarian Recipes by Carol Gelles

Ingredients:

6 T. low-sodium veggie broth instead

1 small yellow onion

2 cloves garlic

1 1-inch section of fresh ginger (~1 T. ginger paste from tube)

2 t. curry powder

1 t. ground coriander

1/2 t. salt

1 T. veggie oil

4 c. whole green beans, ends trimmed, ~3/4 lb.

1/2 c. unsweetened coconut milk (a whole 14 oz. can wouldn't ruin it)

1/4 c. PB

2 c. chopped tomatoes (I was lame, used one 14 oz. can of no salt added diced tomatoes)

1 14 oz. can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed

1/2 t. dried basil or 2 T. fresh basil (2 T. from tube)

blob (~1 T?) of sambal oelek

Directions:

1. In a blender, combine 2 T. broth, onion, garlic, ginger, curry, coriander, salt, and sambal. Cover and blend until smooth. (Magic Bullet = most underrated kitchen appliance ever!)

2. In a 3-qt saucepan, heat the oil over med-hi heat. Add the spice mixture; cook, stirring, until heated. Add the green beans, cook, stirring until coated with spices. Stir in the remaining 4 T. broth, coconut milk, and PB until smooth (I usually add the coconut milk and PB to the used blender container and then run it in order to get all the remaining spicy goodness off of it and into the pan. That way you don't have to babysit the PB so you don't make an icky chunky sauce).

3. Add the tomatoes, chickpeas, and basil. Return to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, 20 minutes.


*And now, for the flatbread....*

I thoroughly agreed that although rice goes well with this, flatbread is really the thing to serve with your green beany goodness. The basic recipe comes to you from the New York Times (thanks, newspaper!). They call for za'tar, but I don't have any, so I arbitrarily decided to add a shake of paprika and parsley instead. The first time we made it we used the grill, but hey it is winter in Minnesota, so using the grill pan inside is just as good. I think the grill marks are key...

Must. Use. Peanut. Butter.

Coupon clipping, while well-intentioned, can sometimes incite some problems. And by problems, I mean, things taking over my pantry. I thought we didn't have any peanut butter (smooth, that is, for me, baking, cooking, and the dog), so I got two jars, saved some pocket change with a coupon. Turns out, I'd thought the exact same thing about ten days before that. Plus the already opened jar, there were five jars of peanut butter in my pantry. It isn't like people come over to judge me on the status of my pantry, but I feel compelled to whittle down my stock as fast as possible just in case someone decides to point and yell at me about saving up for the next Y2K or something.

So, peanut butter everything! I needed a recipe that required a large quantity of peanut butter (none of this 1/3 cup or less business). Ask, and ye shall receive! The next morning or so, this beautiful concoction was sitting in my Google Reader homepage. I followed the recipe as written and they came out just right.