Indian Recipes as Promised

The other day I poisted about an amazing Indian dinner my friend had made for me while I was in Toronto and promised to post the recipes when I had them. I’ll be making these this week and will report back on how they turn out. In the meantime here they are (I’ve also calculated the WW points for them):

Green beans
Serves 4 – points 1

Cut up beans into bite sized pieces
Dice about 1/2 a small onion
Mince a small piece of fresh ginger (1 cm piece is enough), you can also use ginger paste

In a pan or saucepan, add 1 Tablespoon vegetable or canola oil and heat over medium-high heat.
Add 1 tsp of cumin seeds to the hot oil and let them sizzle (but not burn) – cumin seeds are optional!
Add the ginger and onion and lightly fry until the onions are soft (make sure the ginger doesn’t burn by stirring)
Add the green beans and stir to coat with the oil.
Add salt to taste and allow beans to release their moisture and cook uncovered for about 3-4 min. You can reduce the heat at this point to medium.
Add spices – tumeric for color (1/4 tsp) and garam masala for spice (about 1 tsp)
Stir to mix in the spices well and allow beans to cook for another 5 min or until the get to the desired tenderness. They will continue to cook a little after removing from heat so better to “undercook”!

Chickpeas and vegetable curry
Serves 4 – points value: 5

Rinse canned chickpeas well and discard the water
Process 2 fresh tomatoes in food processor until they are liquified (add some water if the tomatoes aren’t very juicy)
Rinse spinach leaves and set aside
Dice sweet potato into bite size chunks
Dice 1 small onion, finely
Mince a small piece of fresh ginger and 1 clove of fresh garlic (or use the ginger-garlic paste)

In a large non-stick pot, heat 1 Tsp oil (vegetable or canola), over medium-high heat.
Add 1 tsp of cumin seeds and 3-4 whole cloves (these are optional) – allow whole spices to sizzle in oil but not burn
Add onions, ginger and garlic and fry until onions are soft
Add spices directly to the onions – tumeric (1/4 tsp for color), 1/2 to 1 tsp chili powder, 2 tsp coriander powder, 1 tsp ground cumin – you can also use any curry powder to your taste instead, as it has a combo of these spices.
Fry the onions in the spices over medium heat until the spices stick to the onions. If the onions are sticking or burning, add a little more oil.
Add the sweet potato chunks and stir into the spice and onion mixture until coated.
Add the chickpeas and do the same.
Add the tomatoes and ~2 tsp of salt. You may need to add a bit of water too – make sure the chick peas and potatoes are almost submerged but not drowning in the gravy!
Stir together and allow to simmer over medium heat for about 10 minutes with the cover on the pot, until the gravy turns thick and brownish in color and sweet potatoes become tender
Uncover the pot and add the spinach, allow to simmer until the spinach is wilted.
Remove from heat and add fresh, chopped coriander and 1 tsp garam masala for extra kick!

Serve over 1/2 cup of rice