Recipe: Braised Chickpea Dumplings with Vegetables

Eating green balls gives me nightmares.

Oh yes! You nod in agreement even though it is surely not what you think.

All prepubescent innuendo aside and given the fact that my father's chlorophyll-a-phobia most certainly skipped a generation, I am referring to the fact that when you soak dried chickpeas for 24 hours and then throw them still raw into a food processor along with an array of middle eastern herbs and spices and then pulse pulse pulse as if your life depends on it...

...what you will end up with is not something cohesive or smooth or whole.

At the least, it will not give you any faith at all that it can be plopped into a bowl of simmering curry-spiced tomato sauce and not melt into a bowl of now sorta-green mush upon contact.

Chickpea dumplings? Psssshhh. Those are surely pipe dreams that require some sort of binding agent or sorcery. No doubt about it.



But if reading 50 Shades of Grey has taught you anything, it is that sometimes even pipe dreams can come true.

And while Christian Grey may still only be a figment of my (and every other woman in America's) very vivid imagination (sigh). Last week, with the help of a little bit of luck and a lotta bit of steam. I turned mush into dumplings. And it was delicious. Go figure.



Rife with fresh falafel-y flavors and paired with all the heartwarming spice you'd expect from a good Indian meal, this dish is worth the risk (and maybe even a few bad dream ridden nights).

Just plop those mounds of mush into your pan of simmering tomato curry gravy, cover, and rest assured that so long as you give them enough time, dumplings will eventually emerge.  Unapologetically green though they may be.

This recipe was The Food Matters Project pick for this week. For the full recipe, check out Lena's blog.