Sweet Potatoes with Braised Coconut Spinach and Chickpeas with Lemon

It was dinner time and I had just started to gather all the ingredients together for our meal. My husband came out to the kitchen like he normally does to check out the menu. But this time there was quite a fuss."What a crazy mix of ingredients", he objected, "sure I like each of them separately, but certainly not all together. There are just too many different flavors". Well, even after all that protesting, I began the preparation. About 40 minutes later I heard a different tune, and it was quite pleasant. He loved this, thought it was sweet and spicy, even tangy and bursting with flavor. A great vegan stew like dish that is pure comfort food all the way. This recipe was adapted from theKitchn, a blog. Check them out yourself!

Ingredients:

For the stew:

2 teaspoons olive oil
4 large cloves garlic (minced)
1 tablespoon fresh ginger (grated)
1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes (chopped)
1 large lemon (zested and juiced)
Small pinch red pepper flakes
15-ounce can chickpeas (drained)
1 pound fresh baby spinach
14-ounce can coconut milk
1 teaspoon salt, or to taste
1 teaspoon ground ginger

To serve:

4 whole sweet potatoes (roast at 400°F, 1 hour)
Hand full of cilantro leaves, to garnish
Toasted unsweetened coconut, to garnish

To prepare:

Heat oil in a large heavy pot or skillet on medium-high heat. Add the onion and saute about 5 to 8 minutes until onion starts to brown. Add garlic, ginger, sun-dried tomatoes, lemon zest and red pepper flakes. Stir and cook about 3 minutes.

Add chickpeas and cook until they are coated with the onion and garlic mixture and appear slightly golden brown.

Toss in the spinach, about a cup or two at a time. When all the spinach has been stirred in, pour in the coconut milk, then stir in salt, ground ginger and lemon juice. Bring to a simmer and cook another 10 to 15 minutes.

Serve over sweet potatoes and garnish with cilantro leaves and coconut. The recipe also notes that this would be great over pasta, rice, quinoa or another grain. Enjoy!