Alison Roman's Internet-Famous Chickpea Stew | NYT Cooking

when a suit becomes a stew it's a beautiful story I cannot wait to show you I'm Alison Roman and I'm going to be making a spiced chickpea stew with coconut and turmeric this is also affectionately known as hashtag the stew and it is definitely one of my more popular recipes people love to cook let's do it is truly in all seasons delight part of the reason I think that it has been so popular is because you're mostly making it with pantry staples I love garlic I love ginger I love coconut milk I love lots of dark leafy greens herbs I'm obsessed with chickpeas then I feel like this stew truly has it all the base of this recipe is the chickpeas before we cook them we're gonna cook our ginger the onion and our garlic together and some olive oil in a pot and basically what that's doing is releasing the aromatics and softening the vegetables and giving our chickpeas something really flavorful to cook in and you don't want to big pieces because it should kind of permeate the entire stew you want to be evenly distributed larger chunks will stay large they're not gonna break down further in the stew so you don't have to make a paste or anything but I do like a fine chop for both the garlic and the ginger and I'm not gonna peel my ginger you can peel it if you want you can't make me I feel like it doesn't matter peel and the outside is so thin that honestly you won't know that it's there and I feel like the easiest way to cut gender is by slicing it I do find it to be the most efficient and the onion you just want to make sure that the pieces aren't too large they don't need to be as small as a janitor or the garlic but you know one like any noticeably large pieces I'm gonna start by cooking my ginger my garlic and my onions in a pot I like to use a large Dutch oven and I typically prefer enameled cast iron because I feel like you get less sticking that way I also prefer a light-colored inside to the pot just because that way I feel like I can see everything better as it's browning and cooking but that's a personal preference chickpeas love olive oil and so don't be afraid to use a little bit more just to like give them some extra love and just to get those started I'm gonna add all these friends in there season as always with salt and pepper this is sort of a basic staple recipe that I feel like it's just absolutely perfect for for riffing on and making your own and adopting if you are a huge fan of aromatics then this would be a good time to add more stuff I've had people tell me that they've added celery carrot a sweet potato I could go on I won't just know that you can add more stuff but this is the stage in which your vegetables are softening we're not looking for them to get super Brown because remember they're gonna continue to cook when we add the chickpeas so you really just kind of want to get them softened you want them to flavor the oil that the trick peas are gonna cook in so you know you're not this isn't gonna go for too long this recipe was built to use canned chickpeas but if you are the kind of person that's like I don't use canned chickpeas I only soak and cook my own then that's also fine but just know that they should be cooked before they go into this recipe you can't start with like a dried soaked chickpea or bean so I love a can chickpea and I'm not afraid to say I always rinse my chickpeas after I drain them they are stored in this liquid that is like very slimy and I just think it tastes weird a lot of people are obsessed with crispy chickpeas you know I've heard a lot of people say oh I've taken the chickpeas and I Pat them dry afterwards so they crispness and that's fine you can go to town do whatever you need I'm not gonna do that I don't feel the need to towel them off extremely spoiled chickpeas hands dried each one little towel so we're almost there you can see like the onion is getting pretty translucent things are really sizzling away in there and it smells amazing so these chickpeas are going in they're also gonna get some salt and pepper and now at the time we're also gonna add our spices let's make this nice I'm gonna add crushed red chili flake because I like things spicy like I said that 1000 times and then turmeric I'm using ground and dried tumeric and the reason I'm doing that is because it is a pantry staple for me and Lisa and I think it should be for you as well the nice thing about cooking with turmeric is that a little bit really does go a long way and not only is that amount gonna flavor everything really nicely but it's gonna turn everything that's really beautiful golden electric neon color I'm gonna stop touching these chickpeas although I love to fuss I'm not gonna fuss and I'm just gonna kind of let the ones on the bottom get a little crispy little frazzled around the edges so I'm gonna let them hang out in here for like five to seven minutes ish but don't worry I'll show you what they should look like when they're there this stage which is not only browning them on the outside but helping them to start break down is actually really important so if you see them and they do look like they're kind of becoming a little bit mushy or or falling apart or sticking that's totally fine it's natural it's cool it's expected don't panic I'm gonna take some of these chickpeas out so we can use them for garnish later they're not meant to be like crispy chickpeas like Forrester's they're just meant to be whole and a little frazzled and frizzled and hold her shape at the end so when you sprinkle them on top they give you something to eat other than like a creamy bowl of deliciousness meanwhile I'm going to open up my coconut milk I use a full fat coconut milk there is no other coconut milk in my opinion you showed me a can of light coconut milk I don't even see it I don't even know if you're talking about never even heard of it doesn't exist this is really nice I shook them before to kind of prevent that separation of fat but if you open up your pan and there's a layer of fat and a layer of solids that's fine too it's just once it gets added to the pot it'll absolutely come together and emulsify and as I'm adding that liquid I really do want to pay attention to scrape up all those bits on the bottom that have formed that's like our ginger our garlic the chickpeas that have started to kind of crumble and fall apart and all that is gonna come back into the liquid flavor it and also in our stew and then I'm gonna have two cups of broth a can is a little less than two cups so I'll fill it up and then add a splash if you were concerned about this being vegetarian or vegan you can absolutely go ahead and use chicken broth or chicken stock it will be excellent that way as well all right so all of our liquid is in there I'm going to go ahead and season it again with salt and pepper and then I'm gonna let this simmer because right now yeah it is a little soupy I'm not gonna lie but after it simmers it's gonna thicken and become a stew and I'm gonna walk away let it simmer for like 30 to 35 minutes I may just pop by occasionally give it a quick stir making sure nothing's sticking at the bottom making sure it's not bubbling furiously you just want to keep an eye on it I wouldn't like run to the store right now but you know here in the other room that should be cool [Music] another place that you can modify this recipe make it your own is by choosing the types of greens that you like the most I like to use kale and Swiss chard because I find them to be the hardiest and they also wilt down really beautifully and they also kind of you know hold their shape they stand up to this do something like spinach is nice but I find it just kind of like disappears into the stew it's like a whisper of spinach and I love leafy greens and I really want to taste them I want to see them I want to eat them which is why I go for something a bit harder like this mustard greens also awesome and anytime you're using the dark leafy greens like for this preparation I do remove the stem you can save these stems you can chop them up and add them to make a really nice salsa verde you don't have to throw them away I eat them I think they're great but they don't belong in our stew you just want to make sure that they're kind of bite-size pieces you don't have to take a knife to them or anything just ripping them off with your hands well it's the moment we've all been waiting for when the soup has become a stew it's thickened its glossy it's rich its stew like in texture and appearance you're not looking for a puree stews are still a liquid it should still be something that you can eat with a spoon and eat a lot of without being like oh my god I just ate a paste of chickpeas if for whatever reason and that first chickpea cook you feel like your chickpeas didn't break down enough now it'd be a really good time to take the back your spoon and just kind of lightly crush any chickpeas that you feel like need to be crushed I really enjoy the like broken up pieces coupled with the whole pieces but just know that you know if it is feeling still very watery at this point doing that and simmering it for another 5 to 10 minutes is gonna help you thicken the stew but to me this is absolutely perfect this is also the stage like if I were gonna make this ahead of time I would stop here and whenever you're ready to eat it that's when you add the greens these do not keep well in my opinion I feel like this is something that you want to add when you're ready to eat kind of press them in there I like it when they still seem really bright green and kind of fresh Muenster also merged I'll let them cook for like a minute or two just to kind of make sure that they have gotten to know the stew they're well-acquainted there's no awkward silence in there but that is pretty much it that's the stew and that's the stew that's my new tagline and that's the stew so I think the only important part of plating the stew is making sure you get you know enough chickpeas and enough greens and enough of the like the broth ebusiness in one bowl full this is delicious as is and on its own but when you top it with stuff adding texture and different flavors and herbs and more spices then it becomes something really really exciting you can top it with some yogurt smart your little chickpeas some mint I confirm it in the recipe because I love the ginger the garlic the mint the yogurt some people prefer cilantro if that's really more your speed or if that's what you have great parsley also works and then if you want some more like and then sometimes I'll just like dip my spoon and the turmeric and like sprinkle it over very technical technique and then finish it with some olive oil the yogurt that I'm using is a full fat Greek yogurt which is very tangy but if you feel like your yogurt isn't that tangy or you just kind of Miss that acidity anyway then I welcome you to use a squeeze of lime or lemon or something like that to finish your stew as well and that's the stew yeah that is this - that's the stew there she is mm-hmm it's a really good I gotta say [Music] if you haven't beat us - then that's let's do and hopefully that got you excited to make it you have made it I thank you for that I appreciate you the stew appreciates you and if you like that there's more where that came from New York Times cooking [Music]

Channel: NYT Cooking

Views: 1,835,099

Rating: 4.7776561 out of 5

Keywords: cooking, cooks, recipes, recipe, how-to, how to, kitchen, new york times, new york times cooking, nyt cooking, nyt, nytimes, the stew, alison e roman, alison roman, Spiced Chickpea Stew With Coconut and Turmeric, chickpea stew, chickpea soup, soup, coconut milk, easy, winter recipes, fall recipes, turmeric, vegetarian, vegetarian meal, vegetarian recipes, vegan, vegan recipes, internet famous, viral recipes

Id: jaN3qsqXt38

Length: 11min 6sec (666 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 20 2019