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Overloading the Machine

Chick Pea and Artichoke Heart Stew

Based on Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home by the Moosewood Collective

Serves 4 to 6.

4 cups water or vegetable stock
2 medium onions, chopped (about 1 1/2 cups)
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon sweet paprika
4 medium red or white potatoes, cut into 1/2 inch cubes (about 4 cups)
1 sprig fresh rosemary (1 teaspoon ground dried)
5 leaves fresh sage, minced (1/2 teaspoon dried)
1/2 cup pureed winter squash or sweet potatoes, or a 4.5 oz jar of pureed squash baby food
3 cups drained cooked chick peas (2 15 oz. cans)
1 1/2 cups drained quartered artichoke hearts (14 oz. can)
salt and black pepper to taste
lemon wedges (optional)

In a saucepan, bring the water or vegetable stock to a simmer. While the water heats, saute the onions and garlic in the oil for about 8 minutes, until soft. Stir the turmeric and paprika into the onions and saute for a minute. Add the potatoes, rosemary, sage, and the simmering water or stock. Cook for about 12 minutes, until the potatoes are tender. Stir in the pureed squash or sweet potatoes, and add the drained chick peas and artichoke hearts. Remove the rosemary sprig, add salt and pepper to taste, and return to a simmer.

Serve with lemon wedges.

Notes

I've only ever used the dried spices. It's fine, but I'm sure it's better with the fresh. Grinding rosemary is a pain because I don't have a mortal and pestle, so I don't do it. The rosemary gets soft enough that no one is going to choke on it.

Don't eat this while wearing a white shirt. All my dishes are white, which is kind of a problem, but the turmeric will wash off as long as I don't leave the dirties sit around.

Last cooked on 2005-08-21.

"Speak, thou vast and venerable head," muttered Ahab, "which, though ungarnished with a beard, yet here and there lookest hoary with mosses; speak, mighty head, and tell us the secret thing that is in thee. Of all divers, thou has dived the deepest. That head upon which the upper sun now gleams has moved amid the world's foundations. Where unrecorded names and navies rust, and untold hopes and anchors rot; where in her murderous hold this frigate earth is ballasted with bones of millions of the drowned; there, in that awful water-land, there was thy most familiar home. Thou hast been where bell or diver never went; has slept by many a sailer's side, where sleepless mothers would give their lives to lay them down. Thou saw'st the locked lovers when leaping from their flaming ship; heart to heart they sank beneath the exulting wave; true to each other, when heaven seemed false to them. Thou saw'st the murdered mate when tossed by pirates from the midnight deck; for hours he fell into the deeper midnight of the insatiate maw; and his murderers still sailed on unharmed -- while swift lightnings shivered the neighboring ship that would have borne a righteous husband to outstretched, longing arms. O head! thou has seen enough to split the planets and make an infidel of Abraham, and not one syllable is thine!"

-- H. Melville, "Moby Dick"

This page was last modified on 2011 December 20.