Chickpea & Coconut Dal
Chickpeas in a savory sauce of coconut with a hint of honey and tamarind, topped with miracle seeds of Biblical proportions
Servings
4
Ready In:
30 minutes
Calories:
299
Good For:
Lunch or dinner
Inroduction
About this Recipe
The Exalted Chickpea
Some may call it the garbanzo bean:
Since I came to India and began experimenting with different foods and tastes, even familiar foods have taken on a new life! For example, the lowly chickpea. I can’t think of an instance when I had this growing up in New Hampshire. Not once did my mother service it to us in any way, shape or form.
Introducing a new ingredient
Nigella sativa
Nigella (Nigella sativa)
The seeds of Nigella sativa, known as kalonji, black cumin, black onion seed, onion seed or just nigella.
The seeds are used in cooking and in traditional medicine to reduce inflammation, as well as to treat infections and cancer.
This recipe also introduces (drum roll, please…)
Nigella or Black Cumin
What an amazing addition to any food or lifestyle! Nigella is a small genus of the family Ranunculaceae, which includes some popular species because of their culinary and medicinal properties, especially in Eastern Europe, Middle East, Western, and Central Asia.
The traditional use of N. sativa dates from the 1st century A.D.; Pliny the Elder recommended N. sativa as a digestive and an ingredient of antidotes curing snake bites and scorpion stings, and has even been found in several ancient sites, including Tutankhamun’s tomb!1
The earliest known reference to Black Cumin is in the book of Isaiah in the Old Testament of the Bible, Isaiah Chapter 28, Verses 25 to 27, where the sowing and reaping of wheat and Black Cumin are compared. Another early find was as an inclusion in Tutankhamun’s tomb who ruled as the boy king from 1333 BC – 1324 BC. and in the ancient Islamic world, it is believed that they cure any type of disease except death.2
Nigella has been studied extensively and among many other benefits, it’s been found that the main active ingredient, thymoquinone, has an inhibitory effect on coronavirus and is currently being looked at as a therapy for use in COVID-19 treatments.3
Nutrition
Not exactly low carb, but it’s got a good amount of fat which will keep you satisfied all day. This is my only meal I’ll need to eat all day.
- Protien 10%
- Carbs 38%
- Fat 52%
Chickpea dal
Equipment
- Pressure Cooker
- Kadai pan,
Ingredients
- 1/3 cup Chickpeas
- 3/4 cup Water
- 2 tbsp Ghee
- 2 tsp Ginger Fresh, grated
- 2 tsp Nigella seeds (Black Cumin)
- 1 tsp Cumin seeds
- 1 inch Cinnamon stick
- 2 Mathania Lal Dried Red Chili
- 2 Green Cardamom pods
- 1 Bay leaf Indian Bay leaf
- 2 Tomatoes Small, chopped
- 1 tsp Coriander powder
- 1 tsp Turmeric powder
- 1 tsp Pink Himalayan Salt
- 1/4 cup Channa dal Yellow split peas, dried
- 1 cup Coconut milk
- 1/2 tsp Black pepper Fresh ground.
Garnish - optional
- 1 tbsp Ghee or butter
- 1 tsp Cumin seeds
- 1/2 tsp Black mustard seeds Rai
- 1 Mathania Lal red dried chili pod
- 2 tbsp Cilantro Fresh, chopped
Instructions
Prepare the Chickpeas
- Pick over the chickpeas, rinse and soak in 3/4 cup of water, in the refrigerator over night, or at least 8 hours. The more the better.
- In the morning, add the chickpeas and their soaking water and maybe another 1/2 cup of water, to a pressure cooker. Cook on medium for 12- 16 whistles. Remove from the heat and allow too cool until ready for use. When ready to use, drain the chickpeas of any excess cooking water.
Nutrition
More Recipes
- Mrozek-Wilczkiewicz A., Musiol R., Spaczynska E. (2016). Nigella sativa—a functional spice from a pharaoh’s tomb to modern healthcare. Nat. Prod. J. 6, 13–26. 10.2307/30107802 [CrossRef] [Google Scholar] [↩]
- https://www.greenprophet.com/2010/10/islam-black-seed/ [↩]
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8106451/ [↩]