What We Ate Wednesday--Spicy Sour Chickpea Chaat

Hello lovelies! I am a sucker for a free magazine. I will read recipes, tips and tricks, product reviews, enter competitions. I like to look at every recipe and see how I can "veganize" it.

Liking to bring home free magazines is slightly at odds with my Zero Waste initiative.  It is one of those things I am try to reconcile.At least  I can cut out interesting letters for craft projects and then recycle it.

Tesco do a decent free magazine and have recently added a Vegan logo to mark out appropriate dishes. There are several in each issue (more every time they publish) and I want to be able to try them and then feedback to the company about the fact that someone likes them and would they print more please.

This recipe caught my eye for it's simplicity (and I have simplified it even further using Mint Sauce as a cheat), colourfulness and looked like the perfect recipe for when the weather gets hot and you can't be arsed to turn on the stove for very long. It also cooks in less than 15 minutes--also perfect for a hot day after work when you are tired.

We've eaten it twice and you can easily throw in some cooked pasta or boiled potatoes to stretch it even further, but it makes a very generous 4 bowls. (5 bowls with added pasta or potatoes)

The recipe called for you to puree a 30g pack of mint and a 30g pack of coriander with a chilli and the juice of a lime. I didn't want to faff about with all that blending (not to mention the non-recyclable plastic bags around the fresh herbs), so i just subbed 3 TB mint sauce from a 55p jar and a TB lime juice from a squeezy bottle. And you know what? It was FINE.

The recipe also called for some pomegranate seeds. The only ones I could find cost £1 for a tiny single use plastic tub. Not doing that. I ended up buying frozen ones where you got 200g for £2. Yes, it still comes in a plastic bag, but I will get about 15 meals out of it. When it runs out I would probably replace it with dried cranberries, but who knows. They do add a pop of juicy sweet/tartness.

The recipe also called for one chopped tomato. One. I could only find anaemic looking ones loose and if I wanted some nice juicy red ones I would have to buy them on a plastic tray wrapped in crinkly plastic, so i just subbed 4 sun dried tomatoes from a jar.

Spicy Sour Chickpea Chaat

200g/1.5 cups frozen sweetcorn, defrosted (you could use a tin of sweetcorn that has been drained, but I always keep frozen on hand for quick meals) 

1 onion, chopped

4 sun dried tomatoes, blotted with paper towels and cut into little bits (or snipped into pieces with the scissors).

Half a pepper, chopped 

Half a cucumber, chopped

½ tsp red chilli flakes

½ tsp garam masala

1 tin Chickpeas, drained and rinsed

1/3 cup pomegranate seeds or dried cranberries

3 TB mint sauce

1 TB lime juice

1. Defrost the corn in boiling water, drain and set aside.

2. Cook the onion in oil or a splash of water until softened.

3. Stir in the sun dried tomatoes and spices and stir to coat.

4. Add the sweetcorn, pepper, cucumber, chickpeas and pomegranate seeds and heat until pomegranate seeds are defrosted (if using cranberries, just take off of heat.)

5. Stir in the mint sauce and the lime juice.

That's literally it. It takes no time at all and you only have to heat it up to cook the onion. Mint Sauce is a Godsend. You can throw it over boiled potatoes or mix it into plain soya yogurt for a mint raita dip. And it's cheap. This Tesco jar cost 55p and makes 2-3 meals.

I just wish it didn't say "delicious with lamb." Grrr...

But anyway, give this a go. It is really fresh tasting and summery.

We need a bit of that here in rainy Wales.