Sweet Potato and Chickpea Curry

2 medium red onions, peeled
1 clove garlic, peeled
1 bird’s eye pepper, Thai chili or other very hot small pepper with its seeds
1 2 ½ to 3 inch piece of ginger, peeled and cut into chunks
3 tbsp vegetable oil
½ tsp hot red pepper flakes
½ tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground cumin
1 ½ tsp ground turmeric
3 cardamom pods, lightly crushed or 1 tsp ground cardamom
Salt to taste
2 pounds (about 3 medium) sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into ½ to 1 inch cubes (I am a scrub and chop skin-on kind of guy)
1 ¾ cups coconut milk (one can)
1 tbsp tamarind paste
2 ¼ cups hot vegetable broth
4 to 5 cups (about 4 cans) cooked chickpeas
2 tbsp chopped cilantro leaves

1. In a food processor, combine onions, garlic hot pepper and ginger. Pulse until finely chopped. Place oil in a large pan over medium-low heat. Add chopped onion mixture and saute until softened, about 5 minutes.
2. Add hot pepper flakes and spices. Stir to mix. Add sweet potatoes and stir until well covered in spices. Stir in coconut milk.
3. Dissolve tamarind paste in hot broth and add to pan. Bring to boil, then reduce heat and simmer, partially covered, until sweet potatoes are just tender, about 25 minutes
4. Add chickpeas and simmer until heated through, about 5 minutes. Adjust salt to taste. Serve over rice.

Note on spiciness: this dish comes out medium hot to hot in terms of spice. You can swap out the bird peppers for jalapenos, or even omit the added chilli altogether if you want to make it more to the medium spice. You can also add sour cream or yoghurt to the dish to reduce the heat.

The chickpeas are rich in many trace minerals your body needs. The sweet potatoes are ridiculously good for you from the perspective of fibre, minerals, vitamins, etc. This recipe is also trivially easy to double in size if you need to serve a large group, or just want lots of leftovers. It also tastes awesome.

PRICE BREAKDOWN
Buying everything in the store (the no other option way)
2lb sweet potatoes at 99c/lb (I often get them for half that price)
onions – about 50c
chickpeas – $1.19 a can
coconut milk – $1.39 to $2.39 a can
vegetable broth – tends to be around 79c a quart
spices, ginger, etc – about $1
Total store cost: around $10.50

Doing it the Addicted To Canning way
sweet potatoes – $2
chickpeas – 2 pints – 50c
onions – 50c
coconut milk bought from ethnic stores – $1.09
spices, ginger, etc – about $1
vegetable broth – made from leftovers, so basically 0c
Total AtC cost: around $5.09

Just by canning your own chickpeas and vegetable stock, you can more than halve the cost of the dish.

The cost per serving of this ridiculously good for you dish, based on 6 to 8 servings:
STORE BOUGHT – $1.32 to $1.75 per serving
AtC WAY: $0.64 to $0.85 per serving

It’s cheap, healthy, vegan, tastes awesome, and if you serve it over basmati rice it is complete protein.

What more can I say?