A couple of weekends ago I went on a last minute weekend trip to Mt. Pinos with my parents and some friends. Almost everyone was going for an orienteering event, but I went just to spend the weekend outdoors, away from the heat. I didn’t have time to go grocery shopping, so I browsed the online in search of a meal I could make out of ingredients I already had in my pantry. I stumbled upon this recipe on the Vegetarian Times website and figured I’d give it a try. I thought a whole cup of dates seemed like too many but in the end I was thrilled with the results. It was quick to throw together and extremely satisfying.
Chickpea Date Stew with Couscous
Yield6-8 servings
Prep Time10 minutes
Cook Time20 minutes
Activity GuideCar Camping, Bike Touring
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 large onion, diced
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon ground coriander
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 15-oz can diced tomatoes
- 2 15-oz cans chickpeas, rinsed and drained
- 1 cup pitted dates, sliced
- juice of one lemon
- 1/2 cup chopped cilantro
- 1 cup couscous
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
Tools
- Cutting board
- Knife
- Large pot
- Medium pot
- Large spoon
Method
- At home, combine spices in a spice jar or zip-top bag.
- Heat oil in a large pot. Add onion and cook for about 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Stir in garlic and spices and cook for about 30 seconds. Add tomatoes, chickpeas, and 1/4 cup water. Cover and simmer for about 10 minutes. Stir in dates and lemon juice.
- Meanwhile, bring 1 1/2 cups water and salt to a boil. Stir in couscous, remove from heat, and cover. Allow to sit while the stew finishes cooking.
- When you’re ready to serve it, fluff the couscous with a fork. Spoon the couscous into bowls and top with the stew and a sprinkle of cilantro.
[...] Couscous topped with ratatouille or with date and chickpea stew [...]
Well, I made some adaptations, including dehydrated chickpeas and it was a huge hit. Delish. You can simply soak the chickpeas during the day while you’re hiking – no need to rehydrate them in boiling water. I also used sun dried tomatoes and added tomato paste. HOWEVER, the chickpeas gave all of us horrible gas, etc. So, I’m afraid this recipe has been moved to the “good idea but no go” pile. Unless someone has an idea of how to de-gas dehydrated chickpeas?
[...] Date & Chickpea Stew with Couscous – Dirty Gourmet [...]
@ Jane & Margy
I would experiment with dehydrated chickpeas. Only thing I’m not sure with those is the cook time, might eat a lot of fuel. To replace tomatoes, I’ve used chopped sun-dried tomatoes. Soak them in the water that you will use to make the coucous. They will soften up and give it a rich tomato flavor. For extra tomato taste you can also use tomato paste or tomato powder. Please let us know how it goes
Jane – I was thinking the same thing and am working on adapting it this. Any suggestions would be much appreciated. I’m also happy to send in my adaptation when I finish it.
Any thoughts on how to make this a dehydrated, light weight meal? I’m looking for options for my vegetarian daughter about to embarking on a 14 day trip.
Jane
This looks awesome! I’m not going to wait till my next camping trip to try this.
Christopher – I would play with the quantity of preserved lemons but they should play well with the other ingredients in this recipe. Let us know how it goes!
Awesome looking recipe! I’ll be trying it minus the tomatoes because friends are avoiding them…
But I think I will bring some of my preserved lemons. Do you do these? For dishes of a similar (North African? Mediterranean?) spirit, I guess they SHOULD be good?
I plan to make this in a small dutch oven, over the fire. Ingenious!