Chickpeas with Potatoes and Tomatoes

Eastside Road, April 19, 2014—

COOK RETURNED TONIGHT to a favorite cookbook, Deborah Madison's: Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone — a cookbook everyone should have. (You can slip a little beef stock into almost anything.) Deb calls this a Lebanese stew, good cold, garnished with lemon wedges, as well as hot — but we have no leftovers tonight.

You brown a chopped onion in olive oil, then add cubed potatoes, carrots cut into pieces, a small dried chile, and a couple of cloves of garlic mashed with some ground coriander. Cook that for a few minutes, then add a cup of peeled, diced tomatoes and two or three cups of chickpeas, salt and pepper, and some water or broth. Simmer until tender; garnish with chopped cilantro and parsley.

Green salad afterward, because we need a little raw garlic every day, as Richard Olney pointed out yesterday, for the heart.

Barolo d'Asti