As much as I’d like to, I don’t get the chance to visit a farmer’s market each week. The truth is that I tend to do most of my shopping at regular grocery stores. In Sydney, this means Woolworth’s (Woolie’s for short) or Coles. While they don’t stock every vegan ingredient, they do carry most of the staples that I use in my day-to-day meals. Last week, I came across this awesome Winter Leaf bag of fresh greens containing kale, spinach and baby beet leaves. It was promptly added to my shopping cart (or trolley, as they’re known down here).
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Today, I needed to come up with something to make for Vegan MoFo… and more importantly, for lunch! I decided to make something with the bag of greens, as well as a can of chickpeas I had in the pantry A Google search lead me to Cara’s version of FatFree Vegan Kitchen’s Cosmic Cashew Kale and Chickpeas with Confetti Quinoa. Even though quinoa takes next to no time to make, I decided to go with Cara’s version simply because I was really hungry and needed to get food in my belly ASAP. As per the original recipe, I ended up using more cashews. The kale in the recipe would have to be my kale+spinach+baby beet leaves, and the red bell pepper would have to be a julienned carrot since I was all out of peppers, but hey, sometimes you have to make due with what you’ve got, right?
Oh, and I didn’t have any basil on hand so I had planned on using cilantro (fresh coriander), which I pretty much always keep on hand. In the end, I forgot to add the cilantro, but this was still really great. This warm salad is creamy, comforting and very filling. I initially planned on eating the whole thing, but was fully stuffed after eating just half of it. Go chickpeas + kale!
- ½ cup raw cashews
- ½ cup hot water
- 1 cup reduced sodium vegetable broth
- 1 clove garlic
- 1 large onion, thinly sliced
- 1-2 carrots, julienned (or medium bell pepper, diced)
- 1½ cups cooked chickpeas (or one 15-ounce can, rinsed and drained)
- 1 bunch kale, central stems removed and leaves thinly sliced, or a 10oz package of chopped kale or other hardy greens
- 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper
- ½ teaspoon salt
- Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 2 to 4 tablespoons fresh basil or cilantro, minced (optional)
- Soak the cashews for 20 minutes in the hot water (or, soak overnight in room temperature water.) Drain the cashews and place in high speed blender or food processor with the broth and garlic. Blend until completely smooth, and set aside.
- Heat a large nonstick skillet or dutch oven over medium-low heat and cook the onion and carrots (or pepper) for 5-7 minutes, until softened. Stir in the chickpeas. Increase heat to high, and add the greens and 2-3 tablespoons of water, stirring to combine everything. If using kale for the greens,cover and cook for 5 minutes, or until it’s tender.
- Stir in the cashew sauce, crushed red pepper, salt and pepper. Cook, uncovered, for 2-3 minutes, until sauce thickens. If using, garnish with basil/cilantro before serving.
Glad you liked it! That blend of greens sounds fantastic, and the carrots are a great idea here too :)
Hi Cara – Thanks for stopping by and thanks again for the great edit to that recipe :)
haha… i didn’t realize how many words are different between australian and canadian!
Hi Daina! Oh there are so many… especially with food: coriander = cilantro, capsicum = bell pepper… too many to name here!
Sounds like a great lunch and I love your subs – I was actually struck by the pic of the coles chickpeas – I don’t get to farmers markets as much as I would like either and have three supermarkets within walking distance
Hi Johanna – Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment. I’m happy to be in touch with a fellow Aussie veggie food blogger. I’m adding you to my RSS reader now ;)
This looks yummy! I get that blend sometimes from Coles as well, it makes a nice salad!
Hi Susan – Thanks for your comment. I’m going to check out your blog now :)
I must also add my apologetic voice to the chorus of We Who Shop at Coles/Woolies Despite Preferring Farmers Markets In Our Heart of Hearts. Coles is across the road from me, and as a result those chickpeas are a staple in my cupboard! Thank you for the link to this recipe; I’m constantly on the look-out for meals I can serve my tomato/wheat/capsicum/everythingunderthesun-allergic mother to prove that vegan can be filling!
Yup, same here. The grocery stores are closer – and you don’t have to be there at 7am to get all the good stuff. Glad to heat that this may be a good recipe for your mom. Let me know if you try it and what you both think :)
I wish we had better bagged salads here – that mix looks awesome! I know it’s cheaper to purchase just the heads of lettuce, but for some reason I’m just crazy about the pre-packaged and shredded stuff. It’s crisper and more fun to eat!
That bag is awesome but normally we can’t even get bunched kale at the grocery store here (only on the rare occasion at farmer’s markets). So that one is a great find! I go through 2-3 bags of baby spinach and/or rocket a week. You’re right, it tastes great and it’s just so easy to use. I put it on everything!
That looks so good!
Thanks Sarah – I love your blog name. Going to check it out now :)
Oh wow. I think you’ve made an dish with all my favourite things in there – how good does that look?!
Thanks Joey! Let me know if you make it :)
Making this for dinner tonight! Can’t wait!
Hi Sandra – Awesome, let me know what you thought of it :)
I loved it! I added a little more garlic (because I am garlic obsessed) and some more red pepper since I love spicy. I also threw in some extra spinach and greens as well as the kale! I ate with some really good bread and have lots left over for lunch tomorrow! super easy to make and very filling! Thanks so much for posting!
Hi Sandra – Those modifications sound great and I’m glad you loved it!
Last night for supper,
I made your chickpea and kale salad. Wow it is excellent. From now on I am going to eat kale on a weekly basis using your recipe. Thank you so much.
Hi mom! I’m so glad you like it – I knew you would! I’m going to make it again this week – it’s so good :)
I wish we had that salad blend here in Alberta. Looks so good.
Hi Maryanna! It’s so good, but plain old kale or spinach works too!
Has anyone here tried Goya chickpeas? (The Coles label doesn’t appear in this area’s chain markets.)
I haven’t tried them in Australia, but I’ve had them in the US/Canada and from what I remember, they’re good…
The reason I asked about the Goya chickpeas is that I used them in this recipe (along with adding rice, about 2 T’s of cut-up stewed prunes). Even after rinsing the chickpeas well, they smelled slightly of fish.
At any rate, in the future I’m going to try rinsing them with water and salt, to see if this reduces the previously-mentioned smell.
Yuck that’s nasty. Maybe it was just an off-can? I always rinse my canned beans anyway…
Since I did not have the cashews, I substituted tahini sauce with good success.
Hi Ivory – thanks for sharing that. How much tahini did you use?
Love this recipe – so glad you liked it too!
It’s one of my very favorites. Will make it again very soon!
I used 1/3rd of a cup . . . . It’s delicious!
Thanks for that! Tahini is a great tip in case I’m ever out of raw cashews. I’ll try it and update the post with it when I get a moment. Thanks again :)
It was 102 degrees here this past Friday. So I tried the same basic recipe with (plain) yogurt.
It turned out luscious, and I’m looking forward to just eating it “straight from the refrigerator.”
That’s a great idea! Thanks for sharing that tip.
For a little variation, I looked no further than the Middle East to find another variation: Instead of stirring in black pepper, I sprinkled cinnamon powder (as a garnish) over the chickpeas.
I love this recipe. I happened across your website a month or so ago when looking for kale and chickpea recipes.
I am allergic to a lot of nuts so I used ground almonds, which had the added benefit of no blending for the dressing- and it tastes fantastic!
I’ve been vegetarian for around 14 years (I’m 25) and have been cooking your recipes and therefore been eating mostly vegan lately.
Although I’ve been weighing up going vegan for a few years, you’ve really swayed me towards becoming vegan (partly because it looks so good my carnivore wife wants ME to cook!) . Thank you. :)
(I feel cheated of the hours I spent looking for vegan cheese sauce. Your is better.)
Hi Rebecca – Thanks for all the kind feedback! I like the idea of using ground almonds – great idea! Glad to hear that your wife likes the recipes! Glad you like the vegan cheese sauce too! Take care and thanks for taking the time to comment :)