Potato, Chickpea and Lentil Curry

When I set out to cook Indian cuisine, sighs can often be heard throughout the kitchen. While I don’t consider most dishes difficult, I can never get them turn out like the foods I have in Indian restaurants (we haven’t been to India ourselves yet.)

Since I can’t seem to make the perfect authentic dish, I typically end up making something that incorporates a handful of different recipes. Our dinner on Tuesday night was a good example of this.

I intended to make aloo cholay which is one of my favorites. I ended up with different spices which likely created a different dish all together, but this time I have to say it wasn’t too bad at all. In fact, it has made quite a nice lunch the past couple days, perfect for the fall-like weather that has finally arrived!

On the side this time, I tried out some Cinque e’ Cinque, also called Farinata. Lucini Italia contacted me several weeks ago with an offer to give this gluten-free, vegan product a try. I almost composed a short response and deleted the email immediately because I was asked if I want to try their new mix. Knowing how I feel about mixes, I figured it would not be for me.

I decided to check out their site though and learned that the mix was actually just flour from chickpeas, custom proprietary milled flour. Some of the varieties also had added spices. As the mixer, I had to add water, olive oil and sea salt.

So I said send it on, and along came a generous box consisting of hand-picked, estate grown Italian olive oil, basil infused olive oil, pasta sauces in three flavors with minimal natural ingredients in BPA-free pouches, no sugar added pizza sauce, 10 year aged balsamic vinegar and bread dipping sauce.

So far everything has been outstanding. I was incredibly impressed by their use of quality ingredients and lack of fillers.

Yes, I realize that the Cinque e’ Cinque is Italian, but with it being chickpea flour I thought it would go wonderfully with an Indian dish. I was right. I received 3 flavors – traditional, rosemary and chili. I chose traditional and it was the perfect replacement for the usual couscous or rice. It has a look similar to baked polenta, but much smoother without all the graininess. With the simple olive oil and sea salt the flavor is delicious.

So, as you can see, not only do I seem to mix dishes of the same cuisine, but now I’ve taken it so far as to mix two cultures as well. Fortunately the Indian and Italian influences complemented each other nicely.

Potato Chickpea and Lentil Curry

2 medium potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 cup lentils
2 medium tomatoes, chopped
2 cups cooked chickpeas
3 tsp garam masala
1 tsp turmeric
2 tsp sea salt
Plain yogurt (optional)
Cilantro (optional)

Place the potatoes and lentils in a soup pot. Cover with water. Bring to a boil over medium high heat, reduce to a simmer and cook, partially covered with a lid, for about 5 minutes.

Add the tomatoes and chickpeas and cook 5 more minutes. Stir in the garam masala, turmeric and about 1 cup of additional water. Cook about 10 to 12 minutes more until the tomatoes have cooked down and disappeared, and the lentils and potatoes are tender.

Stir in the salt and top each serving with plain yogurt and chopped cilantro. Makes 4 to 6 servings.