Spiced Pumpkin Chickpea Stew for #ElleAPalooza

 

I’m following up last week’s post with my official contribution to #ElleAPalooza.  Today’s post is a recipe for Spiced Pumpkin Chickpea Stew, inspired by Elle of Elle’s New England Kitchen.  As a tribute to my friend, LeeAnn (a/k/a Elle), I’m joining with a number of other food bloggers who count her as friend, in picking a recipe from her blog this weekend, and cooking or baking our own version of it.

For me, this wasn’t a new concept.  Elle inspired me all the time. Sometimes I blogged about it, but usually I didn’t.  Here are some Maple Blueberry Muffins that I adapted from one of her recipes, to add more whole grains and cut the sugar.  Most recently, I took her “Copycat Campbell Tomato Soup” recipe, and made it into Vegetarian Vegetable Soup with Mini-Grilled Cheese Croutons.  And she cheered me on, every step of the way.

This stew was cooked on Thursday. I photographed the leftovers (like all stews, this one only gets better with age) last night (Saturday). I edited the photos this morning.  I’ve been procrastinating writing this post as long as I can. I feel like, once I click the “Publish” button, it’s final. It’s real. Elle’s gone, and with her, her original voice and enthusiasm for cooking and baking, and her passion to motivate her readers to dare try something new in the kitchen. But I know she isn’t really gone. Elle lives on the hearts of those who love her, and you can still hear her voice in her blog and the blogs of all of us participating in our #ElleAPalooza.  See the list at the bottom of this post, to see who else is blogging #ElleAPalooza, and what inspired them!

Spiced Pumpkin Chickpea Stew

Adapted from Spiced Pumpkin Chickpea Stew at Elle’s New England Kitchen

Ingredients:

• 2 Tbs. olive oil
• 1 large leek (or 2 smaller ones), white & light green parts only
• 4 garlic cloves
• 2 large red potatoes
• pinch of kosher salt
• 2 (15 oz) cans chickpeas, drained
• 4 cups vegetable broth
• 3 egg yolks*
• 1 tsp. turmeric
• 1 cup Greek yogurt
• 1 (15 oz) can pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling!)
• 2 tsp. paprika
• 1 tsp. ground ginger
• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp. ground cumin
• (about) 1/8 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
• 1 freshly ground chipotle chili (Or chile. Fine.) *
• 2 tbsp honey
• 1/4 cup milk*
• Additional salt and pepper to taste

Preparation:

Start out by prepping your vegetables. Cut off the dark green top of the leek and discard. Slice the leek lengthwise and rinse well. Slice the halves thinly in half-rounds.  Peel and smash the garlic cloves, then mince them.  Scrub the potatoes and cut them into a roughly 1/2″ dice.

Heat the olive oil in a 6 quart soup or stock pot, over medium-high heat. Add all of the vegetables, sprinkle with a good pinch of kosher salt. Stir and sweat the vegetables, cooking until the leeks are softened, about 5 – 10 minutes.  Add the chickpeas, vegetable broth and pumpkin. Stir well and bring the mixture up to a gentle simmer.

Measure the yogurt into a medium bowl. Whisk in the egg yolks and the turmeric until well combined and the mixture is very liquid.  Slowly add the yogurt mixture to the simmering pot, stirring well.  Add the spices, honey, and milk.

Simmer for an additional 10 minutes.  Check the potatoes for doneness.  Taste to see if you need to add any additional salt and/or pepper.  When the potatoes are firm, but completely cooked through, you’re ready to serve.

Makes about 4-6 main dish servings.  Serve hot with a little crusty bread and a green salad, and you’ve got a complete, filling and satisfying meal.

*Notes – I’m not married to the inclusion of egg yolks in this recipe. The chickpeas give you plenty of protein, and between the yogurt, pumpkin, and cooking the potatoes directly in the stew, you’ve got lots of thickening power, so skip the yolks if you want to.  If it’s still not thick enough for you, give it a couple of smacks with your handy-dandy stick blender, or if you don’t have one of those, a potato masher. But not too much! You want lots of whole chickpeas and potato chunks in there for texture.

Elle’s version of this recipe contained curry powder and adobo powder for spicing. Both of these are spice blends (one Indian, the other Mexican/Latin) which, between them, also contain cumin, garlic, turmeric, cinnamon, and some form of hot pepper.  Which is kind of redundant.  So, I merely broke down these two spice blends, increasing the amounts of some of the individual spices, and added the paprika (contained in adobo), rather than make you go looking for something else at the store.  If you don’t have dried chipotle, feel free to use some other chile (chili) or its powder form that you do have.  Or none at all.  It’s not about the heat – it’s about flavor!

 

This part stolen blatantly from Heather over at He Cooks She Cooks, who stole it from Jenn over at Leftover Queen:  If you would like to join the food blogging community in supporting Elle’s family, please join Friends of Elle on Facebook to learn more about the auction be held to benefit her family. It is also a place where you can share your thoughts about Elle and gather with friends old and new who all loved this beautiful woman.

Other Blogs Participating in #ElleAPalooza

He Cooks She Cooks
Taste as you Go
Kudos Kitchen
Gourmet Traveller 88
Leftover Queen
Leftover Queen post 2
SpaBettie
SpaBettie Post 2
The Spiced Life
Food Lust People Love
Girl Chef
All That’s Left are the Crumbs
Savory Moments
The Feast Within
A-Z Cookbook
Vanilla Sugar Blog
Creative Culinary
Zebot’s Kitchen
FamFriendsFood
Dine and Dish
The Adventures of Kitchen Girl
And Then I Do The Dishes
No Fear Entertaining
Mommy? I’m Hungry!
Baking and Boys
Flanboyant Eats