Chick pea stew

[bunsen_h]

My best-guess recollection of what went into the chick pea stew I served last night:

3 cups dried chick peas (garbanzo beans)
1 cup dried white beans (navy beans)
½ cup peanut butter
¼ cup vegetable oil (I used canola)
1 tbsp whole mustard seed
2 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp ground ginger
3 tbsp crushed chilis
2 tbsp lemon juice
2 tsp salt
2 tbsp soy sauce
1½ cup diced carrots
¼ cup chick pea flour

Soak the beans in water overnight, drain, then cook in 8 cups water in slow cooker — on high to bring to a boil, then 4 hours on high, then simmer on low.  Once water comes to a boil, skim off foam, and add peanut butter, oil, and spices.  After reducing heat to low, add lemon juice, salt, soy sauce, and carrots.  After another couple of hours, if the liquid is too thin, thicken with chick pea flour mixed with a bit of water.

Comments

[dewline.livejournal.com]

In case of either allergies or distate, is the peanut butter absolutely necessary? Can something else be substituted?

[beable]

No. What Bunsen_H didn't mention was that this isn't just a stew recipe, it's the main component of the secret weapon used to fight Dr. I Want to Blow Up the Sun.

If you remove the peanut butter, the chemical composition of the weapon changes drastically, and it becomes useless.

Try making it without the peanut butter, and all of civilization will come to an abrupt end as the sun instantly vaporizes Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, all their moons, and most of the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

[bunsen-h.livejournal.com]

The peanut butter is the dominant flavouring component of the stew; everything else is a modifier of it, really. Yes, other things could be substituted, but it would be a very different dish.

Possible alternates: roasted-chickpea butter (sold as a peanut-butter alternate; I haven't tried it); other nut butters. Going farther afield, many grocery stores sell pouches/packets/jars of curry paste, and I've used them to make similar chick-pea dishes in my crock pot.

[metalana.livejournal.com]

I've eaten successful almond-butter sauces.

[bunsen-h.livejournal.com]

"Add the dried beans to twice their volume of water, bring to a boil, then turn off heat and let sit for an hour" is a standard alternative to overnight soaking. I don't remember if I've ever tried it.