Chickpea Stew With Dill

I know, it's like I'm not even trying anymore. What's so chickenless about chickpea stew (besides the obvious)? All I can say in my defense is that it has quite a chickenless amount of dill in it.

Chickpea Stew With Dill

Ingredients

2 Tbsp. olive oil

4 large carrots, sliced

1 rib celery, sliced

1/2 head garlic; cloves separated, peeled, and sliced

1/2 tsp. dried cumin

1/4 c. fresh dill or 1 Tbsp. dried

1 1/2 c. cooked chickpeas

2 1/2 c. veggie broth

2 c. canned/packaged diced tomatoes (I've said it before and I'll say it again: Pomi is the way to go if you don't can your own)

2 tsp. lemon juice

1/4 tsp. salt

1/8 tsp. black pepper

2 c. cooked brown rice

Directions

In a stew pot, heat the olive oil over medium-high. Add the carrots, celery, garlic, and cumin. Saute until the vegetables are soft but not falling apart, about 7 minutes. Add the dill; saute to coat. Add the chickpeas, broth, tomatoes, lemon juice, salt, and pepper. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium-low. Simmer 20 minutes. If you want a thick stew, stir in the rice and serve with bread. For a thinner version, spoon the rice into individual serving bowls and ladle the chickpea mixture over it. Serves 4.

I must take this opportunity to publicly retract a comment I made on someone's blog yesterday (I can't remember whose, and it's better to do it here where all my readers can see it anyway.) I said that Publix Supermarkets has a good business model and that they really take care of their employees. Well, what should happen but this evening my husband comes home from work and tells me that there's a temporary Publix boycott underway due to a human rights issue. If they raised the price of their tomatoes just a penny per pound starting this next fiscal year, they could afford to pay harvesters a living wage. For the time being, they are holding out, which sucks.

Luckily I was recently tipped off about a market called Harvill's in the Winter Park area (thanks, Nichole!) They sell a lot of local produce and farm-fresh eggs. May not necessarily be organic, but at least every fruit and vegetable I bought today came from within my home state. I'll be psyched to share pics and descriptions of what promises to be a mostly-local week!

Beat the eggs. Whip the cream. Show no mercy.