One of my good friends is a vegetarian and she came to visit last week! We love having company, and we hadn’t seen her in what felt like forever. Cooking vegetarian isn’t something we do very often, but it is something we do. This one is *almost* vegan except for the couple tablespoons of butter, but those could be swapped out for something more vegan friendly. We loved the spice combination on this one; the cumin, coriander, turmeric, and cayenne add a really great flavor and my kitchen smelled so good. There are a lot of topping options for this masala too, you can use cilantro, lime, red onion, or yogurt. I also chose to put this on top of rice, because I love carbs. There aren’t a lot of pictures this week, just because my camera was being weird and taking super dark photos of everything!

Chickpea Masala

• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tbsp unsalted butter
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 4 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
• 2 tbsp fresh ginger, finely chopped
• 1 1/2 ground coriander
• 1 1/4 tsp ground cumin
• 1/5 ground turmeric
• 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1 tsp salt
• 28-oz canned San Marzano tomoatoes
• 2 15-oz cans chickpeas (garbanzo beans are the same thing!), drained and rinsed
• 1/3 cup dried apricots, thin sliced (I found these in the bulk food section!)

Heat the oil and butter in a large dutch oven (which is my favorite). Add the onions, garlic, and ginger and cook until the onions are softened. Once that has cooked, add the spices and salt.

Add tomatoes, with their juices, with 1/2 cup water and break up the big tomatoes with a big spoon. Chickpeas go in next. Stir to combine, and then add the apricots. Increase the heat to high, and cook down the liquid. Occasionally go in and crush some of the chickpeas with the back of a spoon. You want to cook this for about 20 minutes, or until it’s nice and thick.

Serve hot, over rice, and with whatever toppings float your boat.