Travel-Friendly Chickpea and Sweet Potato Stew (Perfect For Cottages and Campgrounds)

This easy-to-make chickpea and sweet potato stew is perfect for travel, whether you're making dinner at the cottage or campground, contributing to a hostel potluck, or just need a quick meal at home after a long road trip.

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How pretty is this chickpea and sweet potato stew? And it tastes as good as it looks!

This delicious, easy-to-make flexible chickpea and sweet potato stew is the perfect travel meal. It comes together in about 20 minutes and it freezes beautifully. All of the ingredients are very frugal and available just about anywhere in the world. You don't need any special equipment at all and you can make it in the most humble of kitchens. Oh, and did I mention that it's delicious!? This is wholesome, hearty, stick-to-ya kind of food that will have you reaching for another bowl.

I have to confess that, while this is the ideal dish to make in an RV or at campground or in a rental home or cottage or hostel kitchen, I consider it an old reliable standby for when I'm actually home. If you're about to go away for a few weeks and you're staring at a sparse fridge and considering takeout, this stew will save you. The same can be said for when you return. The fresh ingredients (primarily a sweet potato and an onion) can live in a crisper forever and everything else hangs out in your pantry indefinitely.

Once upon a time, I left for aweek in Bulgaria and Ryan departed a few days after me to head to the US. I had 48 hours at home before I had to hit the road again and meet up with him in New York and then HE returned home and I followed a week after him after spending time near Niagara. Suffice to say that we weren't exactly doing a lot of grocery shopping with all this coming and going and we were getting kind sick of take out food. Chickpea and potato stew to the rescue!

This recipe is a bit of a hybrid between a curried sweet potato stew that I clipped from Chatelaine magazine years ago and a chickpea basil stew that I enjoyed as a teen and throughout university. As such, it's really a choose-your-own-ending kind of dish. I think it's best with curry powder (and I in fact use a combo of two different curry powder blends that I picked up at a cute spice shop in Portsmouth, New Hampshire). However, that might not be to your taste or what's available where you are. An easy alternative is to swap the curry powder for dried basil (or even dried Italian seasoning). If you do, consider swapping the ginger for paprika - or not at all and see what you think.

In the spirit of 'waste not, want not" that is often employed at the cottage or in a hostel kitchen, feel free to add in all kinds of leftovers to this dish. Got some leftover shredded chicken? Toss it in! Have a surplus of carrots but no sweet potato? Not a problem. Have some wilted fresh tomatoes or bell pepper to deal with? Throw it in the pot. You can serve this dish on its own, with naan bread, with rice, couscous, or quinoa. In its original version, this recipe is naturally vegan and gluten free.

Equipment and preparation:

You'll need a cutting board, a knife, and a veggie peeler to prepare the raw vegetables. You'll need a medium-to-large pot, like the kind you'd use to cook pasta. Finally, you'll need a spatula for stirring the ingredients as they cook and keep them from sticking to the bottom and sides of the pot and a ladle for serving the finished results. 

Ingredients:
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• One tablespoon or so of olive oil or vegetable oil.

• One small onion or about 1/4-1/3 of a cup chopped, for those of us who only seem to find giant onions at the market.

 

• Two tablespoons of curry powder. If you're going for a different flavour profile, use dried basil as an alternative.

 

• One teaspoon of fresh ginger or a smidge of dried ginger.

 

• One teaspoon of salt.

 

• Four cloves of garlic.

 

• One medium sweet potato or about 2 cups chopped. 

 

• One large can of diced tomatoes (about 750 ml). Do not drain!

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• One can of chickpeas (about 540 ml). Definitely drain. And rinse. And drain again.

Instructions:

Put the oil in the cooking pot and turn the burner on to medium.

Add in the chopped onion, the curry powder, the ginger, and the salt. Give it a good stir and let it cook for a few minutes.

While it's cooking, peel and finely chop the garlic and peel and chop the sweet potato. Pause in the middle of your chopping to give the pot a good stir! Then add in the garlic and sweet potato and stir again. Pro tip: Never trust a recipe that says to add the onion and garlic at the same time. Disaster! The garlic will always burn.

Add in the canned tomatoes with their juices, followed by the drained and rinsed chick peas. Give things a final stir, turn the heat down so it's medium-low, and let things simmer for about 12-15 minutes or until the sweet potatoes are soft enough so you can easily stab them with a fork. 

Final steps: Eat with the sides of your choice, down some red wine, cackle with glee as you reflect on what a savvy and sophisticated chef you are. Bon appetite! 

Enjoy these travel friendly recipes!

Black Forest Chocolate Cherry Cookies

Loaded Baked Potato Chip Dip For One

Travel-Friendly Avocado Mango Salad