Do you ever feel that sometimes you fall into a kitchen rut? You’ll look back on last week’s menu and realize that every dish you made was some form of a spaghetti—telling yourself that bowties and Romano taste nothing like rigatoni and parmesan. If you use macaroni instead of linguine, viola, goulash. If you throw cheese a top your pasta leftovers and toss it into the oven for ten minutes, presto, you have a bake.

Yep. I had hit kitchen-lack-luster rock-bottom. I needed to get out of my pasta-solves-everything trench.

I consider myself a well-rounded cook, but I believe every girl has at least one genre they’re scared of. Maybe scared is a poor word, more like, intimidated by. Mine is Asian and Middle Eastern Cuisine. I LOVE the stuff, but truth be told, it’s where I lack the most experience. So to get myself out of my ragu rut, I decided to pull a kitchen 180. Something with spice. Something with sweet. Something with curry.

Coconut Curry with Chickpeas and Swiss Chard
Adapted from The Crepes of Wrath

Ingredients
1 Tbsp. olive oil
1 small yellow onion (or half a large yellow onion) chopped
3 Tbsp. green curry paste
2 Tbsp. chili paste (more if you like heat!)
1 can coconut milk
1 tsp. kosher salt
½ tsp. ground ginger
2 cups water
1 can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1 bunch Swiss chard, cleaned, trimmed and thinly sliced

Instructions

Heat olive oil in large saucepan. Add in your chopped onion and cook until the onions are softened and translucent, about 5-6 minutes. Add in the chili paste, curry paste, ginger, salt, ginger, coconut milk, and one cup of the water. Stir to combine and bring to a gentle boil. Add in your chickpeas and the additional cup of water. Reduce your pan to a simmer for about 20 minutes.

After your dish is done simmering for 20 minutes, add in the trimmed and sliced Swiss chard. (If you’ve never trimmed swiss chard, please see my tips below.) Simmer for an additional 15 minutes.

Serves 4-6. Great with pita bread!

Note: This recipe works great with all types of meat (beef, chicken, pork, seafood) if you wish to add a protein element as well. I used up leftover chicken thighs and added it to my dish to make it a bit more hearty!

Prep Tips!
Trimming your swiss chard: Since the stalks and the thick/white rib portions of the chard are generally too tough to eat, you’ll want to remove those sections from your dish. Here is a quick, down and dirty demonstration on how to properly trim your swiss chard.