Meatless Monday with Mediterranean Chick Pea Stew

Welcome to the Miratel blog for our Meatless Monday vegan recipe share series. Miratel took the Meatless Monday pledge to support reducing meat consumption 15% by eliminating it one day per week to preserve the health of our planet. We consider our support of this great movement part of our CSR business strategies as it spreads awareness of the impact of our food choices on our environment.

On the menu tonight is a delicious Mediterranean chick pea stew that is healthy and simple to make and is even better the next day. The recipe comes courtesy of Montreal native Nadia G via Food Network Canada.

Mediterranean chick pea stew image courtesy of foodnetwork.ca

Ingredients (serves 2)

• 1 head of garlic, unpeeled
• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• 1 pinch freshly cracked black pepper and sea salt
• 3 unit scallions, thinly sliced
• 1 unit sweet red bell pepper, julienned
• 1 unit red finger hot chili pepper, seeds removed, minced
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin
• 1 can whole, peeled, organic san marzano tomatoes, hand crushed (796mL)
• pinch of brown sugar
• 2 cups chick peas
• Zest of half a lemon
• handful of fresh parsley, minced
• 5 large mint leaves, stacked, rolled up and sliced into ribbons (chiffonade)
• toasted whole wheat pita, cut into wedges

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (204 degrees C).
2. Slice the top off of the head of garlic; lay it on some aluminum foil and drizzle with olive oil and black pepper. Seal aluminum foil over garlic and roast for 40 minutes.
3. In a saucepan, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add peppers and scallions into the pan, stir and coat with salt, paprika and cumin. Pour in the hand-crushed tomatoes, brown sugar, sea salt and freshly cracked pepper. Let simmer for 20 minutes.
4. Peel 4 cloves of roasted garlic and crush with a fork. Add garlic, chick peas, lemon zest, mint and parsley to the stew then stir until heated through.
5. Ladle stew into big bowls and serve with toasted whole-wheat pita wedges.

This hearty stew makes the perfect lunch or dinner and if whole wheat pita chips are not your thing, you can substitute with whole wheat crostini. This dish packs bold flavours in a warming winter stew. You can always make this stew on a Sunday and you can reheat it on Monday if you are going to be short on time.

If you haven’t already, we encourage you to visit the Meatless Monday website and join us in taking the pledge today. Spread the word at home and at work and promote CSR business initiatives to make your green call centre, office, factory, shop, restaurant or salon even greener.

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Miratel Solutions is a Toronto call centre, eBusiness, and letter shop mail house specializing in professional fundraising services including PCI compliant inbound telephone fundraising, outbound telephone fundraising, online fundraising, lottery fundraising services, donation processing and receipting and direct mail fundraising services. We are committed to our CSR business values in all our business decisions  and advancing the missions of the nonprofits we proudly serve.