spinach, tomato and chick pea curry

We're all feeling a little brackish after yesterday's BBQ. It's been a slow back-to-school sort-of day, ticking things off our "What have you done today to make you feeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeel Proud" list, so we're looking for something peppy to put some zing into our Monday.

Another facet to consider comes in the form of a constantly-hungry five year-old, who combines Victorian urchin-esque levels of starvation with previously unfathomable levels of not being tired. Determined to break this habit, tonight he's having a rice and pulses-laden curry with us. Bosh! Yeah, try and claim you're hungry and resist sleep with this weighing you down!

I know I've mentioned this before, but one of the many pleasures of making this dish is the fact you can vary the curry paste every time, so you in theory you can never get bored of it. That and the lovely combination of zippy, warming ginger and earthy chick peas. It's fab for winter or a unseasonably cold summer day.

wine time
We had some left-over beers in the fridge which are an obviously fine match with curry, but if you wanted to drink vino usually I'd recommend either a Carmenere/Merlot if you wanted red, or Riesling/Gerwurtz for whites. However, I had some Cremant du Bourgogne with curry recently and it was divine as the fizz and residual sugar really complemented both the spices and the heat. Even better, it's half the price of Champagne for almost the same juice!

sources
spinach, tomato and chick pea curry - Waitrose Recipe Cards, Early September 2010