Rustic Chickpea Stew with Apricots & Turnip {slow-cooker recipe}

It’s not in my nature to switch tracks on the eve of a new year, jumping from the long, sugar-coated holiday cookie train over to the one piled with beans and greens like so many do. I’m not a maker of quickly-broken resolutions, choosing instead to jot down my intentional food-related goals for the year and work them in as part of our lifestyle.

My transition from sweets to stew for this post was not for health reasons (although I am not oblivious to the wisdom of this change in diet) but more of a practical step. We first took a look at the monthly budget, then I stood in front of my well-stocked pantry, eying up the jars of staples.

Couscous, chickpeas, canned tomatoes, dried fruit, spices, a carton of apple juice. Dinner, however disguised, was almost fully contained here; it just needed a little coaxing, a hit of garlic, and six or so hours in the slow cooker.

Slow Cooker Chickpea Stew with Apricots & Turnip

Jessica over at Good Cheap Eats is running a series this month called ‘Eat Down the Pantry‘, pretty practical for those of us who are feeling the scourge of the holiday spending, do keep a stocked pantry — and detest going out in -22C weather to shop for food. (I suspect I am not alone in the latter point.)

Of course it’s not just pantry items that we are using to build our menu plans; now is the best time to benefit from your stock of vegetables in the freezer, and raid the preserves pantry for chutney.

Today’s vegetarian stew has encouraged me to delve deeper into my pantry and see what creations I can come up with.  I often run through the selling points of a dish when I am pulling it together in my kitchen, and this slow-cooker supper has a lot going for it, according to my notes.

Let’s see:

  • it clears out pantry staples that perhaps are in need of refreshing
  • it uses ingredients on hand, so there’s no need to venture out to shop
  • offers a hot bowl of comfort food for a cold January day
  • it’s vegetarian, yet hearty enough for a main meal
  • it’s baby/kid friendly – 9 month-old Clara ate an entire bowl. Loved it.
  • it is cheap to make (most meatless mains are)
  • putting it together was easy as pie

I’ll admit it, I tested two chocolate-coconut cookie recipes just yesterday, and enjoyed a sliver of dark chocolate with my afternoon coffee. The baking isn’t going to stop and we’re not going to nibble salads all month, even though just about every food magazine cover boasts greenery. But we are going to practice common sense seasonal eating, starting with this rustic chickpea stew.

This stew comes together easily and the leisurely simmering in the slow-cooker transforms it into something quite nice indeed. The apple juice and dried apricots lend a sweetness to the sauce that balances out the acidity of the tomatoes, and cubes of turnip turn into buttery morsels alongside the tender chickpeas.

Serve over whole wheat couscous or a baked brown rice pilaf, and garnish with your choice of chopped parsley or cilantro.

Rustic Chickpea Stew with Apricots & Turnip {slow-cooker recipe}

Make use of the slow-cooker and clear out the pantry with this simple and rustic vegetarian stew. Serve over whole wheat couscous or brown rice pilaf.
4.50 from 2 votes
Print Pin Rate
Course: Main Dishes
Keyword: Slow-Cooker
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 6 hours
Total Time: 6 hours 15 minutes
Servings: 6
Calories: 96kcal
Author: Aimee

Ingredients

  • 1 19-oz can chickpeas drained and rinsed (540ml)
  • 1 28-oz can crushed tomatoes or 3 1/2 cups homemade tomato sauce
  • 1 cup apple juice
  • 2 Tablespoons butter
  • 1 medium onion diced
  • 2 cloves garlic minced
  • 1 cup medium diced turnip 150g
  • 1/2 cup chopped dried apricots about 12
  • 1 zest of 1 large lemon
  • 1 teaspoon ground cumin
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt

Instructions

  • Combine all the ingredients in a slow-cooker and stir to combine.
  • Cover and cook on low setting for 6 hours, or on high for four hours.
  • Check turnip for tenderness and taste stew for seasoning. Adjust salt if necessary and serve.

Nutrition

Calories: 96kcal | Carbohydrates: 15g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 4g | Saturated Fat: 2g | Cholesterol: 10mg | Sodium: 246mg | Potassium: 241mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 11g | Vitamin A: 505IU | Vitamin C: 7.9mg | Calcium: 25mg | Iron: 0.7mg

 

What is your favorite rustic meal for a cold winter day?

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34 Comments

  1. This sounds delicious! We tend to move towards soups in the winter mainly because it is easy to grab veggies and stock from the freezer and throw them together with some beans or bread. But, we still have a lot of heavy foods on the weekends – at least until the Superbowl is over 🙂

  2. I love nearly anything in the slow cooker as a hearty meal. However this soup is a family favorite and it’s fast. http://bit.ly/W1SEax (Sausage, Bean and Spinach soup)
    I’m so curious~ why time of day do you shoot your pictures? Evening when dinner is ready or do you prep it so it’s ready while you still have daylight hours?

    1. Hi Emily, it varies from recipe to recipe, but yes, I often shoot around 3 pm when the baby is napping and I still have some daylight. It means I’ll reheat later for supper, but for most dishes, this doesn’t matter a bit.

  3. Hi Aimée,
    Thank for sharing – it sounds delicious. And smells amazing! Yes, it’s cooking right now, along with the brown rice pilaf with cinnamon, nutmeg & black pepper to take the Moroccan tajine style all the way through. Your recipe totally caught my imagination and usurped my planned cooking for the day. I didn’t have turnip, but I’m sure sweet potato will serve as well. We’ll be dining on it tonight with some other friends of yours – the Reding-Robichauds 🙂

  4. This looks amazing! We have a tomato sensitivity in our family, however. Could you recommend a way to make this dish without tomatoes? Thanks!

  5. I love a good pantry meal! Especially a healthy one (I’ll admit that my most common one is very unhealthy thai peanut noodles). I believe that I have the ingredients for this very meal living in my pantry right now.

  6. This sounds like my kind of meal – slow-cooked and a great use of a well-stocked pantry, especially now when all I want to do is hibernate for the winter. Can’t wait to give it a go!

  7. This looks really easy and yummy. But! I’ve never had a turnip! What does it taste like? Do you peel it? I’m going to give this a try so I can introduce a new veggie in my house.

  8. Do you think you can substitute the dried apricots for fresh (chopped up) apricots? We got a whole bunch from our local CSA and I’m not sure what to do with them….most recipes seem to call for the dried version of them!

  9. Thanks for sharing my series, Aimee. We just finished Day Thirteen and I’ve spent about 1/5 of my regular budget. Yay! Apparently, until last night my people didn’t even know we were doing a Pantry Challenge. I guess I built a good pantry, finally. 🙂

  10. 4 stars
    Delicious! And a unique type of vegetarian stew. Easy dump=and-cook recipe with little prep. Served over brown rice both times that I made it. The second time I made it, I used a bag of frozen root-vegetable mix consisting of diced red onions, sweet potatoes, baking potatoes, and rutabagas because there weren’t any turnips at the grocery store, and this sub worked nicely. I cooked it on high for four hours both times. The second time I made it, I added 1 teaspoon of salt as well as half the juice of the lemon along with its zest because that was the only criticism I had after the first time: not enough acidity and not enough salt. Definitely a keeper!