Open your can of chickpeas. (To cook chickpeas from scratch, see notes.) Drain off the juice, and rinse chickpeas with cold water. Have the chickpeas ready by the stove. Wash and chop your greens. Squeeze fresh lemons. Get out the black mustard seeds, coriander powder, turmeric powder, and sesame seeds.
Make the chickpeas and greens
Heat oil or ghee in a medium saucepan on medium-high heat. Add mustard seeds into the oil and sauté until half of them begin to pop. Turn down the heat to low and add the coriander and turmeric powder. Sizzle to release the aroma and medicinal qualities for about 20 seconds.
Immediately add the chickpeas to stop the powdered spices from burning, and stir. Add the lemon juice, salt, and sesame seeds, and mix well. Simmer for about 3–5 minutes on medium heat.
Place the prepared greens on top of the chickpeas with a ¼ cup of water and cook, covered, for 2–3 minutes. Stir to incorporate the greens and continue to cook another 5 minutes. Continue cooking until the greens are soft and fully cooked.
Stir in the optional chopped coriander just before serving.
Notes
For a complete meal, enjoy Chickpeas and Greens with a side of hot basmati rice. Cook chickpeas from scratch: If you plan to use dry chickpeas and cook them from scratch, please see, How to Cook Chickpeas from Scratch.Your choice of greens: Almost any type of greens will do for this dish, so harvest whatever is ready in your garden, or use up what’s in the fridge. Feel free to mix different types of greens together for a variety of flavor, color, and texture.Kale, collards, mustard greens, Swiss chard, dandelion greens, radish greens, beet greens, fresh snap peas, snow peas, zucchini, and spinach all work beautifully.The dish can handle a little bitter, so one suggestion is to combine the bitter dandelion or radish greens with a sweeter green, such as spinach. Black or brown mustard seeds are ubiquitous in South Indian cooking. They have a pungent and nutty flavor, much more so than the yellow mustard seeds commonly used in the West.If you do not have black mustard seeds, you can consider using cumin seeds if you have them. Otherwise, just leave them out.Turmeric, a bright orange root that looks like ginger, is commonly used in its powdered form for Indian cuisine. Its taste is mild, and complements most other flavors. Turmeric is essential, and easy to find in any grocery store. If you don’t have it, please buy it. It is used in almost every recipe.Coriander powder is commonly used in Indian cuisine. Its taste is sweet and a little earthy.The powder is commonly available in grocery stores. I encourage you to invest in this spice as there is really no substitute.For more information, see my complete Guide to Indian Ingredient Substitutions.
OTHER SPICE OPTIONS
Instead of the Indian spices listed above, you could substitute with garlic and thyme or with Za'atar. Be creative and enjoy the healthy combination of tangy spiced chickpeas with greens.