Versatile Chickpea Curry

This is a great dish mashed together from a number of other recipes.  I added to my recipe the things that I liked from all the other recipes.  This is a super easy, quick recipe that you can do in the crockpot, after work (using canned beans), or from scratch (using dried beans).  I am not going to cover all the options in this post, just the method I used that was quick and made right after work.  Prep time took the longest.  As usual with foods like this, simmering for at least 20-30 mins makes things meld together, but, you can eat it as soon as it has come to a boil and reduced for a few minutes. 

Ingredients:
 
3 cans garbanzo beans drained and rinsed
1 1/2 yellow onions chopped small
4 cloves garlic (you can certainly use more, but I liked this sauce mild with only 4 cloves)
1 1/2 inch of fresh ginger (or the same amount as the chopped garlic)
3 c. of liquid any mixture of your chosing of water and veggie or chicken broth.  I used half of each. This amount of broth and water will make the curry liquidy (but delicious), so, if you want a less liquidy curry, use half the amount of water/broth.
1 (14 oz) can of diced tomatoes (I left the juice in)
1 (14 oz) can coconut milk (totally optional)

Spices:

~Measure and mix together and set aside for later
1 1/4 tsp. cumin
1 1/2 tsp. coriander
1 1/4 tsp. tumeric
1/4 tsp cinnamon (plus a bit more, I just used a small heaping quarter teaspoon)
1 1/2 tbs. madras curry (if you do not have this kind of curry, that is ok, just use more of the curry powder)
1 1/2 tbs. curry powder (generic yellow colored kind you get from the store labeled "curry powder")
0-2 tsp. chili pepper or
0-3 red chilies 

Note:  The chilies or powder is optional.  The madras curry contains just the right amount of kick so I didn't add any more chili powder.  If I was just to use yellow curry, I would add at least a 1/2 tsp of chili powder or 1 dried red chili

~Have ready, IF you have this spice
1 tsp. garam masala.  This is a finishing spice which you add right before you eat the curry

~Also at the end, taste your curry THEN add:
salt to taste.

Instructions:

~Saute the onions until soft and browning
~Add the garlic and ginger and saute for 30-45 seconds more stirring the mixture so that the garlic doesn't burn
~Add the mixture of spices and saute until fragrant; about 30 seconds
~Add your broth and/or water
~Add garbanzo beans, can of tomatoes, and coconut milk.
~Bring curry to a boil, then reduce and let simmer for at least 10 minutes to 30 minutes. 

Serve over potatoes, rice, or with pita/naan.  You can also enjoy this plain! We ate our curry with Baked Buttery Brown Rice.  Recipe also on this blog.

The versatile part of this is, you can totally omit the beans and add different ingredients (chicken, veggies of your choice, etc.).  I am not eating beans at this time so I just took the curry sauce part and put broccoli in it and let it cook and ate it that way.  It was delicious.