TriathlEats: Curried Chickpeas With Roasted Cauliflower

Warm up your winter with this satisfying vegan dish, which blends exotic spices and flavors to perfection.

Ingredients
¼ cup canola oil
½ cup carrots, diced
½ cup fennel, diced
1 cup shallots or yellow onion, minced
3 T fresh ginger, peeled and minced
1 T garlic cloves, minced
¼ cup Vadouvan (French curry spice mix), or madras curry powder
½ cup golden raisins
3 cups crushed San Marzano tomatoes (about 1 large can)
1½ cups chickpeas (about 1 small can)
1 tsp kosher salt
1 T white wine vinegar
3 cups no-sodium vegetable stock
2 cups cauliflower florets*
2 cups basmati rice, rinsed
¼ cup cilantro leaves

*Roasted with olive oil in 350-degree oven for 15 minutes

Directions
In a medium-size Dutch oven or sauce pot over medium heat, add canola oil, carrots, fennel and shallots, and allow them to sweat (stirring and turning frequently) for 3 minutes. Add ginger and garlic, and continue to sweat for another 5 minutes. Season with kosher salt, add Vadouvan, raisins and cook for another minute. Deglaze with white wine vinegar, then add crushed tomatoes, chickpeas and vegetable stock. Let simmer for another 30 minutes. In another small pot, add basmati rice and 2½ cups water and bring to a simmer. Cover and let rice steam on super low heat for 10 minutes. To serve, spoon basmati rice into a bowl. Add roasted cauliflower and top with curried chickpea ragout. Garnish with cilantro. Serves 4.

Notes from Chef Ososky
– If you want to add another protein besides chickpeas to this vegan dish, chicken thighs work well. You can also replace the vegetable stock with chicken stock.
– You can substitute another rice or grain, such as jasmine rice or quinoa.
– Try this dish with a side of tangy Greek yogurt.

RELATED RECIPE – TriathlEats: Curry Chicken With Quinoa

Meet the Triathlete-Chef

Age-group triathlete Ryan Ososky is chef de cuisine at LA’s new Church Key restaurant, which serves modern American food dim sum style (on small plates you can select from roaming carts). The restaurant opened in October 2013, and it’s been billed as a new hot spot on the Sunset Strip in West Hollywood—you can catch it on the Bravo TV show “Best New Restaurant,” airing in January. Ososky started his endurance sports lifestyle with marathons, including racing Boston in 2008, then branched into triathlon in 2012, when he raced Ironman 70.3 Cozumel. “I did it backward—a half-Ironman and then my second race was a sprint,” he says. He maximizes his training time by emphasizing quality over quantity, and jumps into time-trial bike races as part of his training routine. Ososky loves sharing his passion for sports with others—he’s convinced several of his fellow chefs to start riding bikes. “I love food, competition, training—and motivating others to do the same,” he says. His next goal is qualifying for the Ironman 70.3 World Championship, and then he wants to tackle an Ironman.

More TriathlEats.

Are you a triathlete who’s also a chef? Email fuel@competitorgroup.com and you could be featured in the magazine.