After much thought, there was one homecooked meal I remembered fondly: apricot chicken. Maybe it was the sweetness that I loved so much…it was definitely tastier than a plate of mashed potato, peas and carrots, something else that I remember being served (and refusing to eat, haha). Or maybe it was the combination of the sweet/salty tastes. Either way, this was definitely one of my childhood favourites.
My idea to recreate apricot chicken was to replace the chicken with chickpeas (the obvious choice!). I also wanted to make the French onion soup part from scratch because I like making life difficult I don’t like using pre-packaged convenience foods. Would you like some MSG soup? Errrr, no thanks.
So here it is: my vegan version of apricot “chicken”. It wasn’t exactly how I remembered it; the original recipe never had silverbeet, or spiced coconut rice. But this version still has that same apricot-onion flavour. Tangy, sweet, yet savoury…perfection.
Apricot chickpeas with spiced coconut rice.
Ingredients
Spiced Coconut Rice
- 1 1/2 cups brown rice
- 3 cups water
- 1/2 cup shredded coconut
- 1 tsp cinnamon powder
- 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
Apricot Chickpeas
- 2 cups homemade French onion soup
- 700 g canned apricots, drained (or use 2 cups fresh apricots)
- 3 cups cooked chickpeas
- 4 large silverbeet leaves, chopped
Instructions
Spiced Coconut Rice
- Combine all rice ingredients in a medium saucepan, bring to the boil, then simmer on low for 25-30 minutes or until water is absorbed and rice is cooked through.
Apricot Chickpeas
- Meanwhile, blend the soup and apricots in a high speed blender.
- Add to a frying pan and simmer for 20 minutes, until the liquid reduces and the mixture thicken
- Add the chickpeas and silverbeet and cook for a further 5 minutes.
- Remove from the heat and serve over rice.
