Stew's On

I'm not a soup person.  I mean, I'll usually get soup as a starter if I'm going out for a multi-course meal at a fancy restaurant, but I don't often make it from scratch at home for myself because I epically fail at eating liquid leftovers and it's almost impossible to make just a serving or two of soup without simply opening a can.

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However, I get very gastronomically traditional during the winter - I feel an undeniable yearning to cradle a steaming bowl of something yummy in my hands as soon as the leaves start falling.  Because I like to make a bit of a creative effort at dinnertime, especially if Jon's coming over, I generally refuse to heat up something pre-made; I've therefore been searching for some yummy recipes that I might not mind eating for lunch the next day.  Usually, I've found, I gravitate to stew.  This isn't a terribly new discovery - see 7 September 2010 and 19 September 2010 and 25 November 2010, for example - but I'm really trying to branch out from the normal basic meat-based routine.

Luckily, a few weeks ago I found this Braised Coconut Spinach and Chickpea dish on TheKitchn.  It's absolutely amazing and possibly even better reheated the next day!  When I had it on the Monday, I served it as it over couscous, but on Tuesday I added some diced chicken and ate it with jasmine rice.  The stew is delicious both ways, and is actually hearty enough that you could enjoy it on its own and skip the grains entirely if you wanted.

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Now, you have to understand that my approach to Indian food is similar to that of soup: I rarely make it myself at home.  I love eating it at restaurants, but I generally don't think it's worth the bother.  (I love the way Marie described cooking Indian for the first time - hilarious.) Indian food requires so many ingredients that you'd never use for anything else and the odours dominate your kitchen for weeks and it's just a pain in the you-know-what to make, right?  Wrong, apparently.

The recipe was so simple; the only thing I didn't have already was coconut milk, which I now no longer find scary.  Also, it was surprisingly quick!  You have to man the stove for most of the time, but the whole thing took 30 minutes, tops.  And even though it smelled delicious, my extractor fan worked its magic when I hollered at it.

Does anyone have any other suggestions for new stews?  I'm totally open to recommendations!  And tell me - what are you cooking this weekend?