Chickpea Spinach Curry w/Tofu -- Vegan MOFO #27

This is actually a recipe I devised a few days ago, but I had my posts all lined up already, so I decided to squeeze it in as soon as I could.  It really turned out well.  I have, surprisingly, never made curried veggies before.  The day before I left to roadtrip it down to Nashville for T-giving, I found myself with a half-pound of baby spinach that I really didn't want to go to waste while I was gone.  So, I sent out yet another distress call to my vegan foodie pals on Twitter.  What on earth do I do with so much baby spinach?  Make a curry, Paul says.  So, I did.

Anyway, I made a curry.  So, here it is.  It's full of spicy goodness.  I served my curry up with some whole wheat couscous.  I'm not a fan of the super creamy curries, so I added only a little coconut milk, which I think helped to pull the whole dish together.  The measurements of spices in this curry are approximate because I kept adding more til I got it spicy enough.

This dish would easily serve 2-3 people as the main dish.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 lb or so of washed baby spinach
• 1 can of chickpeas, drained
• 1 medium red onion, diced
• 1 small tomato, seeded and diced (optional-- mine seemed to disappear while cooking, so whatever)
• 1/2 block of tofu, pressed and diced
• 1/3 cup coconut milk
• 1 tsp cayenne pepper
• 3/4 tsp madras curry powder
• 1/4 tsp red curry powder
• 1/4 tsp garam masala
• salt & pepper to your tastes
• garlic powder or fresh garlic (I was out of fresh, so I used about 1/2 tsp of powdered garlic)
• 2 TB olive oil
• turmeric
• 1 1/2 cups cooked couscous, quinoa or brown rice

Method:

1.  In a nonstick skillet, drizzle 1 TB of the olive oil.  Set the burner to medium heat.  When the oil is hot, add your tofu, along with a sprinkle of turmeric, several dashes of cayenne and some yellow curry powder along with a smidge of salt and pepper.  Toss to coat the tofu then cook until it starts getting crispy around the edges.  Stir often to cook the tofu evenly.  I think it took me about 8 minutes or so.  Then set the cooked tofu aside.
2. Return the skillet to the burner.  Add the rest of the olive oil and saute your onions (and tomatoes, if using) until they are softened and translucent.  
3. Add the chickpeas and stir well.  Cook about 3 minutes.
4. Add the spinach on top of everything and cook until it wilts.  I think it took me about 5 minutes.  After 2 minutes, I started stirring the whole mix together.  After the spinach is wilted, add the coconut milk and turn the heat up to medium-high heat.  
5. Add in the spices and mix very well.  Let the milk cook down by at least half.  Then add in the tofu that you already cooked.  I tossed the curry a few times and let it simmer down until there was very little liquid in the pan.  Check your spices again and add more as desired.
6. Serve over some sort of starch -- I really liked it with the whole wheat couscous.