Nigella seeds are underutilized in our kitchen. Originally purchased for a reason I don't remember, I seem to have used them only twice – for a Balaboosta crispy kale recipe and nan-e barbari.
Yum, I should make nan-e barbari again.
Moving to the present, with the Madhur Jaffrey Instantly Indian Cookbook trapped in my home due to our warranted public library shutdown, I had the opportunity to try her Chickpeas in a Gingery Tomato Sauce. Without a doubt, the dish's best feature was the fragrant nigella seeds. But the dish could have easily stood without them – that's how delicious this gingery, lightly acidic and velvety dish tasted.
Unlike most Instant Pot recipes, this was laborious in that Jaffrey calls for removing the chickpea skins before cooking them in the sauce. I may omit this step the next time I make this dish. I will also follow my standard soaked chickpeas Instant Pot cooking time – 12 minutes – instead of her 3 because the chickpeas were incredibly undercooked at 3 minutes.
The other three modifications I made to the recipe were to 1) cook only 1/2 cup of chickpeas, which resulted in more than enough for 2 – 3 meals; 2) use leftover tomato pizza sauce for the ~1/3 cup of pureed tomatoes called for; 3) substitute lime juice for lemon because it's what I had at home. Those recipes aren't necessary for future versions, but they worked well which points to the versatility of this recipe.
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