is it goulash?

there are two methods of cooking i frequently use when i am out of ideas: frying and stewing.

i once even had a little stewing-phase when i cooked nothing but stews for a few weeks. that phase is fortunately over but even today if i can not come up with a decent recipe or i can't decide what i am craving for dinner i'll stew something up.

i especially like all kinds of goulash, my favorite of all time being the szegedin goulash with pork and sauerkraut (my mama makes the best szegedin goulash, by the way!). every food that only resembles goulash and has lots of paprika powder in it is very comforting for me! we had it pretty often when i grew up and i could not get enough of the gazillion variations my mama is able to create.

i even invented some of my own. stews that taste a lot like goulash but use vegetables instead of meat. though i am not a vegetarian i hardly ever crave meat and i could easily live without it. actually, i often do live without meat for weeks without even noticing! when i was a child i used to push the goulash meat to the side of the plate and i only ate the paprika-sauce with lots and lots and lots of white bread. i still love to dunk a slice of bread in the sauce and i'd probably lick off the plate if you guys wheren't watching ...

i actually wanted to make hummus today and soaked some chickpeas overnight, but when i came home from work (very wet and very cold!) i was suddenly craving something else ... something goulashy ... and so i quickly added lots of paprika powder to a plain and simple chickpeas and tomato stew

1 onion
1 clove of garlic
1 large hand full of dried chickpeas
(how much could that be in gramms? i have no idea!)
3 tomatos
olive oil
salt
1 tsp freshly ground pepper
2 tbsp of paprika powder

1. soak dried chickpeas in water overnight and cook them in water until they are soft enough. you can also use canned chickpeas.
2. in a pot, fry onion and garlic in plenty of olive oil
3. add the spices and keep stirring
   
4. dice and add tomatoes
5. let simmer over medium heat for 15 minutes
6. add chickpeas
7. cover the pot and continue to simmer for about 30 minutes

the rich thickness of a gulash usually comes from the meat, so i thought i'd throw in some tomatos to give the dish some hearty flavour. eat it with bread! i think that could be a side dish as well but for a single gal like me it's more of a quick fix - well, not so quick after all, stewing still takes some time!