Curried Chickpea Stew

With fall arriving, I have this urge to delve into comfort-food recipes and have been making soups,stews, and casseroles galore. This recipe originally came from a friend, and got morphed with a soup I tried at a restaurant last week and wanted to replicate. The result is belly-warming deliciousness. My dad would disagree, two of the foods he hates the most are yams and curry lol....this is the Anti-Dad Stew I guess! I've never been a big fan of curry myself, until recent years when I realized there are all sorts of different curries...I actually do like most of them.
I wanted to have red lentils in this stew to thicken it, but when I went to the pantry I discovered I was out...so curry, meet quinoa. A nutritious alternative that worked quite well, I believe, but red lentils would be super too.

Curried Chickpea Stew
2 tsp olive oil
1 medium onion, diced
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 Tbsp minced ginger
1 Tbsp curry powder
1 cup diced tomatoes
4 cups low sodium chicken or vegetable stock
1 yam, peeled and cut into 1” cubes (about 2 cups)
1 large carrot, diced
1/3 cup quinoa or red lentils
1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
Pepper to taste
2 Tbsp chopped fresh cilantro

Directions
In a Dutch oven or large pot, heat oil and add onion, garlic, and ginger and sauté on medium heat until onion is translucent., about 10 min.
Add stock, yam, tomatoes, and curry powder. Bring to a boil then reduce heat to low and simmer, with lid offset, for one hour.
Add carrot and quinoa. Simmer for 30 more minutes.
Add chick peas and simmer for 40 minutes. Stir in cilantro and add pepper to taste.

Crockpot directions:
Combine all ingredients except cilantro in slow cooker. Cover and cook on low setting for 8 hours. Season the stew with pepper and stir in cilantro.

Nutritional Information per serving: 248 calories, 3.7g fat, 10.2g protein, 42.8g carbs, 7.6g fibre, 552mg sodium.