I feel like I blinked once and it was April, then I blinked again and it was May, and then May got swallowed up by wool and travel and friends. And now it’s the end of June.

I’m still here; I’m enjoying living in Boston and continuing to work with fiber and with scientific editing. The Arnold Arboretum is one of my very favorite things about where I live. Lots of green space (though it turned white for a few months), some wildlife…and it’s clearly favored by a few other fibery people, too.

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I’ll post about fiber things and travel (including my spindle-spinner’s tan line) soon, but first, a recipe. I promised Anju that I’d write this up, and it was a wonderfully easy and decently nutritious thing that I can imagine other people also appreciating. So!

We were discussing dinner options, and Anju sent me a link to this recipe for butter chickpeas. It sounded interesting, but my dislike of tomatoes means I don’t keep tomato products around. (I also don’t keep cream in the house.)

My variation:

3 tablespoons garam masala
1 t black pepper (I’m pretty sure my garam masala doesn’t include black pepper)
sriracha to taste
2 cans (the ~15-ounce kind) chickpeas, drained
2 T tamarind-date chutney
1/3 c plain yogurt (I like Seven Stars reduced fat because it’s just milk and bacteria)
1/2 lb frozen chopped spinach
1/4 c white wine

Okay, that’s more than 5 ingredients, and it does require care in timing for adding the yogurt (too soon, and it’ll curdle; I turned off the heat and waited a minute or so), but I expect it to recur at least once this summer. Effectively doubled, at least for the chickpeas, it made a good meal for me four times over, even without rice. (I can be a very lazy cook.) It came out a little bit more sour than I’d’ve preferred, but I think subbing some other form of hot pepper for the sriracha and maybe adding some tahini would make it more balanced in flavor.