I had almost just as much fun acquiring the ingredients for this week’s recipe as I did actually eating it. Let me explain.
Recently I was catching up onan episode of The Good Life Project, a showthat has been on my list of weekend must-listen podcasts for years now. The guest was the woman who unknowingly became thevoice in over 400 million GPS-enabled devices, and later, Australian Siri in the iPhone. She didn’t know that the mysterious gig she auditioned and was hired for was going to have such widespread reach, and it wasn’t until years after the top-secret recordings wrapped up that a friend called her and said, “that was you inour GPS!”
After being inspired by the story of how she’s built her personal brand(or life after Siri, I suppose you could call it), I decided to switch my iPhone to the Australian Siri voice, just for kicks. By the way, if you’d like to to give this a shot, just go to Settings > General > Siri and pick the Australian female voice.
Later that day I was running some errands, one of which included going to Whole Foods to collect the ingredients for these Crispy Chickpea, Sweet Potato and Kale Bowls I’m about to share with you. I hopped in the car and put my phone in the cupholder, then paused and had a thought. Even if I were to be blindfolded and fast asleep,I could probably still navigate my way to Whole Foods, BUT this seemed like a fun opportunity to give Aussie Siri a chance to get me there.
I picked my phone back up,punched in my destination, then hit Directions and Start.Then, in her friendly Australian accent, with the most enthusiasm and energy I’ve ever heard in a voice coming out of my phone, she said, “Starting route to…. Whole Foooooods!!!!!”
I couldn’t help but burst into a loud cackle at that pointbecause she sounded so genuinely excited to take me there. Sort of like when a parent announces to their child on Christmas morning that they’re going to…… Disneyland!!! Only let’s be real here – Whole Foods pretty much is like Disneyland for adults, right? Ok, maybe just me.
When I got home I went about making dinner, roasting rounds of sweet potatoes sprinkled in flaky sea salt and pepper on a baking sheet and curry spiced chickpeas on another. While they got nice and crispy in the oven I whirled up a creamy, dreamy garlic tahini sauce in the food processor and steamed some kale. After a little bit ofassembly time, the finished creation looked like this:
In the words of Uncle Jesse on Full House, “Have MERRRR-CYYY!”
As I sat down to eat, Icouldn’t help but wonder about what other amusingthings Siri might say. At the same time, I couldn’t figure out why I hadn’t played with this wonderful feature on my earlier phones too. Surely Siri isn’tnearly asentertaining to most people who had fun asking her questions upon unboxing their iPhone 4s back in the day – I’m just a little late to the party. Like, 5 years late.
Curious about what the response might be (and fully aware that I was sitting down to enjoy my meal with a robot), I asked, “Siri, what are you having for dinner?” Her response:
“I’ll leave the eating to you, Angela!”
Whatever you say, my friend.
- Author: Angela Simpson
- Total Time: 50 minutes
- Yield: 2 servings 1x
Description
TheseCrispy Chickpea, Sweet Potato and Kale Bowls with Garlic Tahini Sauce will nourish you from the inside out, leaving you feeling satisfied, grounded and ready to take on whatever life throws at you.
Ingredients
Scale
- extra virgin olive oil, in a mister
- 1 medium sweet potato, peeled and sliced into rounds
- 1/4 medium red onion, cut into wedges
- 1 cup sliced zucchini
- 1 1/2 cups cooked chickpeas, patted dry (this is key – remove as much moisture as possible!)
- 1 tsp curry powder
- 1/2 tsp turmeric
- 1 lime
- about 5 cups of lacinato kale, stems removed and chopped into bite-size pieces
- roughly chopped fresh parsley, sunflower sprouts, pepitas, hemp seeds and lime slices to garnish
- flaked sea salt (I use Maldon or Frontier Natural Products Pink Himalayan Sea Salt) and freshly ground black pepper
Dressing (you will have some leftover, and I recommend doubling or tripling this for easy blending):
- juice of 1 lime
- 2 tbsp tahini
- 2 cloves garlic
- 2 tbsp water, plus more to thin if needed
Instructions
- Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper and preheat the oven to 400F.
- On one baking sheet, arrange the sweet potato, zucchini and red onion slices in a single layer. Mist them all with extra virgin olive oil, then give them a generous sprinkle of sea salt and black pepper.
- In a bowl or sealed container, combine the chickpeas with 1 tbsp olive oil, curry powder, turmeric and juice of 1/2 lime. Give it all a good shake/stir, and dump the chickpeas out onto the other baking sheet.
- Put both pans in the oven. The vegetables will need about 25 minutes and the chickpeas will need about 30 minutes before they’re golden and crispy. Be sure to shake the pan of chickpeas every 10 minutes or so for even roasting.
- To make the dressing, whirl up all ingredients in a blender or food processor until completely smooth.
- When the chickpeas are nearly ready, steam the kale for 3 minutes or until wilted and vibrant green. Toss it in a little olive oil, a squeeze of lime juice and a sprinkle of sea salt. Divide the kale between 2 bowls.
- Arrange the sweet potato rounds, roasted zucchini, onion and crispy chickpeas on top of the kale. Add a generous drizzle of dressing, then garnish with parsley, sunflower sprouts, pepitas, hemp seeds and lime wedges.
Notes
Note: The chickpeas may seem a little soft immediately after coming out of the oven, but any that you keep as leftovers will become more firm as they cool.
- Prep Time: 20 mins
- Cook Time: 30 mins
- Category: lunch, dinner
- Method: roast
So tell me…
- What accent does your Siri have?
- Anyone else enjoy asking him/her questions as much as I do? If not, perhaps you haven’t foundthis yet.
