West African Stew - Recipe

First time posting a recipe on the 'ol blog! But it seems I cook more than I draw lately (gotta eat!) so why the hell not. It's creative, isn't it? I made this tasty dish from Kristen Swensson Sturt's recipe over at Serious Eats. Kris keeps (kept?) an awesome food blog called Cheap Healthy Good that has tons of amazing recipes that are cheap, healthy, and... uh... good. (Not just a clever name). Her recipe is below with my comments/suggestions to the side. It's damn tasty and perfect for crappy rainy fall weather.


Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 2 cups onions, sliced into 1/4-inch crescents [I just used two small-medium onions]
• 2 large cloves garlic, minced [garlic from a jar is your friend if you're lazy, just put a big heaping spoonful of garlic in there]
• 1 pound sweet potato, peeled and chopped into 1/4-inch half slices (about the size of a checker) [typically 3 average sized potatoes]
• 1 large tomato, seeded and chopped [I used a variety of tomatoes from my garden and my friends, and have also made this with a drained can of diced tomatoes]
• 1/2 cup raisins [I would use a bit more raisins... I love how juicy and sweet they get]
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon [A little extra might be tasty]
• 1/2 to 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper [I love heat but this doesn't seem to need a lot - I only use about 1/8 tsp]
• 3 cups low-sodium, reduced fat chicken or vegetable broth
• 1 14.5-ounce can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• 3 cups frozen chopped spinach [one block package]
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt [I added more... once you add the spinach it really needs it]
• Freshly ground black pepper to taste
• A yummy grain (rice, couscous, etc) [I like a whole wheat couscous]

Preparation:

1. If making rice, go ahead and get that started.
2. In a large nonstick skillet, heat oil over medium high. Add onion and cook 8 or 9 minutes, until very tender, stirring occasionally.
3. Add garlic. Saute 30 to 60 seconds, until fragrant.
4. Add sweet potato and tomato. Saute 5 minutes.
5. Add raisins, cinnamon, cayenne, and broth. Turn heat to high and bring to a boil. Once boiling, cover, drop heat to low, and simmer for 15 minutes. Add chickpeas about halfway through simmering if you like them a little mushy, which I do. Otherwise add them with the spinach after simmering.
6. Uncover. Jack heat up to medium. Add spinach, stirring to combine.
7. Cook until spinach is totally thawed and chickpeas are warmed through, for me this was about 10 more minutes.
8. Season with salt, black pepper, and maybe a little garam masala (that makes everything better) Serve with rice, couscous, or any fun grain you can think of.