Power Indian-Style Pesto, Chickpeas and Rice

Palak Paneer: despite the intimidating name, it's really just spinach and cheese cooked with spices.  It's delicious and it's definitely my favorite Indian dish.  I have a habit of buying too much spinach when it goes on sale, so learning to make this dish myself has definitely saved me from tossing many a bag of soon-to-expire spinach.  When I caught a 77-cent spinach sale at Fareway last week, I came up with this recipe to replace my real palak paneer recipe, since paneer is definitely not a power food.  It reminded me more of a pesto only with Indian spices replacing the Italian ones.  At first I wasn't sure if it would really be that appealing without the big chunks of cheese, but it really is the spices that make this dish.  The chickpeas add a nice texture contrast that distracted me from the absence of the cheese.  I highly recommend using re-hydrated dried chickpeas, as the canned ones add a lot of salt and are more mushy.  This is quite possibly the healthiest dish I'll ever make!

Power Indian-Style Pesto, Chickpeas and Rice
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 8-oz bag fresh, washed spinach
2 t ground cumin
1 t ground coriander
1 t ground turmeric
3/4 cup unflavored Greek yogurt
3/4 cup dried chickpeas, boiled 45 minutes

Spray a large frying pan with cooking spray and place over medium high heat.  When pan is hot, place chopped onions in pan and cook and stir until translucent, about 1-2 minutes.  Add spinach, cumin, coriander, and turmeric.  Stir-fry until spinach has wilted, about 2 minutes.  Add yogurt and stir until well combined.  Serve over brown rice and top with chickpeas.