Oh chickpeas, how I love them!
They are good in just about every form. Fried up into falafel. Tossed with greens to make a salad a meal. Mixed with pasta, tomatoes and pepper for warm, protein-y goodness.
They are shaped like a heart (kinda), and have won my heart, tis true.
One of the reasons to love chickpeas, and perhaps how we were first introduced, is this magical dish called hummus. (There are variations on the spelling. Share yours in the comments!)
I make my hummus according to Vegetarian Feast's Martha Rose Shulman. It's not like restaurant hummus, (which I'm told takes special industrial food processors. I will take one of these for Christmas.) But it is garlic-y and lemon-y and delicious.
Oh, did you want an actual hummus recipe here?
1. Get out your food processor. Do you have: chickpeas, a lemon, garlic, plain yogurt, tahini, olive oil, cumin, salt? Ok!
2. Put a couple cloves of garlic in food processor and whizz around for a couple of seconds. Then add the chickpeas (about a 15 oz can's worth, supposedly one cup dried). Process the legumes and garlic.
3. Add two tablespoons of olive oil, three tablespoons tahini, up to 1/4 cup lemon juice, some yogurt if you still want it to be smooth.
4. Check out the consistency. Good? Add more yogurt, lemon, or other liquids if you want it smoother.
5. Add salt and cumin to taste (about 1/4 tsp. cumin? Maybe more.)
Done! Check it out guys, how easy is that? I totally wrote this from memory--that's how often I make the hummus. My new housemates have decided that hummus=my contribution to the house. It could be yours as well.
Try adding sun dried tomatoes, onion (red or the yellow/white varities), and just about anything you think. Share your favorite results!
Thursday, October 4, 2007
Chicka Chicka Legume!
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4 comments:
My heart has also been won by the noble chickpea. When I was in LVC, I went through a spell where I had made a chickpea dish every week (on my cooking night) for maybe two months in a row. At the end of this spell, I'd just made what I thought was actually a really comforting soup-- kinda like chicken noodle soup except with chickpeas-- and one of my housemates wasn't eating it. I asked her what was wrong and she revealed that she didn't like chickpeas. I was so shocked (and really mortified that she'd been choking them down for two months). Then I remembered how much ricotta I had to eat in that house. And I felt less bad.
Do we prefer chickpeas or garbanzo beans? Vote, please!
Chick peas not garbanzo beans. In defense of your housemate, I don't like chick peas whole. I LOVE hummus and falafel, but not whole ones. I eat them, but wouldn't choose them.
I used to be super in favor of garbanzo (italian!) but after using "Chicka Chicka Legume" as the subject for this post, I'm feeling the chickpea power.
Share this soup recipe HEB! Us non-chicken-eers need an equivalent comfort soup.
Oh, the soup is so, so easy:
1/heat some olive oil in a pot and cook a little garlic in it
2/ add equal parts water and vegatable stock (I usually make with straight stock) and heat until boil
3/ cook some noodles in the stock
4/ when noodles are done, add some chickpeas
5/ season with salt and various herbs
6/ serve with some parm on top
I'm sure you could add a bunch of vegetables to it to make it fancy, but then it wouldn't be a ten-minute comfort soup.
P.S.: No, I did not just serve this soup to my housemates for dinner. I had something else with it (not that I can remember what...). Although I do eat just this soup for dinner by myself...
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