Chickpeas are something that came into my life here in the US. Known in Germany as 'Kichererbse' they haven't really shown up in my families food life before and if I remember it correctly the only time I held one in my hand was when we went fishing. :)) I am not sure whether Germans are not to fond of the chickpea or whether it's considered fish food more than anything..maybe it's just my family. I am very thankful that I have chickpeas in my life now, nevertheless. I really embrace the new culinary possibilities that opened up for me here and I try to embrace them.
I think I probably tried Hummus for the first time a year or so ago. It's a very healthy spread for fresh bread or pita chips for example. The store bought kind is pretty good, especially from the San Diego Farmer's Markets here in town, but nothing is better than home-made, when you know what's in there.
It's great with flat-bread too or fresh whole-wheat toast. I know, I know - it looks funny - but trust me, it's a great addition to your pita chips or bread if you feel snacky and it's healthy too! It's the first time that I used Sesame Tahini, which is great! The smell of it - oh baby. You can find it in health or international stores, usually in the same aisle that has peanut butter or bread spreads of all sorts.
This is the very basic recipe and it can be spiced up or changed with extra ingredients like black beans or red peppers for example. The recipe that I used can be found here.
Have you tried Hummus yet? Any other good recipes that you have tried?
I was ready to try something new today - I already knew this yesterday night and went ahead and bought the necessary missing ingredients at one of my favorite grocery stores: Henrys.
This is a follow-up recipe to my first Indian dish a little while ago and it turned out really great tasting while being vegetarian.
I started to try out chickpeas in my recipes more since I made home-made hummus the other day. (More about this later...) So I felt really inspired by this recipe by Meg Kat that I found on her blog a little while ago. I only changed minor things:
Recipe Ingredients:
2-3 TBS vegetable oil
1.5 tsp cumin seeds
1.5 tsp onion seeds
2 16oz cans chickpeas (garbanzo beans), rinsed
1 14.5oz can diced tomatoes
1 large onion, chopped
3-5 medium potatoes, peeled and chopped into bite-sized chunks
3 garlic cloves, minced garlic
1″ piece of ginger, minced or grated
1/2-1 jalapeno, minced
2 tsp salt
2 tsp ground coriander
2 tsp garam masala
1.5 tsp turmeric
3 C water
some milk for tastinghandful of fresh cilantro, chopped
Instructions:
Heat the oil over medium heat and add the onion seeds and cumin seeds. Saute for around 20 seconds then add the chopped onions and cook until they are lightly browned.
(Didn't have the onion seeds, but it still turned out great)
Add the ginger, garlic and jalapeno and stir fry for a minute or two.
Now add the can of diced tomatoes and stir fry for another 5 minutes, then add the spices and stir thoroughly.
Add the diced potatoes and stir well to coat in spices
Add 3 cups of water and put the lid on. Once it comes to a boil, turn down the heat a bit and let simmer for around 20 minutes to soften the potato.
Check to see that the potato chunks are soft then add the chickpeas. Stir it all up and add some milk to the pot.
(In her original recipe it asked for a whole new cup of water, but it was fairly liquid already and so I just added a little bit of milk instead as I didn't want to water the spices down any further. I also feel like there could be a little less chickpeas, but it tasted good this way too. Next time I might try it with just one can)
Bring to a boil again and then turn the heat down to simmer for 15 minutes with the lid partially on.
Stir in some freshly chopped cilantro then turn off the heat, put the lid on tight, and let it it stand for around 15 minutes while you make some rice or warm up some bread. It’s then ready to serve!
