Thank Goodness for Garbanzos
May 7th, 2009
To prepare for May’s Sunday Cooking Club I made a huge pot of chickpeas for trial runs of our menu, and then another big pot for the day of! So…I’ve been eating chickpeas every day straight for the past few weeks. As testimony to how versatile and delicious chickpeas are, I’m STILL not sick of them!
Here’s what was on the menu for Cooking Club:
-Garbanzofish (aka Chickpea of the Sea)
-Dill-Basmati Rice Pilaf with Chickpeas
-Homemade hummus with variations
-Whole wheat pitas
We cooked up garbanzo deliciousness and spent the afternoon discussing why eating beans is the way to go if you are not so keen on the way animals are generally raised for food. Thanks to Jennifer who recently saw Food Inc., we had plenty to talk about!
The first recipe we made was a pilaf from Veganomicon. I may eat some animal products, but I do appreciate a good vegan recipe. And this was! The only thing was that I totally forgot to add the chickpeas! What kind of person runs a cooking class about garbanzos and then forgets to add them to the main dish? Oy. We may have gone the whole afternoon without noticing if Janeen hadn’t piped up while eating…”So, are there chickpeas in this?”
It was still good, sans chickpeas. If you don’t have Veganomicon, it’s a great cookbook with lots of excellent recipes that everyone can enjoy. One day I want to write a cookbook like that!
Next we made a quick batch of one of my favorite recipes – Garbanzofish! This stuff is great. Everyone was onboard with the idea of using chickpeas instead of tuna and adding celery and pickles. But when I pulled out the nutritional yeast I got a few weird looks. No fear, the recipe came out great. Instead of making sandwiches, we served our garbanzofish on cucumber circles as little appetizers.
Last came hummus – something so easy to make that I never want to buy it from the grocery store again! We started with a basic hummus recipe:
Hummus
2 cups chickpeas (cooked or canned)
1/2 cup tahini
1/4 cup olive oil
2 cloves garlic, peeled
juice of 1 big or 2 small lemons, plus zest
salt + pepper to taste
In blender or food processor add all ingredients. Taste and adjust seasoning.
Add water as needed to create smooth consistency. (If you’ve cooked your chickpeas, reserve the cooking water to use here.) Try 1/8 cup of water to start.
Then we turned this basic recipe into Italian and Indian variations:
The regular hummus went in the middle of the server shown above. For italian variation, we added 5 sundried tomatoes, 2 handfuls of fresh basil and crushed red pepper. For indian variation, we omitted tahini and added 1” fresh ginger, 1/2 cup plain yogurt and 1 Tbl. garam masala. The Italian was the undisputed winner of the bunch! Or maybe I’m biased…
I can’t say enough how fun it is to cook with everyone who comes to Cooking Club. It’s much more about the community and conversation than it is about getting the recipe perfect or chopping that onion like a pro. (Or remembering to add the chickpeas…) If you are in the area, I hope you’ll join us on June 14, 2009 for June’s Sunday Cooking Club. This one is going to be very special for summer – a RAW food menu! Space is limited so sign up now!
