chickpeas | familystyle food

smoky chickpea tacos

Apr62013

I was at 35,000 feet and hungry. Why didn’t I have this taco wrapped, packed and ready to eat during my long day of traveling?

Well, you know how it goes. I had a morning flight to San Francisco (where I’m attending the annual IACP conference), and somehow my priority tasks before heading out the door didn’t include packing myself a lunch. I made do for a few hours with a bag of almonds and my favorite peanut butter-chocolate chip Lara bar.

I finally caved during my layover. I bought a 10-dollar sandwich that promised tomato, basil and mozzarella, but was really just doughy bread, a fat slab of rubbery cheese and half a slice of mealy tomato. It kind of reminded me of Seinfeld’s airport skit and the 14-dollar tuna sandwich.

On a normal day at home, I eat vegetable-based things for lunch. My ideal combo is a pile of salad leaves, some protein (usually in the form of beans or legumes) maybe some leftover roasted vegetables, if I have them, and some kind of grain.

I’ve been cooking up a batch of chickpeas once a week, which are perfect for throwing into my lunch assemblages. The smashed chickpeas topping this taco are a favorite alternative to hummus. They’re somewhat chunky in texture and have an appetizing brick red color – and flavor – that comes from smoked paprika.

smoky chickpea tacos

Yield: makes 4 tacos

I won't tell if you embellish these tacos with a squirt of your favorite hot sauce...

Ingredients

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1/3 cup finely chopped white onion

½ of a jalapeno pepper, finely chopped

Salt

2 teaspoons smoked paprika

1 – 14 ounce can chickpeas, drained

4 whole wheat tortillas, warmed

1 avocado, peeled, pitted and diced

1 ripe tomato, sliced

Arugula greens; a few handfuls

4 ounces soft goat cheese

2 limes

Instructions

Heat the olive oil in a sauté pan over medium-high heat. Cook the onion, jalapeno and a pinch of salt until softened and fragrant. Stir in the paprika and heat in the oil 30 seconds; add the chickpeas and ¼ cup water and simmer 5 minutes.
Remove from the heat and mash the chickpeas coarsely with a potato masher or wooden spoon. Add a little more water if the mixture is too thick. Taste the chickpeas and season with more salt if needed.
To make a taco, spread some of the chickpeas over a tortilla. Layer with some avocado, tomato, arugula and goat cheese. Repeat with remaining tortillas. Squeeze half a lime over each taco and serve.

http://familystylefood.com/2013/04/smoky-chickpea-tacos/

13 Comments · Filed Under: pasta, grains & beans, The Recipes:, vegetables · Tagged With: avovado, chickpeas, garbanzos, goat cheese, lunch, smoked paprika, taco

roasted cauliflower, chickpeas and harissa

Jan182013

I was browsing through Vegetable Love , a huge and wonderful cookbook by legendary food writer Barbara Kafka. The recipes are not strictly vegetarian or vegan, but it contains a bounty of ideas, methods and nutritional info for just about any vegetable you can think of. I especially like the A – Z glossary at the back of the book.

Which is what I was reading when I came across the section on cooking methods for Cauliflower, where Barbara lists the many ways it can be prepared; steamed, stir-fried, boiled, fried, and last but not least…microwaved. And then she writes: “cauliflower...is not good roasted”.

Are you freaking kidding me?! I couldn’t disagree more. Cauliflower is delicious roasted. In fact, it might be my favorite way to eat it. But to give Ms. Kafka the benefit of the doubt, I’m sure she’s expressing her fine-tuned personal taste.

My personal taste includes a pretty intense addiction to the spicy Tunisian chili paste harissa. I could – and do – put harissa on everything at any time of day, from eggs to leftovers I eat for lunch. It’s my global ketchup.

You can find harissa in many well-stocked supermarkets. But if you really want to find harissa nirvana, I recommend the one made by Moulin Mahjoub. I don’t know what it is, but to my palate it has just the right amount of smoky, sweet-heat and savory deliciousness.

You can get it at Amazon if you’re not near a specialty food store, which is where I often buy it. I’ve even seen it at Williams-Sonoma a while back.

If you love cauliflower or better yet, if you find yourself on the vegetable fence, try spicing it up and roasting as I do in this slightly Moroccan-inspired recipe.

roasted cauliflower, chickpeas and harissa

Serving Size: serves 4 - 6

The cauliflower makes a simple salad meal served warm over wilted spinach.

Ingredients

1 head cauliflower, separated into bite-sized florets

¼ cup extra virgin olive oil

Salt

1 teaspoon whole cumin seeds

1 15-ounce can chickpeas, drained

1 small sweet onion, like Maui or red onion; finely sliced

2 – 3 tablespoons harissa

½ bunch each Italian parsley and cilantro

½ a lemon

1/3 cup crumbled feta cheese

Instructions

Heat the oven to 400 degrees.
Spread the cauliflower out on a large rimmed baking sheet. Add 3 tablespoons of the oil, ½ teaspoon salt and the cumin seeds. Roast 20 minutes, or until the cauliflower is tender and golden. Add the chickpeas and roast an additional 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, heat the remaining tablespoon oil in an 8 – 10-inch sauté pan. Add the onion and a pinch of salt. Cover the pan and cook over medium-low heat until the onions are very soft. Stir in the harissa along with 1 tablespoon water.
Pick the leaves off the parsely and cilantro and tear into rough pieces; throw them over the chickpeas. Squeeze the lemon over and toss together with the onion mixture.
Transfer to a serving bowl and top with the feta.

http://familystylefood.com/2013/01/roasted-cauliflower-chickpeas-and-harissa/

22 Comments · Filed Under: pasta, grains & beans, The Recipes:, vegetables · Tagged With: cauliflower, chickpeas, feta cheese, harissa, mediterranean, roasted, vegetables

Toasted Orzo Salad with Lemon and Chickpeas

May172012

I could cook pasta every night of the week and make everyone happy. But at the same time I like to make a meal that falls under my definition of “healthy” and “delicious”.

Orzo is familiar as a side dish or floating in soup, but I find that toasting it first and mixing it with lots of vegetables makes it ten times more complex and interesting.

I’ve played on the Greek heritage of orzo in this recipe and borrowed from the Mediterranean pantry by using chickpeas, cumin, lemon and tangy feta cheese. I would serve this on a pile of arugula and call it lunch or dinner.

Toasted Orzo Salad with Lemon and Chickpeas

Serving Size: serves 4

Ingredients

1 cup orzo pasta

2 tablespoons butter

Juice and zest of 1 lemon

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 teaspoon ground cumin

½ teaspoon salt

Freshly ground black pepper

1 cup canned chickpeas, drained

2 tablespoons toasted pine nuts

¼ cup chopped fresh dill

1/3 cup feta cheese, crumbled

1/2 cup chopped seedless or Persian cucumber

Baby arugula greens

Instructions

Warm a dry 10-inch skillet over medium-high heat; add the orzo and toast until golden brown and nutty-smelling, about 10 minutes, tossing the pan frequently. Remove from the heat and cool.
Bring 3 quarts salted water to a boil and cook the orzo until al dente. Drain and transfer to a bowl along with the butter, stirring until butter melts completely.
Whisk together the lemon juice, zest, olive oil, cumin, salt and pepper; pour over the orzo. Add the chickpeas, pine nuts, dill and cucumber to the bowl and gently toss together. Top with the cheese and serve over the arugula.

http://familystylefood.com/2012/05/toasted-orzo-salad-with-lemon-and-chickpeas/