Garbanzo Beans or Chickpeas: For Dinner - 1

Here at Bay Leaf’s you will hear a lot about all types of beans and legumes. You might also be subjected to my extensive, sometimes melodramatic, gaga over a particular class of legumes - chickpeas, or as you call it - Garbanzo Beans. (So much that this write-up just extended and spilled over into a series of three episodes on these Garbanzo Beans or Chickpeas: For Breakfast and Lunch, and Dinner) But hold on. I love chickpeas not only because of their goodness, of which I can draw up a long list. Okay.. I give a short one below. (Please excuse my hovering between chickpeas and Garbanzo beans, but essentially they are the same 'legume' things.)

8 Reasons Why You Can Make Garbanzo Beans Your Mealtime Friend –

1. A highly adaptable ingredient. You can make salads or bread spreads, or even curries out of it and serve it three times a day in various formats, without anyone getting bored. Well, probably.

2. Cooking might involve just boiling. And if you have a pressure or a steam cooker, this can be accomplished in minutes.

3. One of the ideal and friendly ingredients for beginner cooks and students who live in one roomed or shared apartments with tiny kitchens and tinier time slots devoted to making home food.

4. Gives you all the necessary minerals. Chickpeas prove to be a rich source of folic acid, fiber, manganese, iron, copper, and zinc – everything that your body seems to need but never has enough of.

5. An extremely good source of fiber, these can help lower cholesterol and improve blood sugar levels. This makes them a great food especially for diabetics and insulin-resistant individuals.

6. An extremely low-fat, complete protein food. So if you are on a low-carb diet, Atkins or otherwise, these fit the bill with perfect ease. Spice up and complement with other beans and legumes, and you will never crave for carbohydrate rich food again.

7. Lowers heart attack risk, lowers cholesterol, and stabilizes blood sugar. Want to know more? You can find more information here.

8. Have a very high shelf life. Even if you have a 2 kg (4.4 oz) pack of store-bought chickpeas in your shelf, you need not to worry about it getting spoiled in, say about 2 years. Is that too long? If you have a family like mine, however, you would need to replenish the stock in 2 weeks, err.. 4 weeks may be (didn't I say moderation is key), though for an entirely different reason.

Coming back to what I started off with: I love chickpeas because of their adaptability to various ways of eating. In salads, in hummus or hummus-like bread spreads, in curries, in falafel, and probably even on a pizza or inside a galette, an interesting area that I am still exploring and expecting a breakthrough any moment. Stay hooked.

5 Things You Must Know About Chickpeas:

1. Apart from being beige in color, garbanzo beans, or chickpeas may come in black, green, red, or brown varieties.

2. Packaged chickpeas might ‘accidentally’ contain dirt and stones in them. Before soaking them in water, look carefully and handpick any unwanted particles – just to avoid any ‘accident’ while chomping.

3. Like most other beans or legumes, chickpeas can cause gassiness. To avoid this, soak these beans in warm water overnight or at least for eight hours. Discard the water and wash the beans thoroughly before cooking.

4. To cook dried chickpeas, add 2 cups of water and ½ teaspoon of salt for every cup of chickpeas. Boil for 5 minutes on high and then reduce to a medium high and let simmer, covered, for 40 minutes or so until the beans are cooked through, that is, until a single pea crumbles easily when pressed between your thumb and index finger. Discard any foam or loose skin that rises to the surface of the water during this process. On the rare occassion, if you happen to own a pressure or steam cooker, this takes only 8 to 10 minutes; but this form of cooking is banned in many countries on the pretext of safety. If you are using canned chickpeas, you need not bother about points 2 and 3. You might, however, want to discard the canning liquid and wash them well before use.

5. Are you sensitive towards chickpeas? Do you get skin irritation or stomach trouble after consuming it? These beans contain purines that can lead to excess accumulation of uric acid, which in turn may cause gout or kidney stones if you are sensitive towards them or if you nibble at them 24 X 365 (which is highly improbable). The good news is, unless you have serious enmity with chickpeas, you need not totally abandon them. Should I have to say, moderation is key here too.

Basic Chickpea Salad (For Dinner?)

It is possible to fix a salad of canned or boiled through chickpeas for your lunch or dinner simply by throwing together some finely chopped onions, tomatoes, cucumbers, leafy greens, pine nuts, dried cranberries, or any other combination of sweet or savory goodies and dressing all up simply with some pesto, sour cream, or just barely, lemon juice and zest. An example of how I normally treat this for a hurried meal is as follows.

What do you need?

~ Chickpeas - 3 cups, canned or boiled
~ Shallots or white/green/red onions – 1 medium, finely chopped
~ Plum tomatoes – 6-7 halved or quartered, as per your choice
~ Olives black or green – 8-10, pitted and quartered
~ Garlic – 1 minced (optional)
~ Spring onions – 2 finely chopped
~ Celery stems - 1 finely chopped
~ Paprika – 1 cup chopped, any color
~ Cucumbers – half of a small one or quarter of a big one
~ Iceberg/Romano/or any other leafy green – 1 cup roughly chopped. My preference though is spinach and I simply throw in handfuls of these, washed and hard stems trimmed
~ Lemon juice – 2 tablespoons or more as per your taste
~ Sour cream – 2 teaspoons. You can even use pesto or yoghurt, or a combination of these, same amount or skip this entirely
~ Kosher salt/black or rock salt – to taste
~ Black pepper – to taste
~ Pine nuts or finely chopped walnuts – 1/3 cup lightly toasted
~ Feta or fresh mozzarella or even Parmesan – half cup, crumbled or shredded
~ Fresh Cilantro, Basilica or Parsley – a handful, chopped

What should you do?

1. The fun thing about this salad and the above ingredients list is, except for the beans, you can pick and choose what you want to add or skip or replace with something else depending on your choice or what you have in the refrigerator. Wash the beans, salad greens, and vegetables, drain, chop whatever needs to be chopped, and throw them all in together in a spacious mixing bowl.

2. Blanching spinach? Here's how: If you prefer to add the spinach, and like me, are rather skeptical of the raw leaves, blanch them. Place the leaves in a colander and run water through to thoroughly wash them. Drain. If your kitchen tap has the cold and hot water setting, turn it to the hottest temperature first. Place a bowl underneath and place the colander on it. Run water till it comes to the brim. Leave for a minute. Drain. Empty the water from the bowl underneath. Turn tap to ‘coldest’. Place colander on bowl. Run water till the leaves are well covered. Leave for a minute or until you are ready to use them. Advantages – you are done with one bowl that remains sparkling clean. If you don’t have access to hot tap water, prepare two moderately large bowls each with steaming hot and ice cold water respectively. Place the leaves in a colander, wash them well, and dip first in the hot water, drain after a minute or so, place colander in the ice cold bath. If you prefer the crispness of fresh, young leaves, mix them as they are or chopped.

3. In a small bowl beat the sour cream or any dressing base that you are using, add the lemon juice and salt, mix well, and add this to the salad. If you are using only lemon juice to dress the salad, sprinkle it generously and directly on the salad and season according to taste.

4. Garnish with the cheese, nuts, cilantro-or-whatever being used, and dried cranberries. Serve. Enjoy.

Did I hear leftovers? You can store them in an airtight box in your refrigerator. Normally stays best for two days.

As I said in the onset, I can really go gaga over chickpeas. But now I must sit down on the floor and work on the animal puzzle with Li'll Bay Leaf, or she will keep chewing my laptop’s power chord till it breaths its last. Will come back in a day or two with more on salads and spreads, and my favorite chickpea preparations.