My Favorite Bean

It's the chickpea, a.k.a. garbanzo bean, a.k.a. ceci. And I found a new application for it this week: in place of pasta.

I simply made a sauce (in this case, canned diced tomatoes spiked with various Italian seasonings), heated up some frozen meatballs in the liquid, and added the cooked beans. Satisfying and delicious.

You could certainly use canned chickpeas, but it only takes a little planning to cook the chickpeas themselves. While overnight soaking is nice, it only speeds up the cooking time marginally. The benefit of soaking is to somewhat reduce flatulence if you aren't a regular bean eater. (If you eat cooked beans regularly, this fades as an issue.)

Before soaking or, if not soaking, cooking, look over the beans in the rare event there's a stone or other foreign matter. Then put them in a pot with fresh water to generously cover and turn on the heat. Once they come to a boil, reduce the heat to a steady simmer and cook until done, which can take anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour and quarter, depending upon the age of the beans. By all means, add salt at any point in the cooking process.

I try to cook at least a pound of beans at a time. You can freeze any surplus (in the cooking liquid) in portion sizes which can then simply be defrosted either overnight in the fridge or by nuking. I find that refrigerated without soaking water they'll hold up for the better part of a week. In the freezer you've got months of storage time.

Chick peas can make a great bar snack, far healthier than chips. Drain your cooked beans, toss in olive oil (it need not be extra virgin) then season well (salt and pepper for sure, cayenne powder if you like it hotter or any other dried herb or spice that suits you). Then place in a single layer in a shallow pan in a 400 F oven and roast until they start to brown and get crispy, shaking the pan every five minutes or so for even crisping. Remove and enjoy . . . or store for a day or two in an air-tight container. Great with beer if you can stand the calories.

If you like cooked greens (and I do) chickpeas are also great. Simply reheat the cooked greens (kale, collards, chard, spinach, whatever) and chickpeas together with some added oil and freshly minced garlic, salt and pepper. An excellent side with grilled meat, or on its own as a main.

Veggies, For A Start

Now that I'm trying to lighten up on my caloric intake, one of the challenges has been my fav way to prepare many vegetables: sautéing. Simply spraying the pan with oil doesn't cut it, since the flavor complexity is limited. No way to gently translucify the garlic, shallots or other allium representatives I find so necessary to most vegetable sautes.

One solution that's pleased me is to simply nuke, steam or boil the vegetable, as appropriate to the species. Then I heat up a small, measurable quantity of good olive oil in the microwave into which I've added my minced or chopped onion family member. After that, I simply toss the two together in a bowl.

This technique, while not duplicating a true sauté, does meld the flavors I seek. No reason why other flavor enhancements could be used other than alliums: red pepper flakes, herbs, etc.

Dark greens, like kale and broccoli rabe, work particularly well with this technique, but there's no reason why most other green vegetables can't get this treatment. I've also used it recently on asparagus and fiddleheads.

You can also roast the veggies first. I spray a foil-line pan with canola or olive oil from my mister, toss in the cut up veggies, spray a little more then roast for 20 minutes or so until they start to brown. Then toss with the garlic-infused, heated oil to finish. When I roasted asparagus together with pungent ramps, another member of the garlic-onion family, there was no need for separate garlic; I just used the heated oil, along with some salt and pepper.