Showing posts with label brown rice. Show all posts
Showing posts with label brown rice. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Chickpeas

My new favorite food item is the chickpea ( garbanzo bean). I recently had dinner at Nicole's ( a friend of mine) and got introduced to a delicious chickpea dish.   

Dinner at Nicole's


These beans are not only low in fat and high in fiber (1 cup has 12.5g of fiber! ) but also a great source of iron, protein, folate and manganese ( a key antioxidant found inside most cells).  Eating 2 cups of chickpeas will provide you with your daily recommended fiber intake.

Chickpeas are prepared like any legume: wash them first then soak them for some time ( 6 - 8 hours) or preferably overnight.  After rinsing, cook them on medium heat for about one hour to an hour-and-a-half.  The wonderful thing about chickpeas is that you can enjoy them in a variety of ways - hummus spread, salads, as a snack, added to stews or soups!

Inspired by Nicole's dinner, I bought some chickpeas and made some roasted red pepper hummus spread and some sauteed sweet curry chickpeas over brown rice ( see below).  Both were quite delish! 
Roasted red pepper hummus: I add about 2 cups of chickpeas in a food processor and pureed until it had a smooth texture. Then I added 2 pieces of roasted red peppers, 1 tablespoon of olive oil, a little salt and juice from 1/2 a lemon to the smooth chickpea mix and pureed and voila...hummus!
  
Roasted red pepper hummus spread over pita bread with some roasted chicken breast



















Sweet curry chickpeas: I heated up some olive oil in a deep frying pan on medium-low heat for a few minutes, then added 1 tablespoon of minced garlic, 1 tablespoon of minced ginger, 1 large onion ( diced) and 2 green bell peppers ( diced), 1 pint of cherry tomatoes ( halved).  I let the ingredients simmer for a few minutes then added 2 tablespoon of curry powder and 4 packets (5g) of "raw sugar" ( you cam use any type of sugar).  After about 5 minutes, I tossed in the cooked chickpeas then let it simmer on low heat for about 15 - 20 minutes.  
Sauteed, sweet curry chickpeas with sweet brown rice