chickpeas

Thai Curry Cauliflower Lentil Soup with Chickpea Croutons

August 24, 2017 By thecuriouschickpea Leave a Comment

DC is a cool 72 degrees as I write this post this morning (and the high is only 79 ºF today). It feels like a godsend after the last week, which was around 20 ºF hotter. We’re taking advantage of this brief respite with some soup. I mean, ok, we actually don’t have any more soup. It’s too good! We ate it all! But you should take advantage of a cool day (I’m not sure when I started calling 70s cool weather) with some soup. But having had this in 95 degree weather I will attest that it’s great then too….

Indian Spiced Chickpeas and Greens

August 1, 2017 By thecuriouschickpea Leave a Comment

I make a lot of food that I never photograph or share with you guys. It’s not because it’s not delicious, but because I’m too hungry (or occasionally too lazy) to plan or take photos or measure ingredients and generally be meticulous about the process. This chickpea and kale recipe was originally one of those meals. We were at home on our last night before a short trip, and had a big beautiful bunch of lacinato kale to use up. Omar was working, and I needed to get dinner made quickly so I could move on to other chores. It was literally me throwing things I had to use up into a pan, including 2 half-used onions from the fridge, one red and one yellow. I didn’t even decide to use Indian spices until halfway through cooking. So, you can imagine my surprise, when we finally sat down to eat that we were blown away by how delicious it was!…

Stuffed Mediterranean Veggie Burgers with Greek Marinated Tomatoes

July 11, 2017 By thecuriouschickpea 2 Comments

I’m sitting here trying to think if my summer eating and cooking is actually any different than my wintertime eating. I know some people avoid the stove as much as possible, but hey even when it hits 90 ºF I’ll still turn on the oven (apparently). I probably make less casseroles, but like, they’re as convenient in the summer as they are in the winter! I will say that I get 1000% more inspired by summer produce and eat about 12x as much fruit (like the time I got 22 mangoes and ate approximately 90% of them by myself–though making these mango lassi’s definitely helped). Ok, so I love taking advantage of seasonal produce, and you see that with my recipes! Rhubarb took center stage for awhile and I made my almond rhubarb bundt cake, corn has made a small appearance in my sweet corn velouté, but it’s still early in the season, asparagus took over my produce drawer for awhile and it was delicious on this asparagus pizza.

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Spaghetti with Sun Dried Tomato Cream and Chickpea Meatballs

June 27, 2017 By thecuriouschickpea Leave a Comment

This is comfort food at it’s best: spaghetti tossed in a creamy sun dried tomato sauce with chickpea-based meatballs on top. So delicious my husband recommend that we ‘test’ the recipe again ASAP. Can’t say I blame him for wanting more. There’s something so satisfying about twirling freshly cooked spaghetti around your fork and shoveling those slippery noodles into your mouth. And when those noodles are tossed in a ultra creamy, luscious sauce it’s 100% better.

The creamy sauce is packed with the richest flavors. Sweet sun dried tomatoes are incorporated two ways, blended into the nondairy milk to make a tomatoey cream and minced morsels are tossed at the end for extra bursts of that intense sun dried tomato flavor. Tomato paste adds some incredible depth of flavor and body to the sauce, as well as giving it a pink hue. Miso gives a slightly cheesy, umami-rich funk to the cream. And a hearty splash of wine is my favorite well-known secret of adding a lot of aged flavor to a creamy sauce. Thickened with an olive oil-based roux and topped with some chiffonade basil, this sauce is perfect on spaghetti….

Chickpea and Couscous Stuffed Red Bell Peppers

May 2, 2017 By thecuriouschickpea 1 Comment

Stuffed peppers are a classic vegetarian entree, maybe a bit less popular these days, but a common dish nonetheless. It’s definitely a dish I’ve been served on more then one occasion, typically filled with 90% rice, 10% cheese. The problem with this is 1) they are so not filling, one pepper and I’m still hungry, 2) they’re boring like that, and 3) of course it’s not vegan friendly–I’m not sure what I would have been served if I had been vegan at the time, a pepper filled with rice only? This recipe for chickpea and couscous stuffed red bell peppers are everything I wished those sad peppers were. They are filling and healthy and packed with flavor. Perfect for the vegans in your life or for your meatless Monday dinner….

Kale Salad with Smokey Chickpeas and Creamy Roasted Jalapeño Dressing

April 11, 2017 By thecuriouschickpea 1 Comment

Sometimes it happens to me. The unthinkable! I crave a salad for dinner. Ideally served alongside some freshly baked bread, but even without the bread a giant bowl full of veggies is all I want. I’m kidding, I think salads for dinner are great (on occasion, don’t get carried away)! Especially when they are hearty kale salads that come with a giant pile of sweet and smokey panfried chickpeas and a spicy jalapeño-tahini dressing.

I whipped this salad up on a week night when both my husband and I were going to yoga class in the evening. I knew we’d want dinner immediately upon getting home, but also didn’t want to eat anything too heavy afterwards. So, before leaving I quickly blended together the dressing, sautéd the smokey chickpeas, chopped the red bell pepper, and prepped the kale. That way all we’d need to do when we got home is toss everything together and eat. Best part is, the salad made enough for 4 meals, so we had leftovers the next day! This salad makes a great and complete meal, but it could also be served as a side salad for a fancy weekend dinner.

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Vegan Asparagus Pizza with a Spicy Chickpea Sauce

April 4, 2017 By thecuriouschickpea Leave a Comment

Spring is in the air! At least, it is in the lower latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere. But whether you are still dealing with near freezing temperatures, or, like me, overheating in a t-shirt while walking your dog in the afternoon, asparagus is finding its way into your grocery store. It’s certainly the best, and some could argue, the only, time of year to be eating the vegetable. Tender and juicy stalks have replaced the sad, stringy stand-ins on the shelves. This vegan asparagus pizza with a spicy chickpea sauce is my nudge to get them into your bag and onto your menu.

Asparagus on pizza is a fun and tasty way to celebrate spring. The crisp, juicy vegetable is cut into matchsticks and tossed in some olive oil, salt, and pepper before being arranged on a bed of creamy homemade chickpea sauce. Made with a generous sprinkle of crushed red pepper, and some hot smoked paprika (or cayenne pepper), the chickpea sauce brings some subtle heat to your slice. It’s a nice change of pace from a tomato sauce or olive oil, and is much healthier for you than a cream based sauce. So, even if you live somewhere that asparagus is not currently in season, I still recommend you make this asap, just with different toppings!…

Golden Chickpeas and Curried Cauliflower

March 21, 2017 By thecuriouschickpea 4 Comments

Skip the Indian takeout and try this super easy recipe for golden chickpeas and curried cauliflower. This recipe not only packs in the restaurant quality flavor, but, with plenty of inflammation reducing turmeric, it comes with a side of health benefits. With lots of fiber and protein, and some natural fats from the coconut milk, this meal will leave you feeling satiated for hours.

My favorite way to eat cauliflower is to roast it (I don’t really understand why people eat raw cauliflower). Putting cauliflower in the oven brings out the best flavor and texture from the vegetable. It certainly changed my cauliflower-suspicious husband’s opinion, as it went from being one of his least favorite vegetables to a top choice after I prepared it with this method. Roasted cauliflower gets nice and chewy on the outside, crispy on some of the thin edges, with buttery soft insides that almost seem to melt in your mouth. Tossing the cauliflower in a simple combination of salt and curry powder, with a little oil (which can be reduced, if you’re watching your oil intake), gives all the flavor you need. To be honest, sometimes I’ll just eat a bowl of curry roasted cauliflower and call it dinner. It’s so good….

Vegan Meatball Pesto Pizza

March 3, 2017 By thecuriouschickpea Leave a Comment

I rarely repeat recipes. It’s not that I don’t like to eat the same things over and over again, because I do. But there are too many new dishes to try, not enough meals in a day, days in a year. And I love eating leftovers, so typically cook in quantities that last us for lunches for a few days, which is almost the same thing as cooking a dish over and over again (right?). That’s not to say there aren’t things I make semi-regularly, but I like to do variations and generally switch things up.

But these chickpea pizza balls. So versatile, so pantry friendly, so delicious. I whipped them up originally to make meatball subs after baking some hoagie-style rolls. Then a couple weeks later I made them again and threw them on a pizza. I made them for a spaghetti and chickpea balls dinner. A bit after that I made them to stuff into some freshly baked pretzel rolls. If I want to eat them that regularly in a few months, maybe you will too….

chickpeas

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