Chickpea Toss

Easy, peasy. This is a quick and easy one. Tasty, nutritious, high fiber, inexpensive, filling.
From the cookbook The Garden of Vegan, p. 147.

1 cup dried chickpeas, soaked overnight, about 14 hours, in about 4 cups water

After soaking, drain and rinse chickpeas. Place in a pot and cover with about 2 inches of water. Bring to a boil. Lower heat to a simmer and cook until beans are soft, but not too mushy. This will take at least an hour, probably more like 2, so do this way in advance. You can even do this a day or 2 ahead.

soft, not mushy

Drain and rinse again.

1 small onion, chopped
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
cooked chickpeas
Sesame oil or olive oil
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp curry powder
1/4 cup chopped olives of your choice (optional)

Get a large saute pan. Turn the heat to medium and add the oil. Let it heat up for a minute or so, then add the onion and garlic. Saute until onion is translucent.

hear the sizzle

Add chickpeas, salt, curry and olives (if using). Heat and stir.

In about 5 minutes, you're done!

Serve with rice of your choice and a vegetable. Makes enough for about 4-5 people.

Serving suggestions:
Note: you can use canned chickpeas instead of dried in this recipe. This will make it all that much quicker, BUT it will not taste as good. I find canned chickpeas to have an unfavorable taste, no matter what brand they are.

The book this recipe came from suggests serving with the following condiments. I find these work wonderfully well:

• flax oil
• Braggs Liquid Aminos
• Gomashio (see recipe below)

Also, if you have olive-lovers and olive-haters in the same household, you can leave out the olives and serve them on the side for each person to add to their own helping as they prefer.

Gomashio
1 cup raw sesame seeds
1-2 tsp sea salt
1 tsp kelp powder

In a small dry saucepan over medium-high heat, combine the sesame seeds, salt and kelp, stirring continually for 3-5 minutes, until seeds start to pop and brown. Remove from heat and let cool completely. Place in food processor and grind for 3 seconds (you don't want the seeds to become powdery, just lightly ground). Store in an air-tight container. Makes 1 cup.