healthy, satisfying and flavorful
Dried beans. Scary. Who has the time to soak and boil beans for hours on end? Why not just pop open a can of beans? Ok, since it is summer, I feel like I have time to experiment. So I used dried chickpeas, soaked them and boiled them. Ta-daaah! It wasn’t so bad, it just means you need to be around while the beans are boiling. Perhaps the most enjoyable part is that dried beans are way cheaper than canned beans.
Onto this salad recipe. Satisfying, healthy and it is from my favortie blog 101 Cookbooks. The recipe is here. Definitely add the toasted almonds, it needs the crunch. This dish would be great for a picnic or beach day.
Method for cooking dried chickpeas (or you can use canned and skip all this):
Soak the chickpeas in a bowl, barely covered with water, overnight in the refrigerator. Add 3 cups of water per 1 cup of soaked beans to a big pot. Bring the water and beans to a boil, then lower to a simmer for 2 to 2.5 hours until the beans are done. They should be super creamy and tender. Now you can use them to make this salad, hummus etc. If you are not going to use them within a few days, you can freeze them.
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July 17, 2009 at 12:38 pm
Roberta Darrow
That looks wonderful. I like using dried chick peas because they have a better “chew” than canned. We just has a great chick pea salad at Rancho La Puerta in Tecate. I think it had a harissa topping. You’ll need to look in to it and see if you can recreate that salad too!