Recently I discovered this recipe from Nigella Lawson, which takes all of 5 minutes to make, is delicious, and easy to pair with fish, seafood, or simply a nice soft boiled egg.  We’ve made it twice now – once with grilled salmon, and once with poached eggs.

Chickpeas with Greens
1 tbsp oil of your choice (olive works nicely, but so does canola)
2 tsp cumin seeds (if you don’t have cumin seeds, powder works fine, but increase the amount slightly)
4 cups cooked chickpeas
1/2 cup arugula, spinach, or other greens
1 tsp sea salt or kosher salt
1/4 cup sweet sherry or other sweet wine (I had grappa on hand and used that, it was delicious)

1. Heat the oil and cumin seeds in a large frying pan.
2. Add the chickpeas, arugula or greens, salt and sherry and stir over a medium heat until the greens have wilted and the chickpeas are warmed through.
3. Top with poached or soft boiled eggs, grilled salmon, or other seafood of your choice.  Or, serve as is as a light meal for two.

My recipes are really simple. I took the hummus one from the Fresh cookbook, and then modified it a bit to suit my tastes. The pita chips are just really easy and don’t need a recipe, per se.

Tasty Garlicky Hummus

2 cups of cooked or canned chickpeas
1-3 cloves of garlic, depending on how garlicky you like it
3 Tbsp tahini
4 Tbsp lemon juice
salt & pepper, to taste

Put all ingredients into a food processor and puree. Or, put all ingredients into a tall container and use your stick blender to puree them. If you find the hummus is too thick, add some water, stirring in a tablespoon at a time until you are happy with the consistency.

Pita Chips

Pita bread – each large pita makes 8-10 chips, depending on how thin you slice them
oil of choice – I used canola
salt & pepper to taste

Take as many pita breads as you need and slice into wedges. Place onto an oiled cookie sheet in a single layer, and lightly oil the tops of the pita slices. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Bake at 400F for 7-10 minutes, until lightly browned. I recommend you keep an eye on them in the last few minutes of cooking, as they can overcook pretty quickly.

Allow to cool at least 10 minutes before serving.

Knowing it is much cheaper to buy beans dried instead of canned, I picked up a 2kg bag of them from Fiesta Farms today. Of course, once I got them home I realized I wasn’t completely sure how to cook them! It turns out it isn’t difficult at all, just a bit time consuming. Here’s how to do it!

Grab a large pot and toss in some dried beans and cold water, at a ratio of 3 cups water for every 1 cup of beans. Remember: bean volume will approximately double after cooking, so if you want about 2 cups of cooked beans, use 1 cup of dried. Heat to a rolling boil, but only boil for 3 minutes. Turn off the heat, cover, and let sit for at least 4 hours. If you’re doing this in the evening and will not cook the beans until the next day, put them into the refrigerator overnight.

When ready to cook, drain and rinse the beans and then put new water into the pot. Make sure there is at least a few inches of water above the beans. Bring to a boil and partly cover, then turn the heat down to a gentle simmer. Let the beans cook that way for 2 hours. If the water level gets too low (ie – the beans are exposed), top it up. Beans are fully cooked when they can easily be mashed with a fork.

Other tips and things to know:

Don’t salt the water for the soaking process. Add salt only once the beans are fully cooked.

It is important to gently simmer the beans while cooking them, so they are less likely to crack/lose their shape.

Store beans in some of their cooking water to prevent them from drying out. Just drain before using.

Why boil them for 3 minutes before the long soak? Those three minutes help break up some of the sugars in the beans, the same sugars that cause bloating and gas. Less gassy beans = win!

Putting a little oil into the cooking water can help keep the pot from boiling over or foaming too much.

Over the next little while I’ll post some tasty chickpea recipes!

The dish is vegan (if you leave out the yogurt topping) and quite healthy, but don’t let that scare you away from trying it. It is very filling and the perfect kind of food for a cold day. I recommend you serve it with a nice rustic bread.

Recipe, complete with photo, is available from epicurious.com.