Chickpeas – they are super cheap and widely available. In terms of shelf life, it will surely outlast yourself which is a little bit scary to say the least. But the thing is, it can be a bit boring sometimes and that’s where I come into place.
Keeping reading to explore my 6 flavorful and creative recipes with chickpeas.
Avocado turkey and chickpea sandwich
Over a medium high heat, fry up some turkey in the skillet. Finely chop an onion. Take a garlic clove, remove the roots, smash it and remove the skin. That’s my regular method to peel off a garlic clove, but you can try some more ways like this.
Now, use salt as an abrasive to make a paste.
After about 5 minutes, place the turkey on the side and add onions and garlic, fry them up for about 4 to 5 minutes
In the meantime, cut the avocado in half and squeeze a lime to add tang and to prevent it from oxidizing, aka turning black.
If you have been following my blog for a while, chances are that you feel how much I love this fruit. Not only delicious, avocado also brings a lot of amazing benefits to our health. Like apple, an avocado a day will keep you live a long lifetime.
Now, mush the avocado nicely. Then, add caramelized onions, cut the turkey into chunks and add them as well.
Next, add some adobo spice mix into our chunky spread and give it a good mix.
Open a can of chickpeas, keep that liquid for later, yes indeed, and chop them up roughly.
Toast up some bread for about 2 minutes. Basically, scrub the pan with a piece of bread just in order to get all those juices, to soak all those caramelized bits into the bread. It’s brutal!
Last up, let’s build up the sandwich, a good shmear, a few pickles, a drizzle of olive oil, a few tomato slices and a few herbs like cilantro or parsley or whatever.
Creaminess from avocado and chickpeas, richness from caramelized onions and turkey and charred bread, which also brings a nice crispiness. Finally, you get the juice and freshness from tomatoes and herb and pickles which also bring tang.
Sweet chickpea meringue
As a fact, chickpea water aka aquafaba, makes for beautiful meringue. Texture wise, those chickpea meringues are brilliant and flavor wise, if you taste something at the end, it won’t be chickpea, it will be perfection.
It’s a dessert at the end! And if you want to flavor up your meal, drink with some whites.
Pour the liquid from a 400g can of chickpeas in a mixing bowl. Add a drop of lemon juice, whisk it in low first and gradually increase the speed. During that process, add 3 to 4 heaped tablespoons of sugar to make the foam tighter and firmer.
Now, make a pool man piping thing with a plastic bag, cutting one end off, gently press it and make little kisses on a baking tray with parchment paper. Place this is a preheat oven at 210F for about two hours or until they are dry to the touch.
Let them cool down completely first and then, enjoy!
They are super crunchy, cloudy and airy, light and sweet.
Onion bhaji
Two big onions, sliced up thinly. My favorite Indian fritters are made with chickpea flour aka besan or gram flour. But I reckon a can of chickpeas can make a decent cheat on that. Try to make even slices so we will get even cooking.
Now in a blender, drop a can of chickpeas and 4 tablespoons of corn starch, a pinch of baking soda and blitz that until smooth.
In a pestle and mortar, add half a teaspoon of salt, a teaspoon of cumin seeds, a teaspoon of coriander seeds and a teaspoon of turmeric. Mix them up!
Get a good amount of neutral oil to 150C. Take advantage of your available thermometer. But if you don’t have one, you should be aiming at something between a gentle, almost a dead boil and a frenzy, hectic boil.
I know that’s a bit rough, just get a probe!
Using two tablespoons, gently drop small amount of batter, 3 or 4 at the time, fry them until they get golden brown. Plate them with fresh herbs like mint, a few bits of chili, and finish them with a yogurt and lime drizzle.
It’s light, crispy, crunchy, the chickpeas give it somebody. You have got the pungency from the onions, the herbs, the lime and the yogurt just fresh it up nicely and they cut through the fat of that dish.
Chickpea pancake
In a blender, drop a can of chickpeas without the juices, one eggs, around 100ml of whole milk, a teaspoon of baking powder and a big heaped teaspoon of corn starch. Blitz it up for a few seconds and the pause. Add a drizzle of oil, ½ tablespoons of salt and a tablespoon of sugar. Then, blitz it until it’s smooth.
Place a skillet over a medium heat and oil it up nicely. They seem to take a regular pancake cook and also, I found them a little bit harder to flip, but order than that, they’re just perfect.
Of course, it would match super easily with savory toppings like corn, avocado and feta cheese. But I myself went basic and bold. I embrace the chickpea flavor with nothing but maple syrup.
Chickpea brownies
And another best thing is almost of them is made in a blender.
Add one can of chickpea without the juices, two eggs, three big heaped tablespoons of cocoa powder, four tablespoons of melted butter, a heaped tablespoon of corn starch, four heaped tablespoons of sugar and around a teaspoon of baking powder.
Blitz it until it’s smooth. Now, take a baking tin and line it with parchment paper, nicely greased the sides and drop the batter in the center. Using a square spatula is more efficient but they get less funny than getting square out of the round shape. Gently spread it out to an even layer. Then, drop it in a preheated oven of 180C in 20 minutes if until it passes a clean knife test.
If you don’t know what the clean knife test is, you just need to insert a knife into the center of the cake. If it comes out clean then your cake is baked. I also went out with microwave ganache. It’s one-to-one ratio boiling cream and chocolate bit.
Super crispy chickpeas
If you found the previous recipe to be just a tad too complicated and then, you will love this one. Open a can of chickpeas and keep the juices for later. Lay those chickpeas flat on kitchen paper and pat them dry thoroughly.
You need to keep pry them in a good amount of neutral oil at 160-180C and that should look like a medium body. At first, all we most likely splash everywhere so, it’s very pleasant. But at some time, it should just count down. From that point, until that happens, I’m just covering the saucepan with my slotted spoon. After 2-3 minutes, they will turn golden brown, place them on kitchen paper and sprinkle with salt and any spices of spice mix be you fancy.
I love snacking on those crispy and nutty barbecue chickpeas. I like those bold full body almost manly flame.
Or if you want the crispiest chickpeas ever, follow this guide:
Open a can of chickpeas, drain the liquid off, cut the dry nicely and place them on a baking tray and a good drizzle of maple syrup, a touch of salt, a pinch of cinnamon, a touch of ginger (I’m using fresh ginger paste but powder would be better), a grating of nutmeg and finally a sprinkle of ground cloves. Give it a good mix and watch them in a preheated oven at 180C for about 15 or 20 minutes.
Now, slightly crush a few of them and add them along with bananas or almonds or sesame seeds on top of Greek yogurt. It’s super flavorful because of the flavor of course but also clean and lean. You can absolutely feel the long-lasting energy pilling up. It’s very satisfying, like when you have oats in the morning.
Morning meatball sandwich
Using a pestle and mortar, bash a pinch of fennel seeds, a pinch of black peppercorns and three pinches of salt.
In a food processor, add half an onion, a clove of garlic of two small ones, half a cup of chickpeas. Then, add the spices. Now, I’m using 250 grams of Turkey fillet. To get leaner meatballs, just be sure to remove all tendons or nerves but by all means, keep the fat. Add one egg and a good drizzle of olive oil.
The less you mix it, the better. Now, we are using a tablespoon of even better an ice cream scoop, make meatballs gently roll them in all-purpose flour.
Cook those meatballs in high heat then, poach them in tomato sauce over a low heat for about 15 minutes.
Add a few of them to a sandwich along with a good splash of tomato sauce. Top them up with mozzarella’s slices and melt down that cheese, using a fancy schmancy sauce or you know just blas popping them in the oven. Finish it with a few herbs like thyme or parsley. As bread soaks up all juices and tomato sauce, it gets easier and easier to bite.
Now that’s the end of this article. I hope that such 8 interesting recipes varied up your daily menu with chickpeas. Don’t forget to share me which one is your favorite as well as your finish. I’m so excited to hear from you.
