Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Chickpeas Squared

Tuesday is usually a very busy day with our homeschooling group and soccer, but yesterday we had a break from both.
 Josie still "worked" on her math.
and Dema worked on his Language Arts with Parker answering questions about the election process, but it was a pretty laid back day with plenty of time to play outside at the park and at our friend's house.

Rob worked a tad late at the office and the boys were upstairs working on Legos or something while Josie was making jewelry out of beads and string. Thus, I had the kitchen pretty much to myself for dinner. I adore cooking with my family, but once in a while it nice to do it solo. I made a big batch of chickpeas on Monday so I had them in mind for dinner. I flipped through a cookbook or two (something I haven't done for a long time) and Appetite for Reduction caught my attention with 40 Clove Broccoli and Chickpeas. I used za'atar instead of oregano, broccoli and cauliflower, lemon juice for the lemon zest (and maybe a dozen or so cloves, instead of ten) and while it was cooking I made up some quinoa and chickpea burgers.
I love to throw chickpea patties together based on a couple of my favorite recipes and what I feel like that day. These had red onion, garlic, chickpeas, chickpea flour, red curry paste, mince ginger, nutritional yeast, ground flax seeds, iodized salt, and ground pepper.  My cast iron pan was too hot so my first batch of "burgers" turned into chickpea mash, but it was still very tasty. Everyone loved the ginger and red curry paste zing to the burgers. I also put a bit of red curry paste in the cooking water for the quinoa.
The rest of the burgers turned out better and everyone enjoyed dinner. I thought about asking Rob to make a chickpea gravy when he got home, but didn't and while he was eating he said a chickpea gravy would have been nice. I think I'll have to make that next time. He used a bit of tahini sauce on his, but the rest of us ate them naked. This meal was easy, came together nicely, is nutritious, and delicious (even the little bit of leftovers). It might have to be a regular at our house.

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